NEW WAR BOOK

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume 49, Issue 7742, 11 July 1921, Page 4

NEW WAR BOOK

ATTACK ON IHELD-MABSH AL HAIG. The latest war book to create Fomfnvhal of a sensation in England D that entitled “At the Supreme War Council,’’ by C. pEin Peter E. Wright, late Assistant Secretary tc the Supreme War Council. Six months sgo-sn article by Captain Wright, appe'red in “Blackwood’s Magazi: r.'' “VA ig the tamo title now developed it into a hook, in which he denounces Lord JlaD, Sir William Robertson, Sir Fm. Trick M - -Tie and Lord Derby ich war here’s, and is full of enthusiirstic }rai*>? f r M*r cial Gc.q Mi. Lloyd Gee r/ c, F cld-Marshal Sn Henry Wilson, and General Sir Hubert Gough." **ys the Times Literary SuppLment. "1[ drals with the nlatioin of Sir William Rcl>t>rls.ni wi h Lieut.Colonel A’Court Rtpinglon; the foundstion of the Versailles War Council; the p’an of (v.mpdgn for 1918 as evolved by that Council; General Maurice’s removal thorn the Army; the faihir? of Lord Haig to contribute to the General Rcseive which the War Council proposed to command; the defeat of Gough; and the appointment of Foch as generalissimo. Captain Wright s advic-. says the Manchester Guardian H to “admire Foch, Lloyd Gecrge. and Henry Wilson; to 1,1 nmc Haig, Robertson, and Retain. H* is so fiery that at times he would make it almost a conflict of heroes and wl’ains. The central point of I ?!* (>■,?* 13 th? Bri ish defeat by the German? in March, 1918. That RalTDff St. Quentin cost us'more

men killed in ten days than the 4 whol* Peninsular War. It was, as Ca.pt"in Wright says, the greatest defeat in our history. No British

troop?, perhaps no troops in the ■ word, have ever been subjected to such destructive fire as t’ at under which Gough’s Fifth Army fought ills wek-long de’aying battle which onlr juft averted the capture of Airi'n*' and the isolation of our anil if-, from those of the French. Gough had ro vearrve-, lis front was enormeudy long, for that war, * and virtually no reinforcements reached him until his rrmy had so • immolated itself and so exhausted an enormously superior force of German* that the enemy was for a time left IvingJ as it were, prostrate, with the way to victory open before him if he could only rise and go on.” “Captain Wright’s contention is that for the extent of this calamity Pctain, Haig, and Clemenceau were to blame; Pctain supremely so, as « disloyal intriguer against the superior authority of the War Board - that is. really, of Foch; Haig in tlm iseennd degree, as a dupe and assitt*ul"ft Pet?in :Cl nmureau in smir minor degree as an .accessory to Pepsin’s i - subordination. “Ciptain Wright describe* how.

in the winter of 1917-18, the Executive War Board -that is, Foch, Wilson, Bliss (the Amrruan), and' Cndonm—got jo work, hvitb full authority to co-ordinate the efforts of tbs Allies and direct tlriv several Commandcra-in-Cliief in the field. Foeh evidently dominated over them all. The plan adopted was that Genera! .Reserve of thirty division? should be creat'd by setting apart *» seventh of (he total Allied fore • from the Nor h Sea to tin Adiiatic ; and 'on February 6 letters were addressed to , each Commander-in-Chief, asking him if he would mu tribute his quota, proportion:te 1 the number of d visions he con; mand-d.’ Captain Wiig't. wiCoT professing verbadm amura-v, sum marieiM Frch’.» sialnnent of the situ atioa befrre March, 1918, and of bin proposals for meet ing it. This plan was frits'rated, and in tin hour of reed thcr; was nothing 'rtanding behind the Bihi-h Fifth Armr.’ " "Koch's 100 days’ battle and real ricu rr. Captain Wright says, cost us three quarters 0/ what the paper rumesa-s rf the Fland rs battle in 1917 or c f the Somme in 1916 bad cost u», and mentions what has not hitherto been freely rlk d about -■ th? revolt of the French tro ps at Soissons, the grt.-lest rebellion in the war on our side, when those men proclaimed that they would no longer obey riders to go into such ‘butchery.’ "‘No b'tliger id, in mv opinion, not. even the almost unarmed Busvan muss,-; . . . were ever slaughtered at (he same profuse rate as wo vrer?, though our dogged, dan 1 less, and devoted armies were the oulv beiligere it tfrrnies who at no time in '’the war ever showed any signs of rebel’ion or dissolution.' ’’ "The entire volume.” says another Journal (the Satur 'ay Re- " view)” is a serious reflection on G. H.R. and certain iiiwspaprr.s. The , chart's are too dd’miTe and well supported to pass without comment or explanation ; so we may ; look forward to an avalanche of disclaimers and justifications!.”