SECRET HISTORY.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1921, Page 5

SECRET HISTORY.

PHASE OF THE WAR. KITCHENER AND MUNITIONS. SOME SECRET LETTERS. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyrlgtt. Received Nov. 30, 7.30 p.m. London, Nov. 30. Mr. Asquith, in Pearson’s Magazine, is publishing a letter dated April 14, 1915, in which Lord Kitchener definitely assures Mr. Asquith himself, on Lord French’s authority, that the present supply of ammunition was as much as the troops would be able to use in the next move forward. Referring to the munitions charges Lord French made in his book in 19R>, which Lord Esher quotes, without comment. but adopted as history, Mr. Asquith writes: "The statement teems with unpardonable inaccuracies, some of which are flat contradictions of contemI porary documents. By the end of ApI ril. 1915, despite the contractors’ heartrending delays, we were producing in three days the ammunition produced in a whole year in pre-war times. The prospect for the near future, however, was serious. It was not our business |to encourage the enemy by revealing I the nature and the extent of our disi quietude, which was real and great. It I was for that reason that—Mr. Lloyd I George and I were careful to say, on i Lord Kitchener's authority, that there was no immediate dearth at the front.'*

Proof that Lord Kitchener duly inquired before giving such an assurance was shown by the following letter, dated April 1, 1*915: ‘‘Secret. Dear Prime Minister.—l have had a talk with Lord French. He told me I could inform you that with the present supply of ammunition he will havp as much as his troops will be able to use in the next forward movement. I think the next move will be better than the last with co-operation from the French forces, which failed last time.—Kitchener.”

Mr. Asquith contributes an appreciation of Kitchener in Pearson’s. Magazine. He traverses Lord Esher's criticisms and description, which he characterises as a caricature, the only excuse being Lord Esher’s superficial knowledge of his subject. “Lord Kitchener,” he said, "was a great Ynan with certain obvious limitations, some congenital, others natural, perhaps the necessary results of his environment. To the last of his career he was disposed to be secretive. He did not find it easy to throw his knowledge and judgment into the common stock, but it is an absurd travesty to say that Lord Kitchener, at the War Office, neither asked nor took advice from any man. From the day he took his post. Lord Kitchener was in constant communication and consultation with Sir John Cowan. QuartermasterGeneral.”

“Meanwhile there was set afoot a violent newspaper campaign, directed mainly against Lord Kitchener, and engineered according to Lord French's avowal by the Commander-in-Chief himself in France, behind the back of his official chief. It was quite possible, but certainly not natural, that Lord Kitihener should at this time be said to have written: ‘I am deadly sick of this system of intrigue.’ But he never allowed it to ruffle or rattle him. He ignored the clamorous cat-calls from a section of the Press, whose campaign Lord Esher quaintly declares had been dictated by the choice of the higher expediency. Lord Kitchener showed unanimity and magnamity, saying: ‘I am out to fight the Germans, not Lord French.’ ” —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

KITCHENER’S DEATH. STORY OF GERMAN SPY. Received Nov. 30, 5.5 p.m. London, Nov. 29. The War Office denies it is in possession of evidence that the sinking of the Hampshire was due to information 1 supplied to Germany by the spy Elsie Boecker. It states that it has received reports that Boecker boasted in Berlin that she received 10.000 marks from the Government for information of Lord Kitchener’s impending departure, which information she claims was supplied by a British officer and a friend of her husband'-, with whom she dined shortly before Lord Kitchener’s departure. Her story is wholly untrue. The facts are that Boecker was sentenced at Marylebonc in May, eight months before Lord Kitchener's departure, to two months’ imprisonment for a breach of the alien -’ restrictions, and expelled from England on June 29. Thus she was never at large in England after May 8. —Aus.N.Z. Cable Assn.