ASHMEAD BARTLETT IN AMERICA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 11 January 1916, Page 5

ASHMEAD BARTLETT IN AMERICA.

(GENERAL HAMILTON'S DESPAHOT/ REVIEWED. !

(Received Jjan. 11, 10.30 a.m.) i iSBESW :YORK, Jan. ML. I Mr Ashmeait i.Bartlett, interviewedJSir Han ;' : Hamilton's repmrsfcij' .-said he thought*--jt:;a great mistake te\ publish it at -this ?stage, although he! <§>cef erred to <rea:d'General Hamilton's! ■unabridged sStxj^y. ;. ; Mr Bartlett wentxm. to comment <on \ .^experts' views rpublifehed in America:.! a»nd declared that the operation failed' l>ecause it isras an operation which j should neiyer /ba^e • been- undertaken um-; -der such condiUtions in such a country, i It was sheer-nonsense/ he continued,! A'r represent tlrftt'tlievstrategic plan had almost succeeded. /Th© Anzacs, he said, .suffered twel-ve • thousand casualties ywithoijt attaining their .^objective/ A / G&mrkas mrohed 'th© summit of j 45hanak Bair tm& Kbjaifiemin Tepe/i ■which was only the lower slope leading: -to Sari Bahr. fHi© llosses \were so ter- I . *lble thjat even supposing the troops !had reached the top it would have been .utterly impossible for them 'to main4am themselves. Why were unskilled troops employed in the firsts via landing when "the 29th Division, which was «nhesitatingly sacrificed later ©n, couid frave be-en utilised? Why were 2500 men of -the' Ist Australian Di-visiou sent -to there doom in the -effort to af'<qu'ire the apparentlyuseless position at Lone Pinef Why were; thousands thrown away at other posts, whicjh were tdissodated frem the main operations ? If the objective was to get astride at Kojaehemin Tepe, why was the weight -of the attack not thrown a<gainst that jjomi, and why was there no control from headquarters at Suvla? How could General Stopford get his men forward if'they were split up and lost in brdken country, without water or telephone communication, and! harassed by enemy snipers ? Apart from all other considerations it. had; lieen insufficiently -established that; *ven the Anafarta hills and, Kojachewrin Tepe would have forced the Narrows or cleared the road to Constant!- j »ople. General Hamilton states that i m the middle of August the Turks had 110,009 bayonets against . his 55,000," and claims that if Lord Kitchener had -*ent 50,000 more it would have brought -the campaign to a successful conclusion. As a matter ;of fact: all that could have been done would have been to bring the 50,000 to a conclusioit,