The telegram to-day containing the mews of General Townshend's resignation from the Army brings to light another of the unexplained things of the war. If we remember aright General Townshend made his advance to Ctesiphon under protest, In a letter he went the length of stating that as he got further away. from the sea the men "had their tails down" and since then it has been fully admitted that the force at his disposal, as he himself recognized and stated. was inadequate for the objects assigned to him. When after his victory at Ctesiphon he retired and was surrounded at Kut, he fought a very gallant defence. and it was not the enemy but the floods which prevented his relief. He held out so long as it was humanly possible to do, and small wonder that he now feels a deep grievance against the powers. His position appears all the stronger from the fact that after the Kut disaster Sir Charles Monro was, taken from the command of the Ist Army in France and made Commander-in-Chief in India, which, according to the " Spectator," was done in order to reorganize the Mesopotamian expedition on a sounder basis. The case of General Gough is in nian respects similar to that of General Townshend, the principal difference being that the former latterly held a command in Russia. but in neither case has any adequate reason been given for the treatment meted out. Yet our policians blundered with the most astonishing impunity.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.