LORD HALDANE.

Northern Advocate, 12 May 1915, Page 6

LORD HALDANE.

ON LE.SSONH OP THE WAX

Viscount Haldane (the Lord Chancellor), who presided at a lecture given by Sir A. Conan Doyle iv Loudou recenth', saiii he always thought it was

iv vain to try w sp'.-cuiute about what was incomplete. It was only at'tor a campaign was finished that it could be seen in its proportion and meaning. We were still in the middle ox the campaign, and there was very little that, so far, we could be certain of. But. there was one moral which he thought we could draw already. There were those who said, and said quite truly, "Here are the enemy in possession of a part of France—and a very substantial part of France—and nearly the whole of Belgium. Surely that ia a marked success.'" But when one pondered on what Sir Arthur had put before them, what was the deeper meaning of all they saw? Why, that all these successes of the enemy were gained at an early stage- We were dealing- with an enemy who had chosen his own moment and who had prepared for it, and an enemy in that position had an enormous advantage over those who could not have divined and who could not have anticipated the precise moment and method of attack. The -Uack always had an, advantage in the nrst instance. SIR JOHN FRENCH'S STUDIES.

But then, continued Lord Haldane, see how things go. The enemy was dealing in the first place with a British Army, the commander of which, to my intimate personal knowledge, had been studying the possibilities of a campaign like this for five years before, or more. Sir John French's chief interest was what we all hoped might never be the ease, but what we knew might prove to be the case, that he might have, to command an expeditionary force, and h e had given the closest study of his life to the possibilities of the future., Wo had given him troops which were trained, ont for two or three years, but many of them for four or five years—perhaps the finest troops in the world. The quality of the cavalry, of the infantry, of the artillerywas shown during that retreat -from Mons.' Nothing but a force of the highest discipline, led by a man with a thorough grasp of the situation, knowing what lie meant to accomplish, could have brought of that retreat under the extraordinary difficult circumstances in which it was taken, in the face of overwhelmingly superior numbers. General Joffit? and Sir John French accomplished thfir task, when they brought the enemy to a point at I which General Joffre shot the army out from Paris and got upon the right flank of Yon Kluck. Then all that part of the enemy's success came to an end. (Cheers). THE EAELY PERIOD.

The Germans' device made for their success in the early period, because no one could divine their numbers and equipment, which for some months preceding they had accumulated by their war loan. Nobody could divine it, and nobody could have stopped it at once, but by degrees the forces of the British and the French —and the French had fought magnificently in this war— (cheers) —began to establish a dam, and it was only when we got to the 25th of October that the war entered upon another phase. Then the British force had got round to the left of the Allies' line by one of the most marvellous pieces of staff work ever recorded iv military history. The enemy did not know until ten days after the movement was well under way, and the movement made the battle of Yprcs a possible battle One now heard what an oxtremelv critical battle that was.

If the Germans at the beginning had conceived the plan of going to the coast —well, they might possibly. have succeeded in doing so. At any rate, the position would have been a very difficult one to meet.

Tho moral of the lecture was to bring ont quite clearly the extraordinary success of the British and French armies in checking tho advance which occurred early in the campaign, and which had attained no new results of late. We might not have as many trained men as before. We have lost some of the flower of the British Army on the battlefied, but we have got today larger forces readily absorbed, even though they were newer and younger men, among the seasoned men who had been at the front since the commencement of the war and who had great experience. To that extent, at all events, it was on our side. In the meantime we should reflect on such lessons as we had listened to that night, should take courage and remember that tho essential for victory in this war was an absolutely united nation determined to throw ita whole resources, and the energies of ©very man and woman in it, into the scale at this most critical period of our history. (Loud cheers). :