APPROACH OF WAR.

Lake County Press, Issue 2792, 3 July 1919, Page 5

APPROACH OF WAR.

What the British Army Knew.

General Richardson told the New Zealand Club at Wellington that in 1912 a confidential lecture was given to the Staff College he was attending by the Intelligence Department stating that war would break out in the autumn of 1914 or the spring of 1916, and that the deepening of the Kiel Canal would be the considering factor. T, he German fleet would not come out, but hoped by means of mines and submarines to destroy one large British vessel per week, so that in a year they would be able to invade England with some chance of success. On the land the French were expected to have to fall back and that Paris might even be taken, but this would not end the war, because enlarged British forces would then coma in with the assistance of India and the Dominions. It was anticipated that conscription would have to be introduced and that the British must maintain a million men in France. They therefore knew that the war was coming and he thought that he might reach' New Zealand and assist in her preparations.