The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-11-03

aggressive attitude on the side of Great Britain's enemies and that Great Brit ain should be prepared to give it's friends in the Balkans all the support in it's power in a manner most welcome to them
 longer the policy of the government and
 that there were no plans to this end he severed his connection with the cabinet,
 writing to Premier Asquith to that ef- | feet October 12.
 Sir Edward said he decided to, resign as he could not support the conclusion
 reached by the war council of the cabinet the day before He quoted Sir Edward Grey's statement made in the house on September 2s, promising the allies sup port to Servia. and read part of his let ter to the premier:
 Will Support Servia Il cannot understand how England can abandon Servia to her fate without na- tional dishonor. Even if we are not so bound in honor, such a course would, in my judgment, be the policy of despair and an admission of failure which could only be justified after every other al- ternative had been abandoned Bulgaria will be given a free hand to crush our ally. All hope of inducing Roumania | to come to Servia's assistance will have been abandoned, and she may even find it to her interests to join our enemies Greece to follow the policy of the King | rather than venizelos and his major | ity in the chamber The loss to our | prestige will be incalculable and very grave menace to our western empire" l The former attorney general told MT. 1 Asquith that he was quite aware of the | difficulties suggested by the general staff, hit ho ba fa1t tl,o+ were concentrated at Saloniki and the naval power used, it would demonstrate | that England had resolved to preserve their country for the Servians. The re- | suit would be that Bulgaria would be weakened in her power to crush Servia, | the Anglophile and anti-Turk parties In | Bulgaria would be strengthened and en- couraged. Roumania would be more | likely to helN and the policy of venizelos
 would be gresfy stimulated.
 AS regards Greece, think" he con- tinued, ''vigorous efforts should be made
 to compel her to fulfill treaty obliga- tions. It was at her invitation that we
 sent troops to Saioniki in conjunction with the French and we shall be ren-
 dered ridiculous in the eyes of the pow
 CTS if we are compelled to withdraw and
 be placed in a position of dshonor to- ward Servia. Greece-the Kings party l is afraid of the central powers We /. ought to make her afraid of us. Our 1 naval supremacy enables us to do this and for my part I would not hesitate to
 inform her that unless she was prepared
 to joint the allies In defense of Servia we
 would break off friendly relations. | 'The policy of the war committee
 seems to me to lead to no helpful re- suit. I could understand a policy Him.
 iting all action to the western theatre 1 snd risl1ing all our resources there, which l is, think, in reality what the war staff
 suggests. and in that way relieve the
 situation in the east But to send an
 army to Egypt to await action which
 may or may not be possible on the report 1 of general sent to Gallipoli seems the most futile and hesitating decision that
 we could come to and one calculated merely to lead to further dissipation of our forces.
 l T do not believe that when Germany has gained access to the lines of com
 munication to Constantinople it will be
 possible to maintain our efforts in Gal l lpoli. Indeed I doubt very much whether
 our troops can stay there until that event happens.
 This matter is, in my opinion, put
 with unanswerable force in the memoran- | dunn of Mr. Bonar Law. May I, in con- clusion, say, to avoid any misconception.
 that I am entirely in accord with your policy that the war must be fought to
 an end at any sacrifice and until we
 have brought it to successful conclu-
 sion.''
 l With respect to the Dardanelles opera tions, Sir Edward said he could not un-
 derstand how at the very time of short
 age of ammunition, the government took
 on such 8 military expedition. which had
 hung "around our necks like mulstone
 all these months.''
 He did not believe the government was l justified in entering on that expedition
 which had cost 100000 men in casualties, and suffering which baffled description,
 unless they had assurances from their
 naval and military advisers that they
 were likely to carry the expedition to a successful conclusion.
 l Was there ever such a state of mis- calculations" he exclaimed. "as those l in the Dardanelles?"