KITCHENER

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 15 August 1921, Page 7

KITCHENER

LORD ESHER'S BOOK

, SEVERELY CRITICISED

BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT .: LONDON, Aug. 12. Sir George Arthur, in' a press inter--yiew, protests that Lord' Esher has set '•out to pull down from a pinnacle of Jame a man whose candid friend Lord -Esher professes to be. Against Lord „. ■ Esher's views regarding Lord Kitchener's alleged failure in the war -...ought to be arrayed Marshal Foch's -and M. Poineare's. judgments. Mar•■shal Foch, ■at the London peace pro■cession^ said they taissed one great Jigure-^-Lord Kitchener, the organiser ■•-of victory. M. Poincare said that but. tor Lord Kitchener's visit to Paris" Angto-French co-operation would probably, have been lost, and the British •;■ "would not bave participated in the Battle of the Marne.

Sir George Arthur combats the sug./gestion tjhat Lord Kitchener wanted to divert? forces eastwards. On the contrary, Lord Kitchener's policy was the maintenance qf supreme strength -on the Western front in order to be ■safe in the East. In January, 1915, -Lord Kitchener-strongly opposed Mr Lloyd George's proposal to withdraw -troops from France and send them to ■Salonika, refusing to denude the "West by a single man. Writing in the Daily Telegraph Sir -■George Arthur says: "If Lord Esher proposes to bequeath to posterity his turther judgments on Lord Kitchener at might not be. amiss that concurrently with Lord Esh'er's; verdict on Lord -Kitchener should run Lord Kitchener's -estimate of Lord Esher as expressed me.' 1