TRUTH WILL OUT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 237, 6 October 1926, Page 7

TRUTH WILL OUT.

OLD SOLDIERS' ANECDOTES. MINISTERIAL BLUNDERINGS. LONDON, October 5. "Secret and Confidential," is the title of a book just published by BrigadierGeneral W. H. Waters, in which he recounts anecdotes of his service as military attache. Quoting some typical instances of carelessness on the part of Cabinet Ministers, he states that in 1892 the Naval and Military Committee secretly reported that it would be suicidal ever to attempt to force the Dardanelles with warships alone. Only six copies* of this report were printed and circulated. Later it was recalled, but four copies were never returned. Lord Salisbury, to whom one was sent, said he believed he had put it in the pocket of an old coat which he had given to his gardener. The Earl of Balfour said he had not the slightest idea what he had done with his copy. Brigadier-General W. H. Waters first entered the Royal Artillery in J 875. From 1893-8, when he had attained the rank of colonel, he was British military attache at St. Petersburg. Hβ held a similar position at Berlin, 1900-3. He served in the South African war 1899----1900, and was attached to the Russian army in Manchuria, 1904-5. He commanded troops in North China. 1906-10. He was born in November, 1855, and retired from the army in 1911, but was chief of the Military Mission at Russian headquarters in 1916.