HAIG INDICTED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 304, 21 November 1934, Page 7

HAIG INDICTED.

WAR GENERAL’S ATTACK. “A phenomenally unimaginative military monk, wrapped in freezing war ritual—a metallic myth who drove 400,000 men to agony and doom.” Addressing the Empire Crusaders, MajorGeneral C. G. Fuller, who had a command in France, made this startling indictment against the late Earl Haig, who was the British Comman-der-in-Chief, says a London message. “Instinctively Haig disliked tanks because they were modern weapons,’ said Major-General Fuller. “He definitely was not a modern soldier. He would have been a good general in the days of Wellington. “When Haig rose to the supreme command he could only do what he firmly believed in. All his faith was pinned to cavalry. He considered that all actions should be woven around the cavalry as the decisive arm. A battle without cavalry in pursuit was not a battle. “Passcliendaele was the most terrible war experience in British history. Haig had not realised that Flanders was a defensive and not an offensive area. Though he fought there in 1914 he had not learned that mud was Britain’s greatest ally in repelling the German advance. It should surely have been obvious that if we attacked in 1917 the mud would change sides.” Simultaneously with Major-General Fuller’s address Major-General SollyFlood issued a statement refuting the attacks on Haig. He claimed that the diplomatic and not the tactical situation rendered the Passchendaele offensive necessary, and that Marshal Petain supported the plan.