WHEN WE MOBILISED

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 37, 14 February 1919, Page 8

WHEN WE MOBILISED

36 HOURS BEFORE WAR WAS

DECLARED

SIR DOUGLAS HAIG'S FEAT,

Another war secret has been revealed by Lord Haldane, who declares that the British Army was mobilised 36 hours before England declared war. He related the facts when presiding at a London lecture by Major R. M. Johnstone, Professor of History at Harvard.

It was obvious, he said, when it became a question of the British aiding the French that the presence of a British Army must be to supplement the French Afmy, and the French thought at the outbreak of the war that if we could contribute 100,000 men in good formation on their shores within fifteen days of the outbreak of war that would be enough to enable them with their great fortifications to hold the'position. "•

When we came to look into the matter we found we could not concentrate that number, and we then made a revolution, under the guidance of Sir Douglas Haig and other officers, since distinguished in the war, who worked night and day, with the result that we put 160,000 men in France, not within IS days, but within 12 days. / "I do not think people know when we mobilised," he added. "I will tell you. There is no need to keep it a secret now. We mobilised at 11 o'clock on Monday, 3rd August, 36 hours before we declared war. We were then all ready, and within a few hours after we declared war the British Expeditionary Force were, with the aid of our splendid Navy, right across the Channel. The concentration was made in nine days."! In the earlier part of his speech, Lord Haldane said that the speech of Sir Edward Grey in, the House on 3rd August, 1914, was practically the announcement of England to go into the war, and Sir Edward told how he had been approached by the French Government in January, 1906, and how it was conveyed to him that there was apprehension of an attack from Germany which might menace British interests.

"We set to work to develop what had to be done. It was not home defence. We were perfectly defended at home by command of the sea, by our overwhelming fleet, and by the Territorial forces. But here came tho question and the answer. The answer was that the purposes of any British Army must be to supplement the great French Army with a force strong" enough to hold the Germans if they should ever try to break through a certain part of Belgium."