PASSCHENDAELE SIR, —I read with interest Mr. John Terraine's excel-
lent article on Passchendaele, and later the two letters —one from General Sir Douglas Baird and the other a reply from Mr. Terraine. I was really sorry to see two of my father's supporters falling out over so little. I know that both understood the various and complex factors which led up to the battle, and both agreed with Lord Trenchard's estimate : 'Tactically it was a failure, but strategically it was a success, and a brilliant success.'
I think General Baird's only criticism of the article was on the grounds of emphasis, and that, as he understood it, right through from the early stages of the plans to the times when the weather was making the execution of the plans so difficult and the casual- ties more appalling even than was anticipated, my father was haunted by the fear of French collapse. General Baird would agree with Mr. Terraine that various causes led to the preparation of a battle at that time. When it came to the actual moment of launching the battle, whatever the various other con- siderations, such as dealing a death-blow to a reeling enemy or waiting for the Americans or regaining the Channel ports, may have been (and General Baird. as much as anybody must know about the complexity of those considerations), the low state of French morale and the enemy massing opposite the French gave my father no alternative but to carry out the plans.
General Baird believes that the weakness of the French was the reason why the Passchendaele plans could not for any reason whatever be scrapped, and the battle had to be launched.
The state of the French army is mentioned re- peatedly in my father's Diary, the first occasion being as early as Tuesday, February 27, '1917, when General Micheler had stated : 'It does not matter what the politicians may decide, the French soldier is not going to fight after the autumn.'
I am grateful to the General for writing so chivalrously and with such conviction about MY father, and to Mr. Terraine for his interesting and balanced article. I am sorry he felt General Baird was talking nonsense. Whatever was written by the General was written after many years of close friend- ship and close contact with my father and should be treated in a way as 'secrets from the horse's mouth. In any case, I am certain that Mr. Terraine's views and the General's are completely reconcilable.— Yours faithfully, HAlo Bemersyde, Melrose, Scotland
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