MESOPOTAMIA.

Taihape Daily Times, 21 November 1917, Page 5

MESOPOTAMIA.

DEATH OF GENERAL MAUDE. The death of Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Stanley which took place on Monday, is a serious loss to the British High Command, for he had proved himself a very capable officer. Indeed .among the new /, reputations made by the war none stood higher than his. His successive captures of Kut-el-Amara and Bagdad are quite enough to have made his name a household word. He comes of a fighting family, for his father was the late Sir Frederick Francis Maude ? G.C.8., who, by an act of c o nspicuous gallantry gained the Victoria Cross. General Maude belonged to the Hawarden family, of which the head. Viscount Hawarden, was one of the first members of the peerage to lay down his life in the present war. Lord Hawarden fell in the battle of Mons. After the failure of the o P er ations for the relief of Kut, General Maude

was given the delicate and difficult saiktask of retrieving the disaster and he; v set to work in a most thorough and r - systematic way. He completely reorganised the line's of communication a preliminary step, Tunning' a railway along the river bank, putting new life into the transport system on the river, and securing complete and adeqffuate supplies of all war material. Then he struck, and from his first attack the Turks were made aware that a master mind was now controlling the operations against them_ Persistent and skilful attacks cleared the c . road and .caused the flight of the Turks defending . the river port ? which fell into his hands on February 24 last year. Then for a few days the British advance was hindered by sandstorms and high winds, but with masterful ability the tr o ops were pushed on until on March 11 he telegraphed that Bagdad was captured and that the advance was being continued. In the final advance on Bagdad the troops averaged Hi miles a day, a rate which, considering the difficulties, was little short of marvellous. Since the capture of the city } General Maude has spread his forces out to the northward, clearing the Country and preparing for the possibility of counter-attacks which General Falkenhayn has several times announced. His latest operation was the despatch of a force northwards as far as Tekrit, 110 miles up the river. Here he put the Turks to flight, destroyed their military works and supplies, and then withdrew to positions closer to his base. Hilaire describing his advance up the Tigris, declared: “Better work than that has not been done by any belligerent in the whole course of the present great war,” ‘

IN CHINA THE CHINESE PUZZLE. JAPAN UNRAVELLING IT. Received 8.35. LONDON, Nov 20. Mr Eltin, the Morning Post’s Tientsin states that failing to secure another Premier, the President has reinstated Yuan Chi Jui. It Is believed this is upon the advice of the Japanese Minister, and because the President’s own share in intrigues agSLst the Cabinet -have been revealed. It is the President admits Jphat he instigated the mid-China governors to adv o cate compromise with the southerners. Yuan Chi Jui was suspected of doing this to secure the whole Cabinet’s resignation in order to force the President’s hand