WAR MEMOIRS

Evening Star, Issue 21878, 15 November 1934, Page 15

WAR MEMOIRS

LLOYD GEORGE AS CftlTlG BRITISH GENERALS’ CONDUCT. LONDON, November 1. Following upon Mr Lloyd George’s indictment of Earl Haig’s conduct of the British campaign at Passchendaele, in the fourth voluble of his memoirs, the ‘ Weekly Dispatch ’ says that pressure will be piit on Earl Haig’s trustees to publish the war leader’s diaries, Earl Haig sealed these documents and deposited them in' the British Museum, directing ihrit they should not b 6 opened until 1940. Senior officers during the war hope the diaries will refute Mr George’s attack regarding Passchendaele. Accordingly they urge that advantage be taken of Earl Haig’s will authorising the trustees to phblish the diaries and other papers at any time they think fit. It is pointed out that Mr Alfred Duff Cooper is writing Earl Haig’s biography, which will appear in 1935 and in which, it is expected, there will be a reply to Mr George, but it is doubtful whether he will be permitted to utilise the diaries. Mr George says ho does not fear a reply. He has received many letters from men who fought at Passchendaele declaring that they are glad the truth lias been told. ALLEGED DECEIVING OF CABINET. “ What I said about Earl Haig is nothing compared with what I shall tell about the other generals,” said Mr George to a representative of the ‘ Sunday Chronicle.’ “It is a great pity that Earl Haig is not alive to-ddy. I would have preferred to criticise hini in his lifetime, but was not able to write earlier, ha tlie true facts only came out gradually. “ Earl Haig and Field-Marshal Sir W. Robertson deceived the Cabinet about Passchendaele. They stated that all the officers under Earl Haig and also Lord French were convinced of the advisability of the attack. “This lias now been proved . a deliberate lie. The Cabinet was completely in the dark and had to support Earl Haig, in spite of private misgivings. It was impossible to supersede him, as the effect on English and French morale would have been disastrous.

“ Passchendaele was Earl Haig’s pet baby. He considered that if he were successful there life would be regarded as the greatest general in history. Germany, however, was contemptuous of British generals, who were’ at inferior to those of the French command as the British Tommy was superior to the French rank and file.” MR CHURCHILL’S SUPPORT.

Mr Winston Churchill, commenting in the ‘ Daily Mail ’ on the fourth volume of the memoirs of Mr George, says the lay reader will accept the fact that the decisive victory the Allies gained was a hideous muddle, conducted throughout by knaves and fools.

“Luckily things were worse'on the other side,” he added, “ so thank God we won. Mr George rightly saw that the defection of one ally from the enemy coalition would bring the whole structure clattering down. “ For that reason he was anxious decisively to attack Turkey, yet FieldMarshal Sir William Bobertson, the Chief of Staff, would not allow, him to take more than half measures. A renewed thrust in the Dardanelles would have brought the Turkish position to an immediate crisis.

“ I always held with Mr George s view on Passchendaele, and have not read a niore massive and sombre indictment than Mr George’s attack on Earl Haig and Sir William Bobertson, whose drive through the mud at Passchendaele lost dOOjOOO men and almost .broke the heart of the British Army.’-