GALLIPOLI

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 31, 6 February 1935, Page 9

GALLIPOLI

AND PASSCHENDAELE

GENERAL GOD LEY'S CON-

TENTIONS

Reference to the activities of the New Zealand troops on Gallipoli and at the Battle of Passchendaele was made by General Sir Alexander Godley when speaking at the Rotary Club luncheon yesterday. ..:■•■ General Godley said that'he had spoken at Rotary _, Clubs in South Africa and Australia, but he was very; pleased,to speak in a place, on which he looked, in a great measure, as his home town. "I had a most extraordinarily interesting job," he said. "First of all in starting the New Zealand citizen army four years before the war, and in having the honour to command the New Zealand Expeditionary Force for the five years during the war. But I had wonderful material. to work on, and though it has been suggested that some of the things I did did not make'me particularly popular, I had this always in mind: ot make the citizen army and the Expeditionary Force the .very best soldiers that any nation could produce. And I say, without hesitation', that we did it." Referring to •■ international' affairs, General Godley recalled a -conversation he had had with General Smuts, in South Africa, in which General Smuts had expressed the opinion that dictatorships were .only a passing phase and were only a palliative which prevented, the countries in'which the dictator ruled from returning to chaos. General: Smuts.had said that, if anything happened to the dictators the countries would lapse ■ into chaps, and that then the only .salvation for. the world would be the Commonwealth of British Nations. An -editor; who was present had-said that he would go further than, that, and say that salvation, would-lay in the English-speaking nations. ; _ GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN. General Godley said that in. the last ■war there were two great campaigns in which New Zealanders were engaged and about which one now heard a,great.deal.'of ■ criticism; they ...were described as failures. One was the Gallipoli campaign, which,'generally, was voted' a. failure, but he wanted to suggest that there was another. aspect of the situation. That was that the whole of the Turkish Army was fought on .Gallipoli.' "1-. -say that deliberately," he said. "Thewhole of the army with the exception of some, small detachments. If we had not ;done that, what would the Turkish' A^my'have been doing? It might have .joined up with the. Austrians or invaded Egypt!" In. addition to those who . had.; been killed, some 200,000 Turks were evacu- . ated from disability or disease-from, the Gallipoli Peninsula. PASSCHENDAELE. The other matter to which he wished to refer, and about. which there was also a great deal of criticism, was the Battle ~of Passchendaele.'" Everybody knew that that battle was largely a ghastly ■ performance—the., casualties and-mud. Nobody could describe' too vividly what a horrible business it was, and no one realised it more, than he did. But it'did not'justify an attack on a great field-marshal because the battle was fought. "The Battle of Passchendaele had;-to be fought because!:the British Army had to fight it," said the speaker. "There was disaffection in the' French Army. Somebody had to fight at that time, and there was nobody else to fight except the British Army." ■ ' Had the battle not been fought, there would have been nothing to> stop, the enemy from breaking through and marching toParis. The battle had been timed to begin on. July." 15, but the French were not ready, and requested a postponement till the'erid of "July. At the beginning, the British were enormously successful. The New Zealand Division executed a most brilliant; attack, arid had a most,brilliant victory. Then came the abominable weather, which the field-marshai:.coiild not control, and it was now said that the battle should have been discontinue*! The French Commander-in-Chief" begged for the battle to be continued, and said that if it were not, the enemy; .would break through arid win the war, • "These things should be known, about these two campaigns,'! said General Godley. "People who'make attacks generally have it almost their ; own way, and when it is done to villify, the memory of a dead man" who cannot defend himself, I juSt.submit:it to you.". ..'.'..'. -..':...