PASSCHENDAELE BATTLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22003, 9 January 1935, Page 13

PASSCHENDAELE BATTLE

HAICt'S policy defended

reply to criticism

VIEWS CF GENERAL GODLEY

[BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] OAMARTT. Tuesday

In addressing returned soldiers at Oaniaru this morning General Sir Alexander God ley said lie hoped the people of the Dominion would give no credence to the attack made by Mr. Lloyd George on the late Field-Marshal Earl Haig The attack was scurrilous and wholly unwarranted. The Passchendaele offensive was forced upon the, British command by circumstances, said Sir Alexander. Ihe French Army had suffered so sorely at Verdun and elsewhere that it was unable for the tihie being to put up any substantial resistance. Somebody had to fight, the duty devolving on, the British. Unfortunately the weather during the first attack at Passchendaele militated against success, but no headquarters could be held responsible for the weather. When the first effort failed the French command besought Field-Marshal Haig to persevere in order to give the stricken French armies breathing space for recovery. Field-Marshal Haig could not but acquiesce. for if the enemy had not been kept heavily engaged in the north they would have marched through to Paris and the war would have been over. Reference to' the losses suffered by the Fifth Army was made by Sir Alexander, who said that, owing to the weakness of the French troops, the British were compelled to take over a greatly extended portion of the line. The Fifth Army was thus drawn so thin that it was. unable to withstand the battering imposed by much more numerous enemy forces. There was no finer effort in the war than that of General Gough in holding up the advance on his front. Mr. Lloyd George was aware of the conditions, continued Sir Alexander, and his censure was therefore difficult to understand. In 1918 the whole of the Allies' campaign was planned at British headquarters, and although Marshal Foch was nominally in command the policy was that of FieldMarshal Haig and his staff. When Field-Marshal Haig's complete memoirs came to be written and full light was thrown on the history of the war the vindication of the British Commander-in-Chief would be complete and gratifying-