MR CHURCHILL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 9178, 29 June 1915, Page 6

MR CHURCHILL.

SEVERE DENUNCIATION OF HIS

CRITICS

THE DARDANELLES BOMBARDMENT.

The storm at the Admiralty which led ultimately to the retirement of both Mr Winston Churchill, the First Lord, and Admiral Lord Fisher, the First Sea Lord, and the formation of a Coalition Ministry, was just.breaking when yesterday's English mail left London.' The " Morning Post," in a series of leading articles, was making an unsparing criticism of Mr Churchill's administration. In an article on April 27 our contemporary wrote as follows: "in common with several other newspapers, we published yesterday an article from a Special Correspondent, who is recognised by the British Government, and whose dispatch was passed by the censor. The dispatch amounted to the severest condemnation of the Admiralty that' has yet been published.- For-it-described the: passage of the Dardanelles by a Fleet unassisted by an army as a flat impossibility. The" Fleet cannot oven destroy the forts effectively, and cannot reach the'mobile'•■and elusive batteries which are hidden among the folds of the hills. Moreover, heayy ships dare not enter the Straits because, of.the mines' which are floated down the current and the concealed ■torpedo, tubes which lie along the shores. It is impossible for light. craft like destroyers and trawlers to clear away these obstacles because of the aforesaid masked batteries. ' Therefore,' says this semiofficial correspondent, ' the only way the Straits can be opened'is from the land aide. To accomplish this a very large Expeditionary Force is required, and also a very large number of field howitzers, with which to deal with the concealed batteries. The guns of the battleships can cover a landing, and their fire will be able to,assist an advance inland up to a certain point, but once the army-is on shore it must do the real work of taking the enemy's positions in reverse by its own unaided efforts. ... A great army is required to ensure success.' In other words, tho previous attempt to burst through the Straits with ships unsupported by land forces was an attempt on tho impossible. It cost the Allies three ■major ships and a. great number of lives, and it .was foredoomed.to failure. Not only so, but it forewarned the enemy that the Dardanelles was to be the object of attack. We understand that when the naval attack was opened over two months,ago there were some 15,000 Turks on the Gallipoli Peninsula; there are now said to be 150,000 Turks there. At the beginning of the operation 30,000 men might have taken the. Peninsula; it now requires a " great army," to be reckoned in hundreds of thousands. • We hear that the landing has been made at various points on the Gallipoli Peninsula " in spite of serious opposition from the enemy in strong entrenchments, protected by barb wire." ;That means' heavy fighting and costly attacks on prepared positions —attacks which will cost men and entail a constant stream of reinforcements. Our dread is lest the operations in the Gallipoli Peninsula should become a major expedition as costly as, and Je-s effective than, the fighting in Flanders. Most of this would have been saved if the Army and Navy had 'operated simultaneously from the start. ,-■*,-■ : •

"Who is ' responsible; for this'costly blunder—costly whether the operation, succeeds or fails ? We assert, that the First Lord of the Admiralty acted against the opinion of his experts. We assert, further, that he led the Cabinet to believe that he had behind him the opinion of Lord Fisher, whereas Lord Fisher's opinion was that the operations, to. have a chance of success, must be conducted jointly by Army and Navy. These ar» serious caarges. There i» no question of Cabinet responsibility, because the' Cabinet did not know the truth. But in any event these times are much too serious for Ministers' to found themselves upon Constitutional conventions. The truth is that Mr Winston Churchill is a.danger to this country. He forced the Government into the Antwerp Expedition, which he managed personally, and which ended disastrously for Antwerp, which was bombarded; for the Naval Division, which tried to relieve. Antwerp; and for the Seventh Division, which tried to relieve the Naval Division. We have stated —and it has never been denied—that the Hogue, the Cressy, ,and the, Aboukir were; under the direct control of the Admiralty, and 'not of Admiral Jellicoe, when they were sunk: The Admiralty dispositions, which led to the Joes of Craddock's squadron were shockingly incompetent. All through these events we see the mark of the amateur overriding the expert. Both the Antwerp Expedition and this Dardanelles blunder are the capital offences. When the Antwerp fiasco occurred we warned the Government that by allowing Mr Churchill to interfere with the conduct of naval and military operations it was endangering the country. Their mistaken loyalty to their colleague prompted them to overlook the. offence. It has now been repeated with greater loss as a result. Are we to wait for a third disaster even more costly than th«3Q other two ? Lord, Fisher is not responsible and Lord Kitchener is not responsible. They are both much injured men; but we warn them that they, too, unless they make a timely protest, and come out strongly on the side of expert control of naval and .military- operations, will be held to share in the discredit and the responsibility. The time is for them to speak out now and have done with this appalling danger of amateur interference with the' man at the* wheel. The Constitution has no place for siich a. phenomenon. It is exactly ns-.if one of the board of directors of a great steamship company, who fancied himself as an amateur yachtsman, should got upon the bridge in a region of icebergs and take the wheel out of the hands of the navigating officer. _ Mr Churchill has done this several times, land every time it has cost the nation heavily. We warn Lord Fisher, Lord Kitchener, _ and the Cabinet that by their ncquiescence in this abuse they I are failing in their duty and endangering the country. As for Mr Churchill', he should have the grace to see that his position has now become impossible, and give place to a professional sailor."