GALLIPOLI FAILURE

Gisborne Times, Volume LII, Issue 5463, 26 April 1920, Page 5

GALLIPOLI FAILURE

FORCES COULD HAVE CAPTURED CONSTANTINOPLE.

SIR lAN HAMILTON’S VIEW

BLUNDER DUE TO ADVICE . FROM WEST FRONT.

United Press Association— Copyright. (Received April 25. 5.5 p.m.; LONDON, April 24. Speaking at the Army dinner at Sheffield, Sir lan Hamilton read cabled! greetings from Sir William Budwood on behalf of Anzac comrades. Sir lan Hamilton declared that after the successful landing at the Dardanelles, the forces could on several occasions have advanced and captured Constantinople, knocked out the Turks, and joined: hands with the Russians and immobilised Bulgaria, but the Higher Direction of the Entente could not make up tlieir minds. There were periods when without endangering the safety of Calais or Paris the forces at the Dardanelles might have borrowed for a few days a small number of howitzers, trench mortars and aeroplanes, which would have assured absolute success.

“We British never make use of our amphibious powers,” lie said, “to carry out strategical movements / oh a grand scale." Undoubtedly mistakes were made both on the spot and at Home, but the idea of forcing the Dardanelles was essentially sound and must have triumphed if the reins of British Direction had been held in London instead of in Paris and on the West Front.—A. and N.Z. Cable Assn.