FALL OF KUT-EL-AMARA.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 June 1916, Page 3

FALL OF KUT-EL-AMARA.

, GENERAL TOWNSHEND IN BAD PLIGHT. CONSIDERATION SHOWN BY TURKS. CONDUCT IN CONTRAST TO THAT OP THE HUNS. Headquarters of the Tigris Army, via London, May 10. It is now possible to supply the following first-hand details of the surrender of Major-General Charles P. Townshend and his garrison at Kut-el-Amara.

The last wireleses communications sent out by General Townshend were despatched on the morning of April 29. Two messages were received here. The first one reads:

"I have destroyed the guns, most of the munitions are being destroyed and officers have gone to Khalil (the Turkish general) at Madug to say we are ready to surrender. We must havt food. We, cannot hold out any longer. Khalil was told to-day of our predicament, aifd officers have gone with a launch to bring food from the .Inlner." The .Tulner was the ship sent on the night of April 24 to carry supplies to the garrison at Kut. HOISTED WHITE FLAG. The next wireless begins: "Have hoisted tli£. wiiite flag at Kut over the fort and town. The guards will be taken over by the Turkish regiment now approaching. I shall shortly destroy the wireless. The troops will go into camp near Shamran." A pre-arranged signal indicated at 1 p.m. that General Townshend's last mes•ate had gone through.

On the same day the Turkish general, Khalil Bey Pasha, received the British plenipotentiaries. He said lie was an.vious that the garrison be well rationed and that General Townshend, for whom he expressed profound admiration, should receive every comfort after the privations he had endured so gallantly. ;

The ships and harges laden with food and stores, admitted to Kut-el-Amara, have taken 777 sick and wounded to be exchanged. It is expected that 700 more will follow. NO REPRISALS. Khalil Pasha said he did not contemplate any reprisals against the civilians in Kut. General Townshend is believed to be proceeding direct to Constantinople. Kut was held to the very stage of starvation. From April lfi the garrison was reduced to four ounces of flour daily with a ration of horse flesh. During the first month of the siege the garrison was only afraid of n shortage of ammunition before relief should come, which was reckoned as a certainty.

As soon as we advanced from AliGharbi, in January, the Turks relaxed their hold on Townshend, but the check at Oran made the question of supplies serious.

The civilians remained in Kut, as the Turks showed they would execute everyone who escaped. Thus the garrison was burdened with fiOOfl extra months.

On January 24 hidden stores of grain were discovered which afforded three months' supplies. The story of the siege shows that the heroism displayed by the garrison was worthy of the most glorious traditions of the British army.

COURTEOUS CAPTOR. London, May 10. According to a despatch from an "eyewitness" with the Britisli army in Mesopotamia, Klialil Pasha, the Turkisli general to whom the British forces under General Townsliend surrendered at TCut-M-Amara, showed the utmost consideration for the prisoners. Khalil Pasha expressed admiration for the gallant de. fence of the garrison, and showed anxiety that they should be fed. He especially desired that every comfort and consideration should be shown to . Gener, Townshend and expressed regret tnTft his own supplies were not more plentiful. MANY ARE SICK. An official announcement made here to-day says the total number of sick and wounded evacuated from Ku.t-el-Ama.ra has reached 1073 and that a hospital ship started on May 8 to bring the last party to the headquarters of the Tigris corps. "On May 7 one of our machines engaged a hostile monoplane," the statement says. "Our machine was forced to descend owing to a perforated petrol tank. It succeeded in reaching our lines. Both the pilot and the observer were unhurt." PLANES DROPPED FOOD. London, May 10. British aeroplanes dropped 18,000 lbs. of food in addition to mail and military stores in Kut-el-Amara between April 11 and 29. This effort to relieve the hunger of the besieged garrison, which subsequently surrendered to the Turks, was told of in the House of Commons to-day by Harold (1. Tennant, Parliamentary Under-secretary for war. During the siege of Kut-el-Amara, Mr. Tennant said, only one British aeroplane was brought down by the Turks.