GALLIPOLI

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 June 1925, Page 2

GALLIPOLI

SIR I. HAMILTON’S CONFESSION s General Sir laii Hamilton was the chief speaker at the dinner of tho 29th Division on tho tenth anniveisary of the landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula. General Sir Hunter-Weston was in the chair, no French Armee d'Orient was represented by its commanding officer, Dvnera! Count d’A'ihade, the Royal Navy by Admiral Sir John Alicnael do Kobetk, Commander-in-Chief in the Alediterranean at the time of tno landing, by Vice-Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, now about to become his successor in that command, -and at that time his Chief-of-Staff, and by Commodore Unwin, V.C., of the Liver Clyde. Field Alaishal Siw AXillmm Birdwood lin’d General Sir Andrew Russel were also present. Sir fan Hamilton, in his speech, said that the 29th Division were a wonderful lot of men. They never faltered.. They rushed in where an angel would have feared to tread, Qi a devil either,,, and front a ■ hellish fire raining over sea and land, pulled out some 1 of the hottest chestnuts which a civilised rfriny 1 had ever been called to lay paws upon. (Cheers). _ Nothing would be less in.. keeping witn the spirit of their festivity qn that occasion than-the raising of any controversial topic, but he would like to say one thing, which had never < H 1 any shape,or form, been said beioie. •‘What I have to tell you is he continued, “that there was a buet period towards the end of Al arch an beginning of April, 1915, when I did really begin to Waver in my mind as to whether Von Dev Goltz was not right in saying that a lauding was a . sheer impossibility. Dur.hg this period the. Egyptian Press kept on giving the most clear and specific detail as to arrivals; of troops and material, together with specific statements that were bound for the Dardanelles, and, in reply to my remonstrances, I Wks informed by the iesponsib'le civil authority that Egypt was l not at war and that it was beyond our power, therefore, *to restrain the' Egyptian Press from advertising anything it liked. Secrecy is the essence of military success, and most of all secrecy in regard to a landing, lii our case, every one had been fully informed of everything from England. At luncheon at the Abdul Palace tne Sultan discussed the “landing on Gallipoli” with me quite openly before courtiers and servants. lhere was never, in fact, from first to last, the semblance oven of keeping our destination confidential, although, or Course, the actual spots selected were still my. secret. AVell, do you know what finally made me steel my heart to carry oh ’ Aly inspection of the 29th Division.” (Cheers). The Great War, he. added, produced a bumper crop of heroisms, and so far as mortal man could do or • suffer, the limit of those things was 7 reached not in one field, but m many fields. And yet, . where so much was everywhere in evidence, he most firmlv believed that the landing <m April '2sth marked a sort of Mimax. The battles of the Western Front had now been fought and refought on paper and in speech tor ten long years. The writers and students of the United States and the - Continent of Europe were now turning their attention to the Dardanelles ami studying the literature upon the subject. The fame of the 29th Division would never die.