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Show ENGLISH STAFF INCOMPETENT Charge Made by Baron St. Davids in the House of Lords. London, Nov. 16. 010 p m. Charges Char-ges of incompetency and neglect of their work were brought against the British staff in France by Baron St. Davids in the house or lords UiIb evening, eve-ning, when he asked the government whether Its attention had been called to the reports alleging that during tho recent fighting there had been many complaints as to the failures of tho staff work. Lord SL Davids asserted that men had been added to the staff for no military reasons who ought to bo In the trenches, and that he had been told that the British headquarters Ftaff was five or six times" as large as that of General Joffre. the French commander in chief. It had been stated, he continued, that women visited vis-ited headquarters in France, and he asked whether tho government defended de-fended their presence there. Too Much Bridge. The people were sending their sons out to fight under tho direction of men who. he declared, were living at headquarters in vast numbers, and could not get up early to their offices of-fices because they were up late playing play-ing bridge. "It Is about time," said Lord St. Davids, "that the men were given a fair chance. More than once the troops have broken the German lines, but, owing to bad staff work, the whole thing fell through. Many lives have been sacrificed owing to muddling mud-dling in blgh places." The Marquis of Crewe, Lord Privy Seal, replied that the allegation that success at Loos had been missed owing ow-ing to the failure to bring up reserves at the right time was the subject of an inquiry between the highest flltthnHf Ips that rnnM Vr lm'nTrn1 Baron Newton, who said he was unable un-able to disclose the number of the British staff defended It, as djd also Viscount Haldane, tne former secretary secre-tary for war. Denial is Made. Lord Haldane declared that Lord St Davids had launched his attack without adequate information. "It Is true." ho said, "that the country has suffered owing to the want of an organized general staff. Nevertheless, Neverthe-less, there has been evolved a gen eral staff of the highest order. To say the work of the staff Is a falluro is to say something which Is verv far from the truth. As for Field Marshal French, he is up at 6 o'clock in the morning. A The Marquis of Crewe said that from his knowledge of Field Marshal French he thought it exceedingly unlikely un-likely that he would submit to having hav-ing persons forced upon his persona) staff. Lord Crewe had no hesitation hesita-tion in saying that unless women had business at headquarters they ought not to go there. |
