AN UNTIMELY DEMAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 172, 20 July 1916, Page 4

AN UNTIMELY DEMAND.

*It may be true, as Sir Edward Carson says, that thousands of people think the whole Mesopotamian campaign has been conducted with criminal negligence. But this, and the fact that there is a widespread feeling that serious blunders were made in connection with the Dardanelles tampaign, does not necessarily mean that people want the whole of these affairs threshed out in Parliament and the Press at 'this stage. We believe there will be little regret at the Government's refusal, on the ground of national interests, to publish all the papers relating to these campaigns. Apart from the valuable information that eueh publication might afford the enemy, the disclosures would lead to wasteful, " distracting and perhaps unseemly wrangling. We are sure that in New Zealand, even among thotse who suffered bereavement by the campaign, there ie no substantial demand for a raking over of the ashes or the Dardanelles venture. We are glad to Bee that a New /Icelander in Kngland has dealt with this point vigorously. Mr. Noel Ross, a New Zealand journalist, who was wounded at Gallipoli, and ia now an officer in. the British Army, contributes to the Empire Day number of " Land and Watei " an article on New Zealand's share in the war. Of the IOS6CS at (iallrpoli he save: "That sacrifice wae made willingly and without regret, and yet in the Heart of the Em,pire we [hear Joud . voices, demanding satisfaction, asking for inquiries**^Whose plan was this?' they shriek. 'Who tent, these mon to their deaths?' We can answer them, New Zealand .sent them.-and she ie well content, looking back, to know thnt they died with their work well dono. To all such clamoiirers we would say, ' Let our dead lie in peace. If you want inquiries, if someone must be pilloried, then wait till the war Is over. Only, don't aek us.to go a-inuck-raking with you." . This admirable protest represents general opinion in NewZealand, and there is no reason to suppose that opinion at Home is different.