THE LATE GENERAL SIR REDVERS BULLER, V.C.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 149, 24 June 1908, Page 8

THE LATE GENERAL SIR REDVERS BULLER, V.C.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I quite agree with Mr Boden's general statement of she proposition "de mortuis non nisi bonum," but I did not start the correspondence on this subject —and I doubt whether, at this early period after his death, Butler's memory is likely to be much benefited by any assertions of his friends which really amount to apologies for his failures— thereby calling to mind the old French proverb, "gui s'excuse, s'accuse!" Though I discussed the matter, as stated, with numerous distinguished officers, I am sorry that, for obvious reasons, I cannot supply Mr Boden with names through the columns of a newspaper—and, in any case, the subject has been sufficiently thrashed out in Europe to relieve mc of any such action. If Mr Boden does not happen to have followed the controversy at the time, and desires to refresh his memory, I shall be glad to give him dates and folios to enable him to turn the matter vp — if he care 3to send mc his address! But Mr Boden, throughout his letter, only emphasises what I, in common with all men who know anything about South Africa, have already admitted, viz., that Buller was beloved by his men; but I cannot see in what way this can be put forward as proof that he was a military genius! Roberts was also loved by his men, Kitchener was not—and yet 1 suppose that Mr Boden would admit that both were, and are, soldiers and commanders of the very front rank! Buller was by no means the only man who left a comfortable home to take the chances of war, which, incidentally, were his professional objective (else why did he join the army at all?) I could quote a very large number of people who, as "VOLUNTEERS" only, gave up nearly as much as he did without even the obligation of a military career, and I will gratify my friend slr Boden by giving . him at least one name—that of my own personal intimate and fellow campaigner, the Count Zilari del Verme, who with

myself was a volunteer for England, and who gave up a princely income and two magnificent homes and his family for an adventure which brought him no pay, but for which he felt himself amply repaid by his mention in the despatches for distinguished conduct in the field. And

suppose that to most people who ever

gave the matter a thought, the departure of Lord Roberts, bereft of his only son in the Natal campaign, was pathetic cnniigh even to satisfy the most phlegmatic? For all this, I must say that I had always thought that it was a part of the duty of a general to avoid being where there was a risk of death—and at

least Buller had had, as Chief of the Staff to Sir Evelyn Wood in the Mnjuba Campaign, a previous knowledge of South Africa and of the Boers probably unequalled by any other genera! who went out there (to say nothing of his experiences in the Zulu War), and it was open to him to applj- for what ho thought necessary in the way of troops, etc., if he apprehended that the forces

supplied him were insufficient, and. failing the granting of his request, to resign command of what he believed to be an army so numerically weak as to be unequal to the task imposed upon it! Your readers will remember that Sir AVilliam Butler, who at the time of the South African troubles was G.O.C. at the Cape, DID resign and go Home rather than undertake what he did r-ot personally approve of.

I am afraid that Mr Boden's figures as to the troops available are not borne out by official statistics; and, though the Field Force eventually numbered 200,000. it was nothing like that when Roberts and Kitchener arrived—and even when it reached that figure, it comprised a vast numbgr of almost raw recruits, only used for guarding the lines of communication! Mr Boden's strictures on Mr Chamberlain are probably the result of a difference of opinion in matters political, aud can safely be left to the judgment of your readers! But when Mr Boden says that human life should not be heedlessly sacrificed, I venture to think that, in matters of war, the less any qualms of this sort are considered, the sooner a campaign is likely to be finished; and South Africa, which has proved, with few exceptions, to have been the grave of almost every military reputation which sought its shore, certainly added nothing to that of Buller! As a fact, the whole matter wa3 dealt with very thoroughly by Buller himself at a luncheon given, I think, in Westminster, by the "Queens" in October, 1001, when he attempted to reply, "viva voce," to the, as ho alleged, unmerited criticisms of the famous "Times" military correspondent, "Reformer," and the strictures of that paper and the "Spectator"! How miserably he failed is now a matter of history, and any of your readers who take an interest in the matter can turn the whole controversy up in the volumes of the "Times" and •Spectator" of about that date, and 1 suppose that, whether right or wron" myself in my personal opinions, there arc few who will disagree with the very temperate condemnation of Buller as a tactician contained in the latest copy of the "Encyclopedia, Brittinnica," which appeared long before he died, and which ever since has remained without protest Irom himself or his friends! Personally, I greatly regret that such an unsavoury subject was started for discussion over the grave of a man who. with aU his faults, was a very brave and loyal Englishman, and I am quite certain, in my own mind, that no attempt to cover up the tactical defects with which he was charged, b/ appeals on the score ol his personal bravery (admitted by all his critics), will be successful: and his reputation, lessened after South Africa by his own attempted justification of his conduct (including his request, acceded to, for the publication of the "Spion Kop despatches, which, when seen, madeven his friends marvel at liis courage in asking for their discovery), will not I should imagine, be very greatly enhanced by an indiscriminate rushing into print on the part .of those who, in their desire to extol his many virtues, claim for him a position in English military history which he, living, would have been the very last to claim for himself'—l am, etc.,, ERNEST W. aiUNTON.