New Britain herald., 1917-03-08
BRITAIN CONNECTICUT. THURSDAY, oz-TEN PAGES.
BLAME PLACED FOR
 GALLIPOLI fIASCO

I UHkklA ULI llnUUU Absence of Cooperation Between l War Chiefs Held Responsible lL0RD FISHER CENSURED
 Victor in JutIasad Rattle Should Have l Expressed His Opinion, Commission l Believes Expedition Shown to Be
 Poorly Planned Movements
 London. March s.-The Dardanelles expedition as far as Great Britain was
 concerned was undertaken ol. the in-
 itative of Col winston Spencer
 Churchill. then first lord of tho ad-
 miralty.s according to majority re- port of the commission appointed to inquire into the responsibility for the expedation which was issued today.
 Ihe report summarizes the conclu- slons reached as follows:
 The question of attacking the Dar- daneiies was, on the initiative of MT. l Churchill. brought under the con- Mderation of the war council on No I vember 25. 1S16,.as the ideal method l of defending Egypt. 1t may reasons aDiy De assumed that inaSm, ,ach as all tne authorities Included were prima facie in favor of a joint military rather than . purely naval attack. such ar4attack. If undertaken at all. would have been of the former rather than of the latter character had not other circumstances led to a modification of the program. .,
 communication from the Rus saan government of Jan. introduced fresh element into the case. The British government considered that 1t must be done in response to 1t and In this conn6ction the question of attacking was again raised.
 Troops Available. The secretary Of state for war de- ciared that there were no troops available for operations in the east, and his statement was accepted by the war council, who took no steps to satisfy themselves by reports of estimates, as to what troops were available then or In the near future. Had this been done. the commission ers think. it would have been as-. sured that sufficient troops would be available for Q joint military and naval operation at an earlier date than supposed. but this 4aAtsr was not edequateiy investigated by the
 
 fote the war council on Ian. 8 wAs whether action should be taken by the fleet at once, the navy being held to be the only force available.
 Political arguments which were adduced to the war council in favor of a prompt and effective action, if such were practicable. were valid and of the highest importance, but the practicability of what action was proposed was of equal importance. Mir. Churchill at once appears to have been advocating an attack by ships before the war councily on as.certain amount of half-hearted and hesitating expert opinion which favored ten tative or progressive scheme, being an attack upon outer forts. This at-s tack, if successful, was to be, fol. lowed by further operations against the main defenses of the Narrows There does not appear to have beer direct support or direct opposition from the responsible naval and mill itary advisers, Lord Fisher and Sir James Wolfe Murray, az to the prac- ticability of carrying on the opera tions as approved by the war council. vix to lombard and take the Galn- poll peninsula with Constantinople as the object.
 Opinions From Fisher.
 ..The first sea lord and Sir Arthur Wilson, who was the only naval ad- wiser present at the war council. ex- pressed no dissent. Lord Kttchiner, who occupied commanding position at the time the decision was taken. was in favor of the project Both Lord Fisher and Sir Arthur Wilson would have preferred a joint naval and military attack, but they did not express to the war council. and were not asked to express any opinion on the subject, and offered no objection to the naval operations; as they con- sidered them experimental and such as could be discontinued if the first results obtained were not satisfactory. The commissioners think that there was an obligation, first on the first lord secondly on the prime minister. thirdly on one other member of the war council. to see that the views of the naval advisers were clearly put before the council and that the naval advisers should have expressed their views to the council, whether asked or not, if they considered the project which the council was about to adopt was impracticable from naval naval point of view.
 Looking at the position which ex- isted on Jan. IS, 1915, the commits sioners do not think the war council were Justified in coming to the de-