Arizona republican., 1917-01-05
SOCIETY WOMAN
 |S INVOLVED IN
 ARMY SCANDAL
Republican A. p. Leased WireJ

in, olvng the exercise of influence over high officers by a prominent 1 society woman is described in the re-
 port of court of inquiry tonight and | Mrs. Cornwallis West, wife of Colonel | William Cornwallis West, and mother of the Princess of Pless and of the Duchess of Westminster, is officially i severely censured
 The late Sir Arthur Basil Markham, liberal member of parliament. for the Mansfield division of Nottinghamshire
 who died last August, demanded an | inquiry in the house of commons into this matter and was seconded by
 Irish members, who declared that a
 young Irish officers honor was in i volved. It has since developed that | the officer was Lieutenant Patrick Barrett of the Welsh fusiliers. According to a statement in the
 house of commons before recess, he
 was completely exonerated, his com manding officer, Lieutenant Colonel ] Define Radcliffe, was removed from 1 his command, and General Sir John 1 Cowans was censured, but was re- ! tained because of his good work ! General Owen Thomas, who also was l concerned, was vindicated
 Barrett was a sergeant in the Welsh 1 fusiliers. Colonel Define Radcliffe and | | commission late in 1915 and his claims l were supported by Colonel and Mrs. l Cornwallis West and several promin- l ent civilians.
 | Probably before this time and cer
 tainly later" says the report, Mrs 1 Cornwallis West began to take more ! than an ordinary interest in MT Bar 1 rett. to which he consistently failed | to respond. Eventually he wrote her ] ira ENaf.V aFr~ net lat s,f 1 trance which she placed in the hands of his commanding officers" 1 Barrett was severely censured by ! his commander without the opportun- | ity of stating his case. Soon after : that he was transferred 10 another l battalion on the demands of Mrs. | COrnwalls West General Cowans 1 who aided the Cornwallis Vests h. securing Barrett's transfer. is censured | for interfering with discipline. General 1 W. H. Mackinnon, who also was con- cerned in the correspondence. 1t criti-
 cised for interfering with the affairs | of the western command after he re- 1 linquished his command. but is not disciplined because he has since re- i tired.
 The court of inquiry reports re- garding Mrs. Cornwallis West:
 We have TO doubt that her in ] IuultlOuS DOdSllIS Ol lIlt power Sut
 wielded at the war office-which was
 confirmed to an appreciable extent by
 the wording of some of Sir John ! Cowan's letters-was calculated to i bring him and the administration at
 the war office into disrepute. We feel 1 obliged to record our opinion that this ladys conduct, as revealed in this
 case, has been highly discredtable | both in her behavior towards Second Lieutenant Barrett before his letter of | the fourteenth of February. in her
 vindicative attempts to injure him
 afterward and in the untruthful evil l dcnce she gave before us.
 f It appeared in the evidence that this lady holds positions of some i'm
 portance in the county of Denbigh-
 shire in various associations of a
 public character for assisting in war
 work. Tn our opinion it is to be re- gretted that she should hold such positions"
 The court also investigated reports that General owen Thomas who took prominent part in recruiting in Wales. was tranferred from the com
 mand of d Welsh brigade to lesser
 command through Mrs. Cornwallis
 Vests influence. This proved to be i unfounded but due to an unfortunate
 sequence of events and the ambiguous wording of certain official letters.
 The report says that Colonel Wynne Edwards reflected on General Thomas. who is a brigade commander in a
 letter to Mrs. Cornwallis West. with
 the apparent object of exalting his
 own qualifications for the post Mrs. : Cornwallis West sent the letter to
 General Cowans with a postscript
 which he forwarded to Lieutenant General Sir William Pitcairn Campbell of the war office, advising him to keep
 an eye on Edwards and expressing a
 high opinion of him.
 The report calls attention to the
 fact that it is contrary to the regula
 tions for a war office official to enter
 into private correspondence on offi-
 cial matters