DISASTER AVERTED.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1920, Page 11

DISASTER AVERTED.

HOW KITCHENER SAVED FRENCH. The True Story of why French had to Make Way for Sir Douglas Haig A Pitable Story. London, April 28i'd. "Thank God you are there, and I mean it." —French to Kitchener. "No accumulations of titles, batons, grants, orders, or decorations can ever fit him to stand in the company of such men " —Hon. J. W. Fortescue, on Lord French. Lord French is Viceroy of Ireland. Why? "Sir George Arthur's 'Life of Lord Kitchener' will set at rest any doubts as to the nature of Lord French's Chief failure as Commander-in-Chief in France," says the Manchester Guardian. "The fact's were widely known in our army in France, and their effects on French public opinion were painfully perceptible to many British soldiers billeted in French houses until our mens' fighting in the Battle of the Somme renewed French respect for our array. FRENCH IN DESPAIR. "On August 20 or 30, 1014, when the worst of the retreat from Mobs was over, the French armies cheerful and aggressive, and our troops certainly hard bitten but not too hard bitten to open the victorious Battle of the Marnei a 'few days later, Lord Kitchener \va-.v shocked to hear " indirectly tlmt Sir John French had decided 'to make a definite and prolonged retreat due south, passing by Paris to the east or west.' Kitchener telegraphed to Sir John French in alarm and recoivod an answer confirming his fiars at their worst. "In a despondent and querulo'is letter of August 30 Sir John French made a virtual confession of despair, and avowed his intention of breaking away from the French and leaving a gap in the Allied line. He wrote:— " 'I cannot say that I am happy in the outlook as to the further progress of the campaign in France. . . .My confidence in the ability of the leaders of the French army to carry this campaign to a successful eonslusion is fast waning, and this is my real reason for the decision I have taken to move the British forces so far back. ... I have been pressed very hard to remain, even in my shattered condition, in the fighting line, but I jjave absolutely refused to do so, and I hope you will approve the course I have taken.' KITCHENER ACTS QUICKLY. "Needless to say, Kitchener did not approve of it. He saw that, if permitted, it would be calamitous; that the French would feef they were deserted by us in Paris's hour of danger; that the Entente would be shaken and the lalid war in the west probably lost before our New Army could be trained. He sent off a wire to.try to pat off the disaster for the moment, and then, as policy was involved, asked Mr. Asquith, the Premier, to summon the Cabinet at once, and warned it that such a flight from our post-in the Allied line 'might . mean nothing less than the loss of the war.' The Premier and Cabinet backed I Kitchener well, and a wire was sent at once imploring Sir John French to stand fast. MIDNIGHT INTERVIEWS. "This was on August 31. At midnight there came to the War Office a telegram the tone of which was even more disquieting than its substance. 'lf the French,' oiie passage ran, 'go on with their present tactics, which are practically to fall back right and left of me, usually without notice, and to abandon all idea of offensive operations, of course then' the gap in the French line will remain and the consequences must

be borne by them.' . This was, of course, unjust, the French staff-work in the retreat being decidedly good, indeed mortifyingly better than ours, and Joffre's judgment incomparably sounder than Sir John French's. "The latter's loss of nerve was now so clear that, after a midnight visit to the Prime Minister, a one-o'elock-in-the -taorning visit to Sir Edward Grey in his ted, and the despatch of another tonic telegram to the depressed Com-mander-in-Chief, Kitchener was on' board a destroyer at 4 a.m. oil his way to the 'famous interview at the British Embassey at Paris, of which Sir John French in his book of self-defence and of detraction has given a singular account. This was on September 1, * KITCHENER PREVAILS. "By the time it took place Sir John French was probably recovering his resolution and realising that when he had lost it the situation was already improving. Kitchener prevailed, and before leaving Paris he guarded against future failures by sending to the Cabinet the telegram: "French's troops are now engaged in the fighting line, where he will remain conforming to the movements of the French army, though at the same time acting with caution to avoid being in any way unsupported oil his flanks,' and sending a copy to Sir John French, with a note requesting him to 'consider it as an instruction.' "Thus Kitchener saved Sir John French from himself, and may at the same time have averted a German victory in the first two months of the war. From that day things went well, and Sir John French so far regained hold on his task as to do in the next weeks his best work in the war. But nothing could hide the general outline of the episode from the army in France, and even before the tragic failure of his attacks in 1915 Sir John French's place in its esteem was lost. "AMMUNITION ALL RIGHT." "A sequel to that episode was to tie-pre-s Sir John French's reputation still lower in the eyes of the army. Early in April, 1915, nearly a month after his sanguinary failure at Neuve Chapelle, Sir John French was eager to make another attack —this time on Hill 60. As we' now know, our stock of ammunition at both battles was far too small to make success possible, even if our staffwork had been as good as it was bad. But Sir John French clearly did not think so. On April 14 he came over to London and laid all his plans before Kitchener.

"He had written that lie wanted to tell Kitchener 'everything.' Of course one of the biggest things was the amount of available ammunition. What he told Kitchener on tha.t vital point may be gathered from Kitchener's welcome message to the Premier that Sir John French would have enough ammunition for the next advance. Sir John French was the only possible authority on the point, and Kitchener was a re-jf-xUr ei wnuastienaMe honour and

accuracy. The relieving news was passed on by the Premier to the country in a famous speech at Newcastle. Sir • lohn French made his attack, and it ■viu another costly disaster. But Sir •John French was obviously untroubled still about ammunition. On May 2 he wrote to Kitchener to say how he was planning another attack, this time at Festubert. 'The ammunition,' he writes, 'will be all right.' The attack was made on May 9, and it was the usual expenditure of British lives for little or nothing. "When it wag over Sir John French sent an extra aide-de-camp, a wellknown political campaign against the chief who had saved him from disaster and disgrace half a year before, to whom he had written, 'Thank God you are there, and I mean it,' and to whom lie had also written a week earlier 'The ammunition will be all right.' For the same purpose he suborned a London journalist to attack his benefactor in the press. And the charge, of all charges, was to be tli;-' Kitchener had not listened to his, Sir »Hin French's, constant complaints <■ -ant of ammunition.

"In a preface to the second edition of liia '1914' Lord French tried to obscure these terrible facts. The documents now published by Sir George Arthur make doubt impossible. "The only feeling possible for a reader ir that expressed by the historian of the British army, the Hon. J W. Fortescue, who knew the facts before this book was published: "• 'Lord French-is; it is true, still the recipient of honours and rewards; but no accumulation of titles', batons) .smuts, orders, or decorations can ever fit him to' stand in the company of such men as Ralph Abercromby, John Moore, Rowland Hill, and Thomas Graham. Let these, and not Lord French, stand before the youth of Britain al tho models upon which to train themselves to be officers and gentlemen.' " Lord French's reward was to be made Viceroy of Ireland!