NOT CORRECT.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VI, Issue 1641, 19 May 1919, Page 7

NOT CORRECT.

LORD FRENCH'S STATEMENTS.

By Cable.—Presi Association.-~Copyright. (A. & N.Z.) LONDON, May IG. Mr Asquifh, in a speech at Newcastle, said he found it difficult, almost impossible, to reconcile some of Lord French's statements with his own recollection of the facts, and contemporaneous documents. \ The living could take care of themselves, but with the dead it was different. "I am constrained," he continued, "in justice to Lord Kitchener's memory, to correct immediately Lord French's account of Lord Kitchener's visit to Paris in the autumn of 1914; It is wholly untrue that Lord Kitchener or the Government contemplated superseding Lord French, but the Government was seriously disquieted by Lord French's communications regarding his intentions. The Cabinet unanimously arrived at important decisions of policy. I entrusted them to Lord Kitchener with the full knowledge and with the approval of my colleagues. Lord Kitchener's: [duty was to convey and explain them to Lord French. Lord Kitchener thereby performed a service of the! greatest value to the country with, as events showed, the happiest results. Full disclosure o£ confidential documents, including Lord French's, letters, will establish all these points in due course, but it is necessary that Lord Kitchener's friends and colleague's should ate at once the aspersions cast on him." ANOTHER INSTALMENT. (A. & N.Z.). LONDON, May 17. [ Lord French, in a furtrlbr instalment of his "Daily Telegraph" story, says the bitter lesson of his failure to cross the river Lys.at the end of October, 1914, convinced him that, under modern conditions, if forces were fairly equally matched, it waspossible to bend, but impossible to beak, the enemy's trench line. As soon as he grasped the truth of this principle, he never failed to proclaim it, but eventually he suffered heavily for holding such opinions. Lord French's articles have provoked increased contreversy. He has the backing of those who disapproved of Lord Kitchener's administration, but a considerable volume of protest has arisen. . Sir George Arthur says the official records, when published in his forthcoming biography, will show that the Paris visit was one of Lord Kitchener's greatest services to the country. Numerous questions have been given notice of in the House of Commons, and efforts are being made to secure a debate.