DISCORDS OF WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 155, 29 December 1936, Page 14

DISCORDS OF WAR

LADY HAIG'S LIGHT,

POLITICIANS AND GENERALS

STRONG CRITICISM

As was inevitable, Countess Haig is unsparing of Mr. Lloyd George in the biography of her husband which, after much delay, was published, says the "Daily Telegraph."

She criticises him for -mistrust of the British Commander-in-Chief at moments of grave import for the campaign in the West, she tells something of Earl Haig's distress at finding Mr. Lloyd George taking opinions from other generals on his conduct of operations, and she arraings Mr. Lloyd George for an "insult" to her husband after the Armistice, when the then Prime Minister tried in vain to induce him to take part in a ceremonial drive through London.

According to Lady Haig, her husband felt that Mr. Lloyd George was always trying to belittle the British Army. The reader catches an early hint of a lack of sympathy between the two men when the , contrast is noted between the visits of Mr. Asquith to G.H.Q. in 1916 and those of Mr. Lloyd George, which "gave Douglas the impression of being joyrides." "Mr. Lloyd George also arrived . . . accompanied by a crowd like a lot of Cook's tourists. . . . Douglas mentioned . . . that he found him flighty and'always liable to change his plans." THE QUESTIONING OF FOCH. Mr. Lloyd George "gave him [Haig] 'the impression that he considered the methods adopted by the French much superior to those of the British. He seemed entirely under the influence of M. Albert Thomas ... in fact, it almost looked as if Mr. Lloyd George was prepared to promise him anything." A little bitterness might be forgiven since "Douglas learned that Lloyd George [during one visit] had met Foch and had questioned him closely regarding the efficiency of Douglas's command. .. . Foch was surprised that a British Cabinet Minister should stoop so low as to make disparaging remarks about his own army.... Such disloyalty proved Douglas to be right in his distrust of Mr. Lloyd George's dealings with the French. ... In one of his letters Douglas thanked me for wishing to wring Lloyd George's neck Sor what he had done." The story of Mr. Lloyd George's preparatians for the ceremonial drive belongs, of course, to the days of Armistice rejoicing, when Haig "was so disappointed to see that the politicians were entirely given up to electioneering so soon. . . . He considered they should have been on their knees, thanking God lor having preserved the old country "and our liberties in spite of their blunders." With precipitate enthusiasm on November 30 Mr. Lloyd George invited Haig to take part in a ceremonial drive through London, with Foch, .Clemenceau, and a number of other statesmen. "When Douglas learned that he was to ride with General Sir Henry Wilson in the fifth carriage he was astounded and considered that this was a greater insult than he could stand even from the Prime Minister. REFUSED TO GO. "Douglas had effaced himself -for the past three years because lie considered that to win the war it was essential that the French and British armies should get on well together. He had- remained silent when Lloyd George talked of what he CL.G.') had accomplished by his foresight in appointing Foch as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces, although it was Douglas's suggestion, made at the conference in March, 1918, that Foch should be put in supreme command. ... , ,_ ''But now that the war had been won by the armies in France, he utterly refused to take part in a purely political stunt by riding in a triumphal procession through the streets of London merely to add to Lloyd George's importance. He therefore sent word that he could not go to London on December 1 unless he was ordered to do so by the Army Council." -. It was' later discovered that the "triumphal procession" • was to_ go to the French Embassy for a reception to which Haig was not invited. "This was Lloyd George's view of what was fitting for the welcome of a general on his return from command- ' ing a victorious army in the field." * The discord between Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief dated from 1916. It sprang largely from Mr. Lloyd George's hankering after operations elsewhere than on the Western Front When he became Prime Minister in December Sir William Robertson observed that it looked as if he "meant to make himself directorgeneral of the actions of all the Allies." NIVELLE DOMINANT. About that time General Nivelle was in the ascendant; he began giving Haig Instructions and planning to communicate direct with the Chief of the Imperial General Staff in London. That brought Haig to London (March 11, 1917), where he was seen by the King and by Lord Derby, who begged him not-to resign his command. Haig was then, as later, fully prepared to go only that "he hoped there would not be any argument about it. The last thing he wanted was to be the central figure of a political upheaval.' At home Haig*s plans were obstructed on the very eve of the Passchendaele attack; if it did not succeed "he was to arrange for sending troops to Italy" The grim truth as Haig saw it (for he knew the state of the French army's morale,in 1917) was that if we slackened our attack in any way the French would become discouraged and stop fighting altogether." It was in the midst of Passchendaele that more divisions Tvere detached for Italy, together with Plumer and his staff, whose Second Army was actually then conducting the battle. Haig must have felt that Alice's chances an the croquet match were rosy compared to his own on the Western Front. There is a reference to General Gough, and the fate of the Fifth Army in March, 1918. "Douglas pointed out what was wrong was not Gough's generalship, but the fact that the War Cabinet had so weakened the forces and failed to make adequate arrangements for keepIng the divisions up to strength that there were not enough men to withstand the German assault In spite of Douglas's explanations the War Cabinet decided that the Cammander of the Fifth Army was at fault, and he was therefore brought home." Lady Haig brings no new documents to light; her volume carries no maps or index. It is a simple record of her husband's life of particular interest as a precis of the history of momentous years. She writes without any literary pretension, but with the wifely assurance that since no one knew Douglas Haig as she did the world must consider her evidence before it judges. _________^__

Pleading guilty to absenting himself without leave from the steamer Buahine, John Wilson, an able seaman, aged 28, appeared in the Magistrate's Court today. He was fined £1, in default seven days' imprisonment, by .I/fesgre, Dunbar Sloane end J. L. Arcns, «..,n.-