Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1919-01-21
bRITON SAW WAR AHEAD
As EARLY AS 1906
Lord Haldanc Reveals Prepara-
tions of British and French
6 Years in Adv ancc.

Niscount Ualdanc. former British MIN
lister for War. has made some extremely
interesting revelations of british pre-
war prrparations for possible CON
nict with GERMANY. These preparations
were made ON the initiative at the frchch
government and began as Tar back rs
1905, while the officer IN charge "i Ile
army reorrani7ation was Sr l'ouSlaS
llaIg
The revelations were made IN the
course of a speech AZ bedi 1rd : "l'Rc
for Women. London, where NisCouht
Ualdanc pu,~idrd at a lecture. on Amcr-
Tea and the Mar gwen by Major h; VI
.Johnstonc. professor oi history at llar-
xard lin,versItV. Nlscount llaldanc SAID !.
I'm th, rrcat spcych winch SIR Edward
Cre1 made IN tho House of Commons on
August ;, 1911. winch practically an
ununccd The determination 10 90 To
var the then Foreign Minister told n
how he had been approached by the
French government IN January, lNo,
AMI how u was couN cyed to him that
.t.r. = some apprcut nslon of an at
,,cmauv which might menace
Pritish ,tr>ts " hat the French gov
anm ll m effect Wa We don
ID h,nd yourselves. you must be
-. don't a~, ANYTHING unrcason-
bi,. hut II YOU consider their - q pos
sImhty ol your bclnG called on ~ your
own interests to romc g our NiS'2n't
and prcvent the invasion II the northern
p,rt ef France hv Germany. then Il i
wls,, Tor your military authorities and
uurS fa have conversations, without
biudlnr Yourselves ~ any NAY. Win
:, view to seeing what sort ui military as-
slstance YOU can give
In the second rlnrc the French point
cd ont \ on have 4 erea Hcc' anu We
have ! great army uH icct = small.
Nours Is large our army Is large Yours :
small They know We could not have
+ larcc army because We could not rai~c
great compulsory army N pcacc tlmc
unless YOU hsd shout thrty ycars 70 DO
II IN
IT Is very Important u bear N mind
what follow "a upnn those converse tIun~,
winch were On The French initiative and
which were quito informal and unhind-
Ing between the two general stafTs of
rance and t,rcai Britain The upshot
Vas tho putting tn The ircuCh aUthcr-
4I,s st 4 QUESTION ! remember II rc-
,siISe II fcu IL my lot - formulate II
and II Was tli- Tor what exact purpose
VII iMS military assistance he invoked
That = i vrrN important question and
~, winch i generally answered IN .
slScrh ..Ay But the object VAS 20 sec
what Tie problem Was and % scc whether
,t Was capable ~ Sclrtlon. We already
IoSStsSts3 4 great navy and our rr"pic
Were supposed to pe indifferent - The
pu>Sibl't, II wai X vas supposed that
uo preparations had hcen made do
nu think thcS understood } "a dn not
faIk a,,ult th,>e tmrgs The policy vaS
IL ssN nothing that could pn~sii.iN Pm
.akr this appalling rortic'
But We 81 "a u ork ~ 4 what had 20
- dnns Ii was 10; for homo defence.
We werp perfectly defended n home ty
lie fleet and the territorial forces
The answer to the question put %
tic French authorities was that the pur-
r.asc II any BrltIsh army fhaf could lc
nut into the field must ~ 70 supplement
,hc great French ariuy With .rc II nC
enough 10 hold tho Germans i they trtd
- hreak through Belgium Tho ircnch
thought ~ that tlmC that / wo could
contribute lg eco mon within fifteen
davS from the outbreak d war that
would lc enough = enable them with
their GREAT for,hcatlorlS pnd with our
rcorganIzyd aruN ln thor Let, to hold
the position But vhcI we came 70
look into thlncs ~ found that all VIZ
could concentrate was 50 600 men. and
then not under two months and 4 half
The Frcncl SAID Ne should hc dead
Icfor, that Tins colmtry therefore So,
ItSeli uut to effect revolution That revo-
lutIon was made under Slr Douglas Haig
and number cf other officers who have
since DISTINGUISHED themselves IN the
var. and som, others who have passed
away. al Of whom worked night and day
fer the purpose of putting our army for
he first time IN rs HISTORY on q war foot
inc ~ peace tImc 50 that i might te
nei5hzo4 with tho utmost rspldi-y
"In the end We were able 70 increase
the lrenCh estimate hv giving them not
IOa 0b0 men but 100 600 not IN fifteen
,laV- but twelve DAYS | d. not think the
public knew when We mohllIzed our
army. but ! will tell you now We mo
blhzed az IL @ clock ou the morning Of
Monday, August 8 thlrty-sIx hours be-
fore we declar war Mobilization Is
not a declaration 81 war Ii desired YOU
can mobilize IN time OF peace IN order 10
be prepared for war Within few hours
after the declaration 81 war the expcdI-
tlouarv force. with Ii, aid OF the navy,
Ma across the Channel before anybody
knew II. Indeed the frsi detachment
WA over within nine days, instead Of
twelve That was one OF the res Its Of
putting a definite question as 70 what
purpose the British army was needed
Tor aud working out the answer