NO TRAITOR.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 260, 2 November 1928, Page 7

NO TRAITOR.

HERO OF KUT.

Why Townshend Never Rose Above Major-General.

OFFER TO JOIN AUSTRIANS

(Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) (Received 10 a.m.) LONDON, November 1. Why Major-General Townshend, the hero of Kut, was never promoted above the rank of major-general is contained in a biography, written by Erroll Sherson and published by Heinemann. It suggests that his career ended because of an indiscreet letter which came to the possession of the War Office. The story goes that Colonel Fitzgerald, the military secretary to Lord Kitchener, told a journalist that Major-General Townshend, in a letter, had offered his services to Austria. The general was interviewed by Mr. Winston Churchill, who said that he thought the. letter indiscreet, but there ■was nothing in it to prevent him from promotion. The Selection Board. however, had beeu ■unanimous in not promoting him. "I am looking for % command for you now," added Mr. Churchill, but nothing happened. When the honours list for Kut duly appeared Major-Gen-eneral Townshend 's name did not rp-Townahend of Kut. pear.

It appears that Townshend, learning of the assassination at Sarajevo, wrote to an Austrian friend who was military attache in Paris in 1906 when Townahend was the British attache.

Erroll Sherson continues: "Besides his expression of detestation for the murders, Townshend bewailed his own lot and spoke of the bad Government ia England, which he ought not to have done. He did, indeed, say that he wished he could get a transfer into the Austrian service so as to get to ths front where he might be less unjustly treated.

"This is very different from applying for a commission in the Austrian Army, as he was accused of doing. Mr. Churchill said that any clear headed man, reading the letter, would see that Townshend was not a traitor, even if his whole career had not proved his loyalty."

Major-General Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townehend was born in 1861, and died in 1923. After his schooling he entered the Boyal Marines in 1881, and three years later served in the Soudan at Suakim with the Mounted Infantry, and in the Nile expedition with the Guards Camel Regiment in the desert column actions of Aba Klea and Gubat. In 1891 he served in the Hunza Nagar expedition, and commanded the garrison of Chitral Fort during the siege. He then took part in the South African War, serving in that country from 1899-1900. During the Great War he served in Mesopotamia, and, with the 6th Division, which he commanded, took part in the battles of Kurna, Kut, and Ctesiphon. He was- besieged 'at Kut from December 6, 1915, to April 27, 1916, when he had to surrender, and became » prisoner in the hands of the Turks. He made three fruitless attempts to escape, but when Enver Pasha fell, the new Turk Government sought his aid in making arrangements for peace. He resigned from the army in 1920, in which year he also published "My Campaign In Mesopotamia," largely as a reply to the many criticisms passed on his conduct of operations. In November of 1920 he was elected Independent Member of Parliament for the Wrekin Division, and he held his seat till his death.