GENERAL TOWNSHENDS' EXPEDITION.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5446, 1 June 1916, Page 6

GENERAL TOWNSHENDS' EXPEDITION.

Till-1 GOVERNMENT WARNED. Electric Telezranb —Press Association London, Last Night. A White Paper containing Mesopotamia correspondence shows that General Towndiend warned the Government that r. tIIC.V desired to occupy Bagdad two divisions were necessary. “I am taking a grave risk in moving on Bagdad with my weak division alone,’ writes General Townshend, r ‘as the Turks will doubtless send reinforcements.

The ’White Paper shows that neither the Home Government nor the Government of India wore aware of General Townshend’s so-called protest. Mr Austen Chamberlain made enquiries in consequence of circulating in London, and found that General Towndiend s statement had been entered in the Mar Diary of the Sixth Division on October 3 to the effort that it was absolutely necesHiirv, if the advance from Tint is to be carried out methodically, that two divisions should he employed oxchi-ivo of the garrisons onlineof communication. About the time General Nixon received General Townshend’s report General Nixon hoard that another division was coming to Mesopotamia, and coin - munieatod the faht to General Townshend. The War Office decided on October 24 that two further div.sions should he sent from France. Major-General Kemball twice visited General Townshend by aeroplane in October and November, but gave General Nixon no inkling that Genei al Townshend was doubtful regarding fine adequacy of his force. General Nixon says that he considered the despatch <r. two divisions f ill - filled General Townshend’s conditions. "When Mr Chamberlain rqcontly asked General Townshend his rooollection of the matter General Townshend said that he was certainly tubing a giitve .riffle in man Wing t* Bagdad with one weak division, whereof the British battalions had been reduced by half their strngth. Having called General Nixon’s attention to the risk ho said: <( My conscience is clear, T am prepared to J carry out orders. Tb is contrary to disclipino to protest in the full souse and meaning of the word.’ General Townshend adds that in tho first instance ho contemplated getting to Bagdad.