GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 October 1922, Page 5

GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN.

OLD CONTROVERSIES RECALLED. By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. London, Oct. 23. Sir lan Hamilton, addressing the Royal Marines at the Old Comrades’ Association, said: “It is not as a politician, but only as a philosopher that I draw attention to the fact that Mr. Lloyd George and Lord North cliffe were, according to a published speech by Lord Northcliffe, specially responsible for the evacuation of the Dardanelle©. while now Mr. Lloyd George, rightly or wrongly, is all for holding on, and supposing he is right, what a misfortune for us and for himself that he did not let us hold on in 1915 and finish the Turks. “You have heard of the western front ‘kill the German’ theory of the way to end the war. Unfortunately, as practised, we usually killed more British than Germans. At Passchendaele. according to Ludendorff, who is considered truthful even by French historians, two British to one German were killed.

“Quite lately we have been vouchsafed a glimpse into the heart of the attrition theory as practised at the Dardanelles. General Liman von Sanders says: ‘While Gallipoli holds 20,000 British graves, it also holds 60,000 Turkish,’ so there we have beyond denial what the Anzacs often said, namely, three Turks for every Briton. We only had to go on and arithmetic can suggest but one ending. “Instead, in September, 1915, two divisions and manv munitions were withdrawn from the Peninsula, while the troops left were forbidden to attack or undertake any operation, thus presumably. it was hoped, the country would get sick enough of what is now called sacred ground, and permit that well-engineered piece of folly, the evacuation.