Keith Murdoch’s Gallipoli Letter

Summary

The National Library of Australia describes Keith Murdoch’s Gallipoli Letter in the following way:

“The Gallipoli letter is an 8000-word private report written by journalist Keith Arthur Murdoch, with the help of British war correspondent Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, after visiting the Gallipoli peninsula in September 1915. It describes the organisation and conditions of the Gallipoli campaign. It was sent to Andrew Fisher (then-Prime Minister of Australia) and Henry Herbert Asquith (then-Prime Minister of the UK). Murdoch’s twenty-eight-page letter helped to establish the idea of Gallipoli as a military disaster.

Fisher sent Murdoch to Gallipoli for an honest report on the campaign. Contrary to the rules of censorship, Murdoch wrote and sent his letter without submitting it to the military censors. In the eyes of some, this was a grave betrayal of Murdoch’s role at Gallipoli. Murdoch, however, strongly defended his action on the grounds that his letter was not for publication but for the information of the prime minister.

Whether or not Murdoch did the right thing in sending the letter uncensored, it had a serious impact and brought about rapid results. It can be argued that Murdoch’s letter led directly to the ending of the Gallipoli campaign, and the evacuation of British and Anzac troops from the peninsula.”

Here, this important historical document is made available in audiobook form.