INDISCREET NOTE

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10734, 3 November 1928, Page 5

INDISCREET NOTE

BLOCKED BRILLIANT SOLDIER’S CARDER. WHY. TOWNSHEND OF K.UT WAS NOT PROMOTED. United Press Assn, by El. Tel. Copyright (Australian Press Assn.) LONDON; Nov. 1. Why General Townshend, the hero of Kut. was never promoted above the rank of major-general is contained in his biography written by Err oil Sherson and published by Heinemann, which suggests that his career ended because - an indiscreet letter came into the possession of tho War Office. The story goes that Colonel Fitzgerald, a military sercetary to Lord Kitchener, told a journalist that General' Townshend, in a letter, offered his services to Austria. The general interviewed Mr. Winston Churchill, who said ho thought tho letter was indiscreet, hut there was nothing in it to prevent his promotion. The selection board, however, had been unanimous in not promoting him. “I am looking for a command for you now,” added Air Churchill, but nothing happened. The honors list for Kut duly appeared, but General Townshend’s name did not apnear in it.

It..appears that General Townshend, learning of the assassination at Sarajevo, wrote to an Austrian friend, who was military attache at Paris in 1906, when General Townshend was British attache. Mr Sherson continues: “Besides' an expression of detestation at the murder, General Townshend bewailed his own lot. and spoke of the had government of England, which ho ought not to have done. He did, indeed, say he wished he could get a transfer into the Austrian service so as to get to the front, where he might be less unjustly treated. _ This was very different to applying for a commission in the Austrian Army, as he.was accused of - doing. Air Churchill said any ciear-minded man reading the letter could see that General Townshend was not a traitor, even if his whole career had not proved his loyalty.”