OUTSPOKEN WAR BOOK

Taranaki Daily News, 14 August 1930, Page 7

OUTSPOKEN WAR BOOK

ANZAC A PYRRHIC VICTORY. . . x .- ■ • • London, August 5. “The Army in general is quite convinced that Gallipoli was the most damnable folly that ever amateurs were enticed into,” writes Lieutenant-General Sir George MacMunn, who served on Gallipoli and Mesopotamia in the. Great War, in “Behind the Scenes in Many Wars.” which is being published by John Murray.'. .“The cardinal fact that the general.staff jaunted to France and left nobody controlling the affairs of an Em- : pire at war -will be ever remembered. 1 “I have long felt that harder think--ing and a stronger line taken by Sir laa Hamilton would have prevented the venture.”

The author describes Anzac as “a glorious and desperate struggle -which resulted in. a Pyrrhic victory,” and he .says Sir William Bird wood demanded to be. re-embarked, which was refused as impossible. ... Referring to Major-General E. T. Wallach, of the Australian Forces, he says Lord Kitchener sent him to take charge of Mudros Island, with no headquarters pr personnel to help him. Sir George says: “The poor dear wan walking, about with his pockets stuffed with pink telegrams, which he did not know what to do with."

< .Sir George asserts that ho found “in.discipline, dirt and beastliness” in the .British and Anzac lines at Mudros a fortnight before the Suvla landing, while everything in the French lines was orderly and organised. Speaking of post-war conditions in Irak, he observes that “Colonel Lawrence had been pouring out his hot air after setting up jerry-built, principalities on the Hashimite family. King Hussein was the" only card we had to play, , but those., behind the scenes knew the \ futility of his 'family—-fave . Lawrence •iitever so; matlly/b . - .