THE RETREAT FROM MONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 May 1919, Page 5

THE RETREAT FROM MONS.

MR. ASQUITH REFEKDS;. LORD ; KttTCHENER,., Received May 18, 7.5 p.m. London, May 10. Mr. Asquith delivered a speech at Newcastle. He said lie found it difficult and almost impossible to reconcile some of Lord French's statements with his own recollection of the facts and contemporaneous documents. "The living can take care of themselves. With the dead it is different, and I am constrained, in justice to Lord Kitchener's memory, to correct [ immediately Lord French's account of Lo'\; Kitchener's visit to Paris in the jawii'iiui of 1914. It is wholly untrue that Lord Kitchener or the Government contemplated' superseding Lord French, but the Government wiia seriously dis;,niptde by Lord French's communications regarding his intentions. Cabinet unanimously arrived at important decisions, and their policy was entrusted to Lord Kitchener with the full knowledge and approval of his colleagues, Lord Kitchener's duty was in conveying and explaining them to Lord French." Mr. Asquith, continuing, stated that Lord Kitchener thereby performed a service of the greatest value to the country, with, as events showed, the happiest results. The full disclosures of confidential documents, including Lord French's letters, would establish all these points in due course, but it was necessary that Lord Kitchener's friends and colleagues should repudiate at once thfl aspersions cast on him. EARLY DAYS OP THE WAR. BITTER LESSON OF FAILURE. TRENCH WARFARE. Received May 19, 12.45 a.m. London, May 17. Lord French, in a further instalment in the Daily Telegraph Btory, says the bitter lesson of his failure to cross the River Lys at the end of October, 1914, convinced him that under modern conditions, if forces were fairly equally matched, it was possible to bend, 'but impossible to break, the enemy's trench lines. As soon as he grasped the truth of this principle he never failed to proclaim it, but eventually suffered heavily for hqlding such opinions. Lord French's articles have provoked increased controversy. He has the backing of those who disapproved of Lord Kitchener's administration, but a considerable volume of protest has arisen. Mr. George Arthur says that the official records, when published in the forthcoming biography, will show that the Paris visit was one of Lord Kitchener's greatest services to the country. Numerous questions-have been given notice of in the House of Commons, and offorts are being made, to secure a debate,—Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assoc