GENERAL MONASH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 29, 4 February 1935, Page 6

GENERAL MONASH.

CITIZEN AND SOLDIER.

Twenty years have passed, since the first : of the citizen-soldiers of Australia and New L Zealand set out on the long voyage to Europe, there to play a worthy part, alongside the more experienced troope of Britain and France, t in the struggle against Germany. Many '; young men now approaching their majority > were not torn then, and even those now in ' their earlv thirties can remember little of the 1 struggle, "and of what it meant to be alive and adult in the years from 1»14 to 1918. But the story should be known, for although the term "returned soldier" is still in full use, too many people forget, or have never appreciated, the nature of the experience from which the soldier returned. That knowledge can now be gained only from books, and there could be no better introduction to the subject than the "War Letters of General Monash." * They were written by one of the two most distinguished Australian generals, to his wife, and though they are primarily of interest to Australians, most of the events they describe concerned the New Zealandere also. More important, the men from the Commonwealth and the Dominion entered the conflict in the same spirit, regarded it from the same point of view, and early found a strong respect for and confidence ill each other's ability as lighters. For the general reader the letters are of peculiar interest, because their author, though ho rose to be commander of the Australian Army Corps, was himself a "citizen soldier." A man of distinguished attainments in peace time, he won signal recognition of his capacity as a military leader, but, in the midst of his euccesses, lie wrote that he had grown "very heartily sick of the whole war business," and he looked forward, like the men under his command, to a return to civil life. Yet, though he confessed himself appalled by the "horrer, ghastly inefficiency, and the unspeakable cruelty and misery" of war, he — again like the average private—concluded that there was "nothing to do but to set one's teeth and stick it out as long ae one can." Gallipoli Landing "Only the Beginning." The letters, which cover the period from December, 1914, when General Monash left Australia as commander of the 4th Australian Infantry Brigade, to the Armistice, are remarkable for their lucidity: the reader of them may well feel that he is eeeing everything in their writer's company. On occasions when he had the time, or when a feat of organisation evoked his admiration—as the evacuation of Gallipoli—he could write a brilliant narrative, and in explaining matters of organisation and the couree of a battle lie left nothing obscure. It is no accident that as a commander he was distinguished for his grasp of detail and for lucidity in exposition.

Of peculiar interest to all who celebrate Anzac Day arc General Monash's comments on the fighting on Gallipoli. While still on the Peninsula lie read the Australian news'papers containing the . famous dispatch, of Aslimead-Bartlett, which told Australia and New Zealand, for the first time, where their soldiers were and what they had done. He wrote then to his wife that 'the first landing under shell and rifle fire, the rush up the cliffs, and the gradual.occupation of a defensive line" were "only the beginning of things," and "jnuch the best work was done afterwards in gaining fresh ground and in properly establishing ourselves and in beating off the constant fierce Turkish attacks," which lasted "for the first throe weeks without cessation, night and day." There should also be mentioned the letter in which General Monaah describes the review by King George, on Salisbury Plain, of the 3rd Australian Division, which Monash had organised and trained. He gives the reader a rare insight into the character of the "man behind the Monarch." Then, in March, 1018, he describes the part the Australians and New Zea'landers played in- saving Amiens—perhaps their most valuable contribution to the Allied ranee. It is the most thrilling story in the book.

Complete Confidence. Genera] Monash was an engineer by profession, but ; he had also graduated in Law and in arts. His knowledge was wide and it was also exact. Like most Australians, , lie was completely confident of his own ability, and his record proved that his confidence was justified. Ho was always willing to learn. He lias, because of the tone of some of his letters, been accused of egotism, but there is evidence that his continual desire and demand was that his troops—the front-line men—should receive full and public recognition and praise when they had fairly earned it. He himself did not hide his light under a bushel, and he was frankly gratified by his promotions, but he scorned to use "influence" to secure that which he knew he had earned. It can be said that (in these private letters to his wife) lie occasionally boasted, but only of the quality of his men. Those men undoubtedly reflected his buoyant confidence and resoluto courage, and his implacable determination was theirs also. He was intensely jealous of their interests, as he was of Australia's. Truly it can be said that the greatest occasion in Australia's history produced, the man and the leader best command a citizen army, every man in which whs a volunteer.

* "War Letters of General Monash." Edited by F. M, Cutlack. (Angus and Robertson, Sydney.)