WHEN WE MOBILISED.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 1175, 19 February 1919, Page 6

WHEN WE MOBILISED.

36 HOURS BEFORE WAR WAS DECLARED. UR DOUGLAS HAIG’S FEAT. Another war secret has been revealed by Lord Haldene, who declares that the British Army was mobilised 86 hours before England declared war. Ha related the facts when presiding at a London lecture by Major M. Johnstone, Professor of History at Harvard. It was obvious, he said, when it became a question of the British aiding the French that the presence of a British “Army, must be to supplement the French Army and the French thought at the outbreak of the § war that if we could contiibnte 100,000 men in good formation to their shores within fifteen days of the outbreak ’of war that would be enough to enable them with their great fortifications to hold the position, Wnen we came to lock into the matter we found we could not concentrate that number, and wo then made a revolution, under the gnid ance of Sir Douglas Haig and other officers, since distinguished in"ths war, who worked night and day. with the result,that we pat 160,000 men in France not within 15 days, but within 12 days. “I do not think people know when we mobilised,” ■he added. “I will tell you. There is no need to keep it a secret now. We mobilised at 11 o’clock on Monday. 3rd August, 36 hours before we declared war. We were then all ready, and within a few hours after we declared war the British Expeditionary Force ware, _ with the aid of our splendid Navy, right across the Channel. The concentration was made in nine days.” In the earlier part of hia speech Lord Halaane said that the speech of Sir Edward Grey in the House on 3rd August, 1914, was practically the announcement of England to go into the war, and Sir Edward told how he had been appoachei by the French Gevenment in January, 1906, and how it was conveyed to him that there was apprehension of an attack from . Germany which might menace .British interests. “We set to work to develop what had to be done It was not home defence. We were perfectly defended at home by command of the sea, by our overwhelming fleet, and by the Territorial .forces. But here came the question and the answer. The answer was that the purposes of any British Army must be to supplement the great French Army with a force strong enough to hold She Germans if they should ever try to breakthrough u certain part of Belgium. ”