LORD FRENCH'S BOOK.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 September 1919, Page 6

LORD FRENCH'S BOOK.

\ MR ASQUITH IN REPLY. | i By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. | London, Sept.- 26. | 1 Mr Asquith, in a letter replying to a k statements contained in Lord French's | - preface to the latest edition of his | r book says: "The controversy is not of 1 - my seeking, but when Lord French pro- | ' ceeds to falsify history, apparently in fe 3 pursuit of his vendetta against the fame | s of the great soldier to whom Lord y - French is under strong personal obliga- | ; tions, I am bound to intervens. | 5 "The preface gives me no- cause to (5 ■ seek to qualify my speech of June 3. | i My, letters to Lord French were writ- | - ten after Lord French's proposals had | happily been discarded, largely through f Lord Kitchener's intervention. The sub- | sequent operations were concluded by jj Lord French with much sagacity and »§ skill, but had I suspected what Lord ,s ' French now avows, that at the date of '» - the letter of May, 1915, he was engaged | ' behind the back of his chief, Lord fjj f Kitchener, and myself in a manoeuvre fi i to upset the Government, probably my | 1 communication would have been couch- ig i ed in different terms. | i "With regard to ammunition, I be- | lieve that Lord Kitchener was incapable | " of inventing and palming off upon me | ■ a deliberate falsehood- If it becomes a § ■ question of conflict of memories, I think | that Lord Kitchener's written record of $ a conversation is better evidence than I Lord French's diary containing, as he | says, no reference whatever to the sub- | ject of ammunition." 1 Mr Asquith concludes by saying:— | "To have a bad memory is a misfor- f tune, not a crime, but people with bad % memories should not attempt to write | their own or other people's lives."— M Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. j*