MR ASQUITH'S REPLY.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 11850, 5 June 1919, Page 5

MR ASQUITH'S REPLY.

JSLLOUSNESB DENIED. IS CONTROVERSY PROBABLE. ■tod Press Association —By Eleo* Wc Tel egrapli—Copyright. London, June 3. Asquith, speaking at a comseatary luncheon, replied to ■oients in Lord French’s hook. Asquith complained that Lord had been given access to offi - ;Wd confidential documents to against men whose l »ete closed, some ‘by death, ®by official restraint It was •Pint breach of the best tradithe public service. None than Lord French that ®Mge against the Liberal Govjjprt of callousness in failing to sufficient guns and shells was foundation. Documents would be published shorlty prove Lord French’s account N Kitchener’s visit to Paris

I 6 real facts. Prior to the des?of Lord Kitchener to Paris, Reach’s intended movements Cabinet with consternathe Parisian Government the French army was going in the lurch. 'Asquith flatly denied Lord r®'B assertion that he advocated instead of shrapnel war. Mr Asquith quoted showing that headed asked the Government in

1914, to reduce the perof high explosives from 50 s?f to 25 per cent. Mr Asquith ? Lord Kitchener’s letter, c 3 ou the eve of the famous speech, in which he said tad told him that with the gt supply of ammunition he S ? av o as' much as the troops k able to fire for the next ?■ Mr Asquith accepted full for Lord French’s reyoich had no more to do with ' ‘taii the eclipse of the moon. Asquith said Lord French’s

movements of the army, Kitchener’s visit, fil- ® Cabinet with consternation. have left France in the jr* a moment of extreme need, Government shared this Between Sepetmber 1914 forces in the field were fourfold and munitions S r °ld. Manufacturers g 4 a much larger output of f® 8 fLan they actually sup-

Mr Asquith concluded by reading Lord French’s private letter of May, 1915, stating that in the whole of the history of the war no Commander in Chief has been helped in a difficult task by the head of a Government as I had been supported and strengthened by yonr unfailing sympathy and encouragement. COMMENTS OH FRENCH’S STATEMENT. SOME INTERROGATIONS. Loudon, June 3. The Westminster Gazette recalls Lord French’s eulogy of Lord Kit* chener in the House of Lords on June 20th, 1916, “yet persecution has again lifted its ugly head.” The Gazette asks whether Lord French did not intend to retire on his base and leave the French army in the lurch; whether the French Government did not protest earnestly, and Cabinet thereupon deputed Lord Kitchener to personally convey to Lord French their decision that he should not retire as proposed. Apart from anti-Kitchener and the Northcliffe press, newspapers generally consider Mr Asquith has dissipated Lord French’s accusations. They especially draw attention to Lord French’s eulogy of Mr Asquith three days after the Liberal Government’s fall, whereas Lord French now states that he engineered the fall in order to save the country from ruin.