DEFENCE OF KITCHENER.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 August 1921, Page 4

DEFENCE OF KITCHENER.

A REPLY TO LORD ESHER. HIS PART IN VICTORY. By Telegraph.—Press Assn—Copyright. Received August 13, 5.5 pan. London, August 12. Sir George Arthur, in a Press interview, protests that Lord Esher has set out to pull down from a pinnacle of fame a man whose candid friend Lord Esher professes to be. Against Lord Esher’s views regarding Lord Kitchener’s alleged failure in the war ought to be arrayed Marshal Foch’s and M. Poincare’s judgments. Marshal Foch, at the London peace processton, said they missed one great figure—Lord Kitchener, the organiser of victory. M. Poincare said that but for Lord Kitchener’s visit to Paris Anglo-French co-operation would probably have been lost, and the British would not have participated in the Battle of the Marne. Sir George Arthur combats the suggestion that Lord Kitchener wanted to divert forces eastwards. On the contrary, Lord Kitchener’s policy was the maintenance of supreme strength on the Western front in order to be safe in the East. In January, 1915, Lord Kitchener strongly opposed Mr. Lloyd George’s proposal to withdraw troops from France and send them to Salonika, refusing to denude the West by a single man. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Sir George Arthur says: “If Lord Esher proposes to bequeath to posterity his further judgments on Lord Kitchener it might not be amiss that concurrently with Lord Esher’s verdict on Lord Kitchener should run Lord Kitchener’s estimate of Lord Esher, as expressed to me.”—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.