HAIG DEFENDED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20508, 9 January 1935, Page 7

HAIG DEFENDED.

General Godley Attacks Lloyd George. Per Press Association. OAMARU, January 8. Addressing returned soldiers at Oamaru this morning, General Sir Alexander Godley said he hoped that the people of the Dominion would give no credence to the attack made by Mr Lloyd George on Earl Haig, which was scurrilous and wholly unwarranted. The Passchendaele attack w-as forced upon the British command by- circumstances. The French army had,suffered so sorely- at Verdun and elsew-here that it w-as unable, for the time being to put up substantial resistance. Somebody- had to fight, the duty devolving on the British. Unfortunately the weather during the first attack on Passchendaele militated against success, but no headquarters could be held responsible for the weather. When the first effort failed the French Command besought Haig to persevere in order to give the stricken French armies breathing space for recovery. Haig could not but acquiesce. If the enemy- had not. been kept heavily- engaged in the north he w-ould have marched through to Paris, and the war would have been over. In reference to losses suffered bythe Fifth Army-, General Godley said that owing to the w-eakness of the French troops, the British were compelled to take over a great!v-extended portion of the line. The Fifth Army was thus drawn so thin that it was unable to withstand the battering imposed by the much more numerous enemy- forces.

There was no finer effort in the w-ar than that of General Gough in holding up the advance on his front. Mr Lloyd George was aware of the conditions. and his censure therefore was difficult to underfstand. In 1918 the whole of the Allies’ campaign was planned at British headquarters. and although Field-Marshal Forh w-as nominallv in command, the policy was that of Haig and his staff. When Haig’s complete memoi/s came to be written, and full light throw-n on the history of the war. vindication of the British commander-in-chief w-ould be complete and gratifying.