LORD KITCHENER

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17342, 31 December 1921, Page 9

LORD KITCHENER

■ • ■ MR ASQUUH'S DEFENCE. ECHOES OP THE WAS. I (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) (By Cable—Press Association—Copyright.) (Received J\?cember 30th, 9.15 p.m.) LONDON, December 29. Mr Asquith contributes a further instalment of his appreciation of Lord Kitchener to "Pearson's Magazine" nnd includes his remarkable forecast of the course of the war. Mr Asquith says: "In January 1916 I asked Lord Kitchener : f lie could give for myself alono his forecast of the future of the war I jottod down an outline of his remarks, which reads: 'January 4th.— Wo must begin our French push not later than April. "While it goes on in April and May, the Russians will hold the Germans in the East. When we are making our way in June, the Russians will begin a great offensive. The Germans in August will ask us for our peace terms and we will reject their request as impossible. The Germans in September and October will be pushed in on both sides and November will see peace on our terms." Mr Asquith continue'?: "'This was falsified by events, but venture to think it shows remarkable military prescience. In iview of ißrussiloff's offensive in June and the Allies' campaign on the Somme in December, the Germans made overtures for peace." Replying to Lord Esher's references to the evacuation of the Dardanelles, Mr Asquith says: "The double evacuation carried out on Lord Kitchener's advice was one of the most skilful and most successful operations of the war. The only occasion on which I ever saw signß of his even for a moment giving way was when we considered the evaculion of the Dardanelles. He told me he had hardly slept the night before an he imagined he saw boat load after boat load of gallant soldiers sunk on tljeir way to the ships by Turkish gunfire. This was remarkable, as he never countenanced the pessimistic _ forecasts put forward by high authorities of the enormous losses the evacuation would cause. | "I have always believed that if Lord Kitchener had arrived in Petrograd j early in June the whole course of the war might have been changed. When Ihe said good-bv*-' during the evening of June 2nd. 1916, Lord Kitchener was ! in the highest spirits and described with gusto and humour some friendly pas-sages-at-arms with hecklers in Parliai ment. He left the room gay, elastic, alert and sanguine, the strongest conl trast conceivable to the bewildered, I buffeted, senile figure of Lord Esher's imaginings."