The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-11-07


potamia. In short and In general. so
far as Lloyd Georges Government was
concerned. the conclusion is inescap-
able that 1t muddled through. thanks
to the British people and their army
and navy. Naturally he falls foul of
the censor; seldom does 1t happen
that his comment sees the light as
written. His book, however, makes
ample amends for any censorship he
may have suffered from during the
war
1t will be. of course, for professed
students of the war to say whether
he was in all cases right or not. How
ever this may be, he opens with
smart slap at the French G. g. On
Aug. IL. 1914, he published a map
showing the concentration Of the Ger
man armies on the French frontier,
and he permits himself to say that If
the French staff, who, on Aug. 10,
were in possession of the information
on which his map was based, had only
drawn proper conclusions therefrom,
they could have held their left defen-
sively from Namur through Brussels
to Antwerp" Sin cooperation with the
Belgian and British armies" and sc
would never have lost western Bel
GUM, nine departments Of France and
the greater harbor on the Scheldt"
Col. Repington may be right about
this: at any rate inasmuch as the
French did something else we shall
abstain from saying that he is wrong
1t is legitimate, however, to compare
with this announcement his predic-
ton March 16, 1879 in respect of the
expected German offensive. This was
to be prepared by the delivery Of
preliminary attacks at Salonica or in
Palestine to draw away our reserves,
and then a great blow at Italy with
the mass of the Austrians AMI a few
Hun divisions as a spearhead. The
Italians would send up the s O s,
and our troops would have to go to
help, and then the big thing would
come in France when our .eserves
were scurrying about to help In dis
tant theatres" He stands generally
on surer ground than this, and no
better example can be given han his
famous telegram of May IL, 1914. to
the Times on the lack Of high ex-
plosive shells In the British artillery.
The reader must go to the original
for the full account of this telegram,
and of its consequences; AMI there
he will also learn, among other things.
that Lord Kitchener believed the
British army ought to be able TO take
positions without artillery"
In fact, according to Col. Reping-
ton, Kitchener was hopeiessly in fault
about many things. He was ignorant:
of modern military organization and
was alone responsible for the Gallipoli
expedition. Petain criticised him to
the author and disapproved of many
things he had done. Lloyd George,
this wretched Premier of ours" is
even more roughly handled by Colonel
Repington. He persistently misled the
country; the English never really
understood the situation. He told the
Commons that the Allies counted on
"a large American army in the spring"
(of 1879, and affected to believe that
the English were as strong as the
Boches in the West and expected the
attack, and II they messed things up
1t was because they did not know their
business. He was continuously re-
sponsible for the shortage of man
power on the British front. On the
other hand, to him belongs the credit
of having stirred UP America to send
over such masses of men. OF Pershing
Colonel Repington formed a very high
opinion from the start, and in general
we Americans make an excellent i'm
preston on him. Our staff, however.
was weak in certain respects; for ex-
ample, road traffic broke down in the
st. Mihiel battle. but it is admitted
that the Americans can conduct a
great operation" This opinion ap-
parently was not universal. AS for
the British, ION the whole, we (the
British) are the mainstay of the West
ern front and Foch knows IT," Else
where Repington says any ID fool
Che means any commanding general)
will succeed so long as he has a Brit
ish army behind him.
Colonel Repington has written a
book valuable on its public side. But
II is too long: It could profitably have
been reduced by one-half and the
author should have included in the
omitted half all the passages in which
he has violated the canons of decency
and good taste. These violations in
deed will blind the reader to the worth
of the book. No other English author
that we are acquainted with has ever
committed such indiscretions.