"Tue, Wow Cnisis."—B; Goprehle AN Ceticon! By Lord Seman, "Admiral 5 inal "That prodigies many exist, is but, humanly speaking, improbable that any one per son should posses sufficient detailed knowledge to enable him to pass final judgments on all the ixtricate problema that arose during the Great War.
Im that sentence, taken from Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon's chapter on "Mr. Churchill and Jutland," is to be found a succinct explanation and justification of this "Criticism" of Mr. Churchill's chef dauvre—characteristic of Mr, Churchill that, in the scanty leisure of a Chancellor of the Exchequer, he should have undertaken not only a history of the Great War, but the responsibility of passing final judgments on all who took part in it. "Why, man, doth bestride the world like a Colossus." In these days of specialization. lesser folk are content to affect authority in one particular domain of human affairs. Without misgiving, Mr. Churchill takes the whole world, and all that therein is, for his province; and it seems quite a natural thing to him to teach Generals and Admirals their business. Lord John Russell, of whom it was said that he would have taken command of the Channel Fleet without a moment's hesitation, was a diffident person compared with Mr. Churchill.
As he pronounces lastly en each deed Of so\much heaven expect thy med, The Critic Criticized Of all the achievements associ Mr. Churchill's t notable, Fu-for whom the Great War is but a tale that is told, will certainly turn to "The World Crisis" as to a classic, and ie is well, therefore, that they should have the means of correctin, not the irresistible impression of its vivid narrative, but the fallacies on which some of its most ennfident Judgmenta are based. For this unexceptionable purpose a book has just been published which collates a few of the most authoritative eritiisms that have been passed on Mr. Churehill's assumptions and conclusions. Some of these critical exercises have been published before, but the most telling of them—that of Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon the Battle of Jutland—has not.
Together they form not only an indispensable appendix to "The World ating stady ut of the Great Tt isnot surprising that Mr. Churchill should be shown to be so fallible. It is his weakness that he cannot recognize his own lim! tions. He has great gifts of which self-confidence is rot the least, and it does not occur to him that there is anything he cannot know. For most writers it would have been enough to attempt the story of the War. For Mr. Churchill that was but the opportunity for criticizing Generals and Admirals, and for showing where they went wrong, and what they would have done if they had been vouchsafed the hizher knowledge-of their critic. "The World Crisis" leaves the render with the impression that it was nothing short of a national eslamity that Mr. Winston Churchill was not, as well as Prime Binister, in supreme command of the Army and the Navy.
That impression is much modified by this volume of criticism. To begin with, Sir Charles Oman's analysis of Mr. Churchill's figures relating to "the German losses on the Somme" knocks the bottom out of the calculations on which Mr. Churchill bases his criticisms of the Somme offensive of 1916, Equally damaging is Sir Frederick Maurfee's criticism of Mr. Churchil's estimate of the Battle of the Marne and Joffre's partin it, Sir Frederick makes it clear that in zeal for his picturesque hypothesis Bir. Churchill has not known or ander-stood the facts, and that ha has been cruelly unjust to Joffre, whom hho describes as "the bull-headed, broad - shouldered, slow-thinking phlegmatic, bucolic personage." Mr. Churchill, indeed, has the wesknoss of those portrait painters who care nothing for the likeness if they can make an effective canvas, Out of Action But the most pungent and damag-criticism of Mr. Eh weill comes from Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon, who possesses what is rare in naval officers—an admirable controversial style. As a piece of polemical writing it is difficult to speak' too highly of Sir Reginald Bacon's chapter on "Mr. Churchill and Jutland." With deadly effect this professional critic goes through Mr. Churehill's narrative and conclusions, and, illustrating his argument with a series of maps and plans, points out where Br, Churchill. through lack of practical s training, has fallen into elementary errors and has failed to understand the problem on which he presumes to lay down the law. As Mr. Churchill has not hesitated to take ides very strongly, he cannot be surprised if he is handled severely; and it must be confessed that Admiral Bacon holes him so badly as to put him out of action complete ly, He says:
"In his description and discussion of the Battle of Jutland the majority of his data is entirely incorrect. Indeed, his account of that battle might well, without exageration, be described as a tissue of factual inexactitudes.
And the writer of this sweeping stricture proves it in the course of an argument that completely discredits Mr. Churchill's estimates of the parts played respectively Lord Jellicoe and Lord Beatty. Admiral Bacon insists with telling effect on the picture of Mr. Churchill, seated in his cosy armchair: with all the post-war maps spread before him, and the German as well as the British accounts of the action available, passing his rashly confident judgments on the dis tion of the Fleet Commanders, and presuming to say not only where they were wrong, but how they should have acted. A fascinating exercise for ong of Mr, Churchill's perament, but one liable, on the part of a landsman, as Admiral Bacon proves, to lead to the most ridiculous conclusions. In cold blood, and in the light of this criti-iam,' even Me. Churchill may feet astounded at his own audacity in setting up as umpire of the Battle of Jutland, Tt used to be said of Me. Gladstone that he seemed to. know everything, except to the person who had studied the subject on which he spoke. Perhaps Mr. Churchill will not be affronted to be compared with Mr. Gludstone—even in this respect—"Morning Post."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.