Government to investigate botched Gallipoli and Mesopotamia campaigns

Westminster, 21 July 1916 - The British government has announced the establishment of two separate tribunals to investigate the military campaigns in Gallipoli and Mesopotamia.

There has been considerable disquiet for many months over the reverses suffered by the British Army in these two theatres of war. Recently, Sir Edward Carson tabled a motion calling for a Select Committee to be established. The Government has moved, instead, to introduce a bill of its own to establish two tribunals.

The ongoing campaign in Mesopotamia has drifted through a series of calamitous mistakes, while the Gallipoli campaign is considered ‘the most tragic chapter of blunders in our military history.’

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]