DARDANELLES

Waipa Post, Volume 37, Issue 2179, 5 July 1928, Page 8

DARDANELLES

fcl> - BOOK.' _.mead - Bartlett's book ■ (writes" Mr H. Charles Woods, the well-known ■ war ' correspondent in the , Evening - Newsfin his review of "The Uncensored' Dardanelles) stands out alone among all other accounts w'hich have 'appeared about the Dardanelles cam- # paign. .. I say this without hesitation, because, knowing the Peninsula of Gallipoli as I do, I am convinced that no other writer has so well and frankly described the' difficulties of the ground, the dramatic events which .- took place, an,d the mistakes t'hat were made. Mr Ashmead-Bartlett was sent to the Dardanelles by -th?e Newspaper ' Proprietors' Association, which carried on all negotiations between the authorities and the Press, .to represent the whole of the London papers. He reached the island of Lemnos, the British base opposite the outer entrance to the Straits, on April 5,' 1915, roughly a fortnight after the Allied Fleet had failed to force the Narrows and about three weeks before the great landing on the Peninsula of Gallipoli. He came to London (where he had all-important conversations with the leading statesmen of the day) for about a week in June, but otherwise he was actually present from the beginning of military operations until October, 1915, when he was sent home by the authorities as a result of a letter which he had addressed to Mr then Prime Minister', pressing for withdrawal. . Opposed as he is to what took place, and especially to the conduct of the military operations, Mr AshmeadBartlett naturally recognises the importance of the goal in view—a goal which had it been won would have altered the whole course of the war. Moreover, in discussing the broader question of the blam&for what happened he appears to be 1 equally fair. MR CHURCHILL'S PART.

Thus 'he says that "in world events , those who guide the helm must bear \ the responsibility for success or failure. . . . .It is now conceded that Mr Winstone Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, was responsible . for bringing the idea within the I sphere of actual realisation. . . . .Mr J Churchill's responsibility really ends | with, the pressure he brought to % bear on the Cabinet to land an army [, on Gallipoli, and with the failure of ft'the naval attack on March 18, 1915.

"Yet '«.<-■ ha ''-on -tost undeservedly blamed for every "'"check '■ suffered by the, Navy ■ and -for .every reverse our Army•'•ih^t i vj\yith^n'''the v v.fi.eld subsequent to t'hat;'.; 'Nothing could be more remote from the The active operations iof the Navy, acting as an independent force, ended with the repulse of Mar^hVlß." In many \vays the most interesting and astonishing. sections of the volume are those which deal with Mr Ashmead-Barlett's conversations with prominent personages at home.