THE DARDANELLES.

Western Star, 3 February 1922, Page 3

THE DARDANELLES.

BLUNDER OF THE STRATEGISTS

SPEECH BY SIR lAN HAMILTON

i LONDON, February 1. Sir lan Hamilton, speaking at Glasgow, at a dinner given by the officers of the Fifty-second Division, asserted that the unrest in India and Egypt was due jto Britain’s failure, to,, force the Dardanelles and take Constantinople. Had the strategy of the .campaign received the same: thought as tactics the relief of Russia ’by strategy would have received as much consideration as the support of France, which as carried out was a tactical operation. The capture of the Dardanelles would then have been undertaken as part of a considered plan with full conviction. Tactical efforts like those of'Lord French andi Marshall Joffre and Foch would have been restricted, and with. the munitions thus saved they should have taken Constantinople and given themselves unlimited war power. “But the Dardanelles/’ he. eontihued, “was never mote'than; the brilliant flash .of a great man’s imagination. It' did not come off, yet here we are to testify that it nearly came off. Now we come to the consequences. Many people have been surprised to see unrest increasing in Egypt and India. It seemed strange that our prestige should 1 sink in the eyes of Orientals at the very moment of victory. The present generation have forgotten that the Indian Mutiqy followed on the heels of the Crimean victory, and was caused not by victory, but by repealed stories of our military weakness, which preceded that long delayed victory. No wonder there is unrest. What happened once may happen twice. That is what Egypt and India are thinking.