KITCHENER IN WAR

Hokitika Guardian, 28 May 1931, Page 2

KITCHENER IN WAR

INDICTMENT BY HISTORIAN. . LACK OF ORGANISATION. -LONDON, April 30. Sir John Fortescuo, who is regarded as the historian of the British Army, launches remarkable indictment of Lord Kitchener ip <‘Blackwood’s Magazine,”

Contrary to thp general idea, Sir Jfihn Fortespue' described Kitchener as a men whose capacity for disorganising W3g beyond exaggeration. His idea of organisation wag a spasmodic upheaval to meet the immediate exigency. He became less an Olympian the more he gave open counsel in 1916, hut it wax a thousand pities it was not earlier. ! Kitchener careless disregard of preparation lay at the root of the Dardanelles and Mesopotamia failures. It seemed incredible, hut Kitchener ordered the Twenty-ninth Division to embark for the Dardanelles without o first line transport. He said, “They , only have to march across the peninsula,”

‘‘The truth is,” the writer proceeds, “Kitchener wax a better civil adminis trator than a military chief. If he had lived he might have played a moderating role in the peace negotiations, as he did in Smith Africa, where he was also a failure militarily because be tried to control all the columns from Pretoria ”

Sip John Fortescue who is a Fellow of Trinity College. Cambridge, was librarian at Windsor Castlp from 190/3 to 1926. He has published many works concerning the British Army.