Colonel Whitmore and Mr Branigan.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 23, 20 April 1870, Page 3

Colonel Whitmore and Mr Branigan.

Colonel Whitmore having been accused of writing articles for the Wellington Post writes to the Lyttelton Times contradicting the statement. From his letter we make the following extract;—"l am an open dissentient from this ludicrous demilitarisation which has so utterly broken down. I lament that all our miiitary force is gone or going, and the detective police is still unable, after nine months, to take the field. I feel sure the rifle, not the rattle, is wanted to bring the war to an end, and that nothing prevented this result last July, except the retreat of our troops to the coast when Mr Fox came into office. That error enabled Te Kooti to recruit his men, and recover his prestige, when he was a fugitive on the Taupo plains, without either food or ammunition. There is no doubt about this—every man of the force I lately commanded knows it well. No military man of experience will deny that the course pursued, by which Te Kooti was left alone till October, was certain to prolong the struggle. But, Sir, though I hold these opinions, and believe that the ivant of concentrated command, and the multiplicity of independent authorities, must lead to bungles like Patetere, I utterly repudiate all thought of ill against poor Mr Brannigan. He was not at all responsible for the reversal of all that might have been learned from the experience of every country in times of war, even radical America. He came at the invitation of the Government, throwing up an excellent appointment, and has done his be it, and I dare say done it well. His police is doubtless exactly what he promised, and is certainly what I expected it would prove. He has been only the instrument, and possibly the victim, of a theory for which others are responsible. He himself should be sacred."