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Show NOTED WRITER POINTS OUT THE ALLIESEHHORS Colonel Ellis Ashmead-Bart-lett, Eye-witness in Operations, Opera-tions, Declares Dardanelles Darda-nelles Attack Mistake. ANOTHER BLUNDER MADE AT SALONIKI British People Awakened to Tremendous Gravity of the Situation the Censorship Censor-ship Breaks Down. By International News Service. NEW YORK, Jan. 1. Colonel Ellis Ashmead-Bartlott, chief war correspondent corre-spondent at the Dardanelles of the International In-ternational s'ews Service and London Daily Telegraph, was, on account of his character and military knowledge, dispatched dis-patched by the British government as official press eye-witness, all other newspaper correspondents being excluded. ex-cluded. Colonel Ashmead-Bartlott, after the withdrawal of British troops, sailed for New York on furlough. He arrived today. to-day. The following statement by thiB most competent military critic and only eye-witness of the Dardanelles fiasco is his first uncensored statement: By ASHMEAD-BAETLETT. The allies will win the war. There Js no doubt about it; it is only a question of time. There have been many costly mistakes in the management of the British campaign. The most costly blunder was the Dardanelles expedition. The cause of most of these errors was the lack of a general staff. These defects, de-fects, however, are being remedied. England En-gland has only begun. I was in the Dardanelles campaign from start to finish. The naval attack ' upon -the Galll poll peninsula began March 18. The land expedition was put ashore on April 25. I left the Dardanelles &sl October. Since then the British have-withdrawn have-withdrawn all their troops except a corps at the extremity of the peninsula, around Achi-Bsba. The fighting: against the Turks along the shores of the Hellespont cannot be regarded, however, as a defeat for the British. The bravery of the allied troops made a tremendous impression- opon the Turks. I thlnft today the Turks are at heart more friendly to us than the Germans. Ger-mans. They .are fighting for the Teuton Teu-ton cause now chiefly because of fear. Premature Naval Attack. The orimil mistake in the Dardanelles expedition, was 'the .premature naval attack. at-tack. Th'is Immediately warned the Turks of the plans of the a-Utes. Between March 18, when .the naval guns of the entente, powers first bombarded the Turkish coast, and April 5, whftn allied troops were landed', thi . Teuton-Turk forces had ample opportunity 'to strengthen the defenses de-fenses of the Galll poli peninsula. The character of the country upon the neck of land ia extremely Tough. There Are no ruilroads. There are hardly any wag-on roads. The Turk guns had to be-hauled be-hauled into place with great difficulty. If there had been a concerted attack by the allies both on laii und sea, the chances of success wedd have been infinitely in-finitely greater. There were a hnlf dozen of the allied warships sunk in tlie engagement. I was aboard the Majestic when she was snt to the bottom at 6: JO a. m. on May 27, off Cape Ilelles. We had six minutes to quit the ship. Most of us were cq-uipped with inflatable suits. As soon as- they were blown up wc jumped into the water and floated until picked up. Big Ship Badly Battered. The stories of the destruction of the Queen Elizabeth are groundless. True, she was ba.iiy battered, but repairs were soon made and the super-dreadnought wert back to northern waters for service. In the meantime her great jnins have been reHned One of the mist akp? or' the land cam-Continued cam-Continued on Page Two.) ffl! WRITER TELLS OF ERIE BLUNDERS (Cantinued from Page One.) paign, as we are able to look back a! it. was the failure to cut afcroas the rav-danelles rav-danelles at its neck, 'which is the nn r-rnve.t r-rnve.t part. Instead nf that a great oS fensive was undertaken last August ati Suvla Bay and Anzac Cove, where the peninsula is broadest. One drive wast made from Silvia Bay to the east and the other from Anzac Cove to the west. These lines of attack were to eonveige upon the chain of mountains which form the backbone, back-bone, of the peninsula. Put it was in this rne-sred country that the attack broke duwn. i Despite these errors, the Rriifsh have' accomplished much. The remaining Rr!t-iMi Rr!t-iMi forces upon the tip of the peninsula. 1 losciher with a .iiadron of monitors off iiiie const, command absolutely th' Medi- . j terra nean gateway to Constantinople, j KrhiFh submarines are constantly thread- i ing their way anion? mines and nets into j the ?ea of Miu-mora and 'menacing the! Turkish capital. When the day of poa.ee come? the allies have this held upon Tiir- , key which will have to be reckoned with. Saloniki Blunder. j The Saloniki expedition has been re-ignrded re-ignrded as another blunder by the allies. Yet Iihs nerved its purpose also. Tire, allies al-lies hardly hoped to save Serbia from the ' i-rmanc Bulgarian invasion. The lines of i communication between Saloniki and Ser-, Ser-, ! bin were of the worst possible character, i ' The expedition wan launched for moral 1 : rather than military reasons. At the present pres-ent time tho nllies are entrenched in J Saloniki behind impregnable for-tifleations. . T)te hills Mj'oun,! Saloniki form u natural 'fortress and these have been enoimohsly strengthened. Saloniki will be used as' a j hae of operations from the Aegean. The ; threat of a drive nn l7;gypt is n Teutonic ! bluff. England would hp overjoyed to have ' the Germans throw their strength iuto-the : desert res'ions upon the Asiat ic side of l he Suez cann 1. I T!e canal itself has been fortified, t I 'v-? a rat ions liave been made many J li-'-nrhs in' advance. ftetween tlie cena'l , and the present basis of German-Turkish I pcrations lies the qreat. Sinai desert. The chief line of communication between I';i;ptinc- aixl the canal is the caravan '.onto along the coast. ft i? about 1 3-0 :ies-ionjr. There is another way further ;:''.tuid. but it has no; been much used. daresay '"this roui may have been !voved for expeditionary purpopeft. '"pn heleff?. ;1! talk of an invasion of . : -i.vpt 'through th is territory is pi epos- Germany Beaten. ! j Germany is beaten. She !s now head--:d off pi-a.-i iceliy on sides. Her frame i. on is 'to divert the attack of the allies s'lovn the chief theater 01" the war. She ' i 'Oes to induce the entente forces to Vow their strength a.tai nst other and ,:-.aller su.iU . , As I said. l-jnt;Iand lias only lieyun. ITie : .1-f r reason . that, -tl.i . "Critisii did not : A'.iken sooner to. the- ticrnendous urav-1 urav-1 of ir.e.war was r-ajf- of the British ! . eiisors'.iip. The people vere' kept in the ( 'lark a? tc the misiakes ani weaknesses I o;' their leader?. Tne British censorship . ".. is hi-okcn down of Its own weicht. ; As a result, conscription v il! win f 1 made an issue heioe trie people. A; a '.'teen, lection in Waieshhe cestion v. as 1 . onsi-'i-iption or the emit in ua : ion of the j .'olnnutiy s'Stcm. ron?i rii'iion von. ; ly spring l-.:ngl:. :id v jij have four irii-1 irii-1 i r m Uldi iu the lidd. To to the present j lit:'! '-die n.-er h-o-'t mor rh.in one h 1 ,; M-ii.o'-is on Heine srhe. eltnation of the workings classes to iro to tlie front,, is the tremendous prosperity among all these people. The British mechanic, me-chanic, todav is' earning nearly three times' as much as hefore the war.; M-eri who were fretting thirty shillings ft week then are heing paki ninety shillings. There 16 no doubt that conscription would greatly strengthen the British armies. It would enable the leaders to pick just the men they want. I do not think conscription will force the coalition cabinet out. We will continue to have a coalition cabinet, but it will be reorganized reorgan-ized and unified. |