WAVELL BLAMES WAR OFFICE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14653, 23 April 1948, Page 3

WAVELL BLAMES WAR OFFICE

PUBLICATION OF DISPATCH

Lack Of Encouragement In Burma

Recommendations Ignored In London

London, April 22. Field Marshal Earl Wavell's last despatch on the. campaign against the Japanese in Burma, has just been published. It makes frank comments on the successes and disappointments met with between January 1 and June 20. 1943, when he was Commander-in-Chief in India. Lord Wavell says that in the 13 campaigns he directed, from September, 1939 to June 1943, he was conscious that everything possible was being, done to support him but he had one exception to make.

During the operations recorded in this despatch, he says, "I received neither encouragement nor help, nor understanding of the difficulties. Only criticism for the failure of a bold attempt to engage the enemy in hazardous circumstances." Lord Wavell tells how after the Allied Conference at Casablanca, he put forward a plan for the recapture of Burma, during the cold weather of 1943-44 but received neither approval nor condemnation of it from the Chiefs of Staff or the War Cabinet. He comments: "The resources required were obviously not forthcoming/' This despatch was the last of Lord Wavell's active military career and he pays parting tribute to the fighting qualities of the British and Indian troops. The War Office, in a preface to the despatch, says that Japanese documents have shown that the operations described in it accomplished their main purpose, that was to keep the Japanese forces engaged and prevent an offensive into India at a time when India was unprepared.