Townshend's Forces Starved Out

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 22, 1 May 1916, Page 5

Townshend's Forces Starved Out

,g fcA r 5»..... , . Surrender of 9000 Allied Troops NIPPED IN THE BUD. THE! IRISH REVOLT COLLAPSING Reported Surrender of Rebel Leaders

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

To-day has been a trying one, even to the most ardent patriot, while to the pessimistically-inclined—and there are far too many of them in the Empire—it has been a time of positive distress of mind. The long accounts of fighting in Ireland are sad enough reading, but the news of the capitulation of General Townshend and his plucky force after the defence of Kut-cl-Amara for 113 days, has over-floived our cup of sorrow. The idea of the surrender of over 10,000 men of the British and Indian armies is to niany people an appalling disaster. One could agree with these gentle folk did the loss amount to the supreme sacrifice, but that is not so. Our men have fallen into the hands of. the;.Turks, and are now likely to faro , even better,than, they have done for| some, time, for \yas, it not _ the lack of the, pecessaries ,of life that compelled; the gallant, English geperai to flejipqutish his, hold on Kut; J There is . mpthing i surer ■ than that. Tpwnshend’s solicitude j for. the men under his care wais the one and/only reason for t tills move which has! well-nigh paralysed some of his admirers. But thoro' is a silver lining to every dark cloud, and ■ the Nation .will, as horetofbre, find! renewed comfort in their confidence in General Sir Percy Lake, who has been hindered by adverse climatic conditions which' it was impossible to foresee, and wiicu countered necessitated the calling of a halt in the progressive movement for which 1 the forces in Kut were so eagerly looking.

It might be explained that Kut vas situated splendidly for the purpose of defence, being on a height surrounded by marshes, but on the other hand, an almost equal ' force 1 of the enemy, could hold them there till Doomsday, if necessary, as has been proved by the news of to-day. However, there ; is still the question whether, the Turks can safely hold such a force. Will they enter Kut and leave themselves liable to tali into the position which was disastrous to General Townshend, or will they retire on Bagdad, with General Lake in the south and the Russians

in the north and west duly fighting, for that objective? Tihie alone will A tell. One thing is certain: Ihe campaign is not going to be abandoned just yet awhile.

Certain newspapers in this country as well as in the Motherland have a most unhappy knack of flying in the face of the authorities with a Jong indictment notable for its mass of verbiage more than solid argument. The very mote that these papers appear to see in the Northcliffe pi css shows up as a beam in their own columns. One .writer refers to the callousness of the work of the authorities, and desires the sheeting home of “the crime f” Now it is easy to be wise after the event, and for this reason alone the same writer should bo told that the expedition was not left to its fate, but that the unforseen circumstances with which the relieving force were mot alone accounted -for the non-relief of Kut.

Further, it is nothing but unbridled hysteria to talk about the terrible blot on the annals of British military operations. It was simply a reversal of the wheel of fortune of war for the time being. Not for a moment must it be thought that this is going to lose the Empire thji win. The crux of the position is, "Arc wo down and out because we have had a smack up in Mesopotamia?” No! This is a fight to a finish!

Judging from the news to-day, it is now more than ever evident that the Irish revolt was engineered by Germans. This opinion may be formed from a glance at the'map showing the sporadic nature of the outbreak of Sinn Feinism. While the ecntrp of the rebellion was in Dublin where fighting was general for some days, but which, it is now pleasing to learn has been checked —the bright outlook of the country has been blurred by the many minor attempts to assist the revolt. There has been trouble in Galway, on the middle or the west coast; in Kerry, to the south-west, the particular place to gain notoriety being the much-boomed Killarnev ; at Clonmel, on the border of Tipperary and Waterford; in Wex-

ford, on the the south-east coast, at Enniscorthy and Gorey; and at Drogheda, in Meath. Strange to say, there is no mention of any insurrection in King’s County, where, as far hack as March 23, serious rioting promoted by the Sinn Feiners occurred. Particulars concerning this are published at length in our cable columns.

Enniscorthy, which is a market town in County Wexford, and is 14 miles north-west of the town of Wexford, has some reputation as a centre of rebellion. The most notable building is the Homan Catholic Cathedral of thfc diocese pf Ferns, designed by Pugin, the famous London architect. The castle built in the 12th century was partly destroyed by the rebels in 1798, whoso main forces were encamped on an eminence ,to the east called Vinegar Hill. If ere they were surrounded, end after a fierce struggle were totally, dispersed by an, of-, fleer, the name pf whom by a coincidence was the same as that of ope prominent, in.the unfortunate Mesopotamian campaign torday,. via., General . Lake. t ' ,

> ! ■ i - ■ m , ; i: I have been raised about file proper, pronunciation of Salonika (or Saloniki as it is sometimes spelt to represent the sound of the Greek letters) ( the ancient Thessalonica.. “The answer,” remarks the Victoria League Monthly Notes, “cannot be doubtful. Tlio ‘i’ is long. The editor lias before him as he writes, a copy of the Greek newspaper Hellas, printed find published, as its title pages states, ‘in Thessalonike’ (with long i). The place, originally known as Theme, from hot springs near it, ippears to have been rc-named Thessalonike after the death of Alexander the Great by Cassandev, who called it after his wife, King Philip's daughter. Philip would seem to have given .this name (meaning victory over Thessalians) to his daughter, to mark some earty step in his subjugation of the Greeks.”