EARLY DAYS OF THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 May 1919, Page 4

EARLY DAYS OF THE WAR.

LORD FRENCH'S CRITICISM. A DIFFICULT BOLE. Received May 21, 5.5 p.m. London, May 13. Lord French, in the Daily Telegraph, lias further criticisms of Lord Kitchener. In connection with Lord French's efforts to effect a speedy move north when the fall of Antwerp was imminent, lie Bays: "Lord Kitchener did not make tilings easy for me. He wag keenly desirous to influence the course of operations. His telegrams quickly followed one another, each containing directions regarding the local situation, whereof he could know little. For instance, he told me he was communicating with Marshal Joffre and the French Government. I was not aware of what was passing between them. At the Bame time he was urging me to make what I knew were impracticable suggestions to Joffro. I must repudiate any responsibility for what happened in the north in the first ten days of October Lord Kitchener explicitly told me that the British were not under my command. He said: They won't, for the present, be considered part of your form.' I certainly would have made different diepositions of these troopß, and regret that I must record my deliberate opinion that the best which could have been done throughout the critical situation was not done, owing entirely to Lord Kitchener's endeavor to unite in himself the distinct roles of Cabinet Minister and Commander-in-Chief." Lord French sent a telegram wherein he even demanded whether General Rawlinson regarded himself as . undeV his orders. Lord French proceeds: "When Antwerp was threatened, Lord Kitchener, unknown to me, arranged for Joffre to send one or two French territorial divisions to act with the Marines. It was perfectly clear that the operations for the relief of Antwerp should never have been directed from London. They actually had no influenoe on the fate of Antwerp, and could equally as well have protected the Belgian retreat from safer and more effective directions. They might have saved Lille by landing on October 5 at Calais or Boulogne. By deploying, six or seven days .later, through the valley of the Lys they might also have saved Ostend, and even Zeebrugge."