THE ARMY OF THE SOMME.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1727, 19 June 1917, Page 2

THE ARMY OF THE SOMME.

IX view of any disquieting effect which may have been caused by the publication in some newspapers of a statement alleged to have been made by Sir Douglas Haig to the effect that he *‘fought the battle of the Somme with half-trained troops,” Sir James Allen, New Zealand Minister for Defence, stated that he has authority for saying that Sir Douglas Haig denies that anything he' has said or written could be understood in a derogatory sense. The Minister added that

Sir Douglas Haig further .mates that his despatch on the Somme battle contains an expression of his appreciation and great admiration of the qualities displayed by the’ troops, and that he has no objection to the publication of this statement. The paragraph in Sir Douglas Haig's report of December last on the Somme battle which has apparently been misunderstood in some quarters, read as follows: — “So far as these results are due to the action of the British forces, they have been attained by troops the vast majority of whom had been raised and trained during the war. Many of them, especially amongst the units sent to replace wastage, counted their service by months and gained in the Somme battle their first experience of war. The conditions under which we entered the war had made this unavoidable. We were compelled either to use hastily trained and inexperienced oflicers and men or else to defer the offensive until we had trained them. In this hitter case we should have failed our allies. That these troops should have accomplished so much under such conditions, and against an army and nation whose chief concern for so many years has been preparation for war, constitutes a feat of which the history of our nation records no equal. The diilicullies and hardships cheerfully overcome, and the endurance, determination, and invincible courage shown in meeting them, can hardly be imagined by those who have not had personal experience of the battle, even (hough they have themselves seen something of war/’