MEN OF DARING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 165, 13 July 1940, Page 8

MEN OF DARING.

THE THREE SERVICES.

WAVELL, CUNNINGHAM AND

LONGMORE.

NAVY'S EXPERIENCED LEADER A daring, experienced sailor is-Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, commanding from Alexandria the British Fleet in the Mediterranean. If new and untried daring menaces hie fleet, few know the Middle .Sea as intimately as Cunningham does. From the day he first gained prominence, at Gallipoli a« a 32-year-old skipper of the fleet's most-sought-after minesweeper. Scorpion, this i-ailor's lot has been ca«t in the Mediterranean, where he has commanded the destroyer flotillas and battle cruisers. On leave when posted. Admiral Cunningham hoisted the flag of his present vital command in the old President at Black friars. A '•seagoing*' officer, he has had one spell in Whitehall, as DeputvChief of Staff. A Sturdy Scot. The British C.-in-C. General Sir Archibald Wavell, has long been listed as one of the brainy and "interesting"' soldiers, and for years he has been seeking out everyone who matters between Capetown and Ankara, via Jibuti. Aged .■)", General Wavell is a sturdy Scot. Imaginative, writing as well as he talks, this soldier has charm and unconventional views. It is refreshing, in these times of fatal embracing of the clae-sical tradition, to hear Wavell's view of the ideal commander: ''He should have the spirit of adventure and a touch of the gambler.'' Again: 'Every high officer should put in at least six months very close to the R.A.F." As for the idea'l infantryman, he should be "a mixture of poacher, cat burglar, and gunman." General Wavell was on Allenby's staff in the famous "last year"' and'himself hit the public imagination a score of years later when lie put down the Palestine revolt of 193S by means of "the big hunt."' The general is of added value for his knowledge of Russian and the Red Army, whose possibilities he was the first to discern. Boshing a little show of his own, under the Colonial Office, is General Sir Clive Liddell, who defends Gibraltar. Of striking appearance, thi* officer came to the front as Adjutant-General when the Belisha broom swept in 1937. Aired 57, Leicester Regiment, the general is" noted as an oiganiser, his career having been mainly "staff." From the Sydney Side. Senior in the air i* Sir Arthur Lono--more, a New .-South Wales man born jo years ago, and one of the fir*t four naval pilots. The air marshal holds the oldest piiof< certificate in the serving K.A.I-.. Xo. 72. dating from mid-1911. = With a 2000-mile range, the Air \rm as an independent striking force overshadows the Mediterranean. Over mostly good flying countrv. sandv desert to tropical forest, airmen caii excel m usefulness where heat, lack of water and poor road and rail communications restrict ground forces. Xor •-hould the factor of sea-borne aircraft be overlooked. Britain beiiur here a Ion" way in the lead. "" r Sir Arthur is well suited br his ea«v manner to command in latitudes where Dominion troops are numerous. Longmore operates from the Xear Cast. He previously had the Training Command at Home, and before that the Imperial Defence College