NORTH RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3598, 9 October 1920, Page 6

NORTH RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN.

SIR HENRY WILSON AND THE CRITICS. With a view to affording a comprehensive narrative of the campaign in North Russia last year, an important Blue Book was issued at the end of July, ' Mr Winston Churchill, in a memorandum, says it “affords a gpmplete statement of the reasons ’underlying the various phases p| the military operations connected with the British evacuation of North Russia, and will enable all those who wish to undergo-.. ~ * stand to measure the difficulties and anxieties which attended the success-' ful attempt to withdraw from North Russia without being involved in disaster or discredit. A fong memorandum by Sir Henry Chief of the Imperial General distant* s t* l t es: “Th? outstanding fea-.j 'ture of this year’s (101*9) operations | has been the difficulty imposed on ithe military authorities, both in the theatres -of operations and’ at home, by the absence of £ny cledrly defined policy on the part of the Allied Governments. f i The difficulties of the Entente in "formulating a Russian policy have, in-

deed, proved insurmountable, since In 410 Allied country haft there ]?een a sufficient weight of! public opihidii to justify armed intervention against the feolsbeviks on a decisive scale, with the inevitable result (that military operations have lacked cohesion and purf pose.

In these circumstances the action of our commanders on the spot has been, dictated largely by the exigencies, mf the at Home, whose duty it has been to provide’ for the main-, tenance and. reinforcement of"our forces in North Russia.” Sir Henry Wilson points to one great lesson from the campaign—that once a military force is| involved in operations it is almost impossible to limit the magnitude of its commitments. . ;

In the present state of world chaos it will surely be wise tp bear this principle in mind, for we may expect to receive continual appeals for troops, even a company or two, from every part of three coir iuents, and the temptation to comply will often bo difficult to resist. ’ ' w p