DARDANELLES HISTORY

Hokitika Guardian, 14 June 1924, Page 2

DARDANELLES HISTORY

A FORGOTTEN DOCUMENT

LONDON, April It Fresh light on the ill-fated Dardanelles campaign (15)1 o to 1 LUO i was thrown on Saturday by General Sir lan Hamilton, speaking at Hull. -**• Sir lan spoke of the morning ol ...arcli 12, Hilo, when Lord Kitchener sent lor him. "lie looked up anil said, 'We are sen.ling a military force to sunport the Elect now at the Dardanelles. and you are to have command.’ Within twenty-four hours, declared Sir lan, lie must receive his instructions: select a staH; get the hang or the Dardanelles and of the nature of tin' whereabouts ol his new loree —and bundle off’ As was to In- expected, he continued, all sorts oi tilings were overlooked in so much agitation. For instance, in ]!)!)!> Ihe General Stall had drawn up a considered memorandum, with a great deal of information, upon l lie question of forcing the Dardanelles. i’.ul the General Stall’ were in Frame, and no one at the War Office knew of the existence o; the document. Not till li.'lG, long alter the last of our troops had quitted the Gallipoli Peninsula, did he himself ever hear of it. 13 ON FRIDAY. THE 13th. "So now.’’ Sir lan added, “you see our party of 13 officers starling oil on .March 13—a Friday—for tin* Dardani lies. My instructions, on a Imllsl of foolscap, were vague.” Sir lan spoke of the operations that followed. “V Heaeli." he said, “had we hut known it. was next door to impossible as a landing. Our evil genius had planned our ruin there, and yet. at the last hoar, good angels came ami saved us by sending into tho naval minds the thought ol how, by the gift of a wooden horse, Troy and all her citadels had fallen. Commander Unwin was the name of the hero who had the brain wave, and as he is miraculously still alive, 1 can still take inv hat oil when I meet him. “So it came about that Admiral Wetness fixed up all old steel-built tramp steamer called the River Clyde to hear within her womb two battalions of infantry. . . . Not one of our men would have returned to tell the tale hut for the River Clyde—sold now to v . the Spaniards by a Government of spendthrifts who could find millions for anv d thing except sentiment.”