The Battle of Passchendaele

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 92, 12 January 1935, Page 9

The Battle of Passchendaele

Sir.—General Sir Alexander Godley’s defence of Earl Haig is most welcome, and I am certain that by it he has earned the sincere gratitude .of both Colonial and Imperial ex-servicemen. No term is quite harsh enough to hurl at Mr. Lloyd George, who, since sinking into political obscurity, has become a political “hyena.” When Mr. Lloyd George was out to give the British people the truth, he omitted to refer to one incident that had grave results on the. British offensive in the Ypres sector. It was the case of a sergeant belonging to a Welsh line regiment, who was in headquarters staff at Ypres, who went over to the enemy and disclosed plans of attacks. This man, who caused the deaths of thousands of his own countrymen, was to be taken dead or alive at all cost.

It is farcical for “W.R.” to say that it is a question whether Haig viewed the country, and it does not say a great deal for “W.R.’s” knowledge of Earl Haig. It is common knowledge amongst the troops that the weather upset calculations to a great extent. I should like to remind “■W.R.” that General Gough exposed Mr. Lloyd George to the public with the concondemning statement that Mr. Lloyd George almost vested the sole command of the Allied armies in the hands of the greatest blunderer in the French army, namely General Nivelle. Perhaps “W.R.” does not know that' Mr. Lloyd George’s success in regards to war munitions was mainly due to Mr. Arthur Henderson and Mr. J. T. Brownlie, president of the Amalgamated Union of Engineers. A man who was an ex-Prime Minister and who had to be rebuked in the House of. Commons with regards to his articles in the American Press is not the right person to give a dispassionate history of a great general. And, what is more, the British public no longer take any notice of the man “who failed to hang the Kaiser.” —I am, etc., ALBION ROVER. Wellington, January 11.