EVERY INCH A SOLDIER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 67, 27 September 1939, Page 6

EVERY INCH A SOLDIER

VISCOUNT GORT'S STEADY CLIMB By "Scrutator" A large homely-faced head, with the thoughtful brow of a Captain of Industry, a sturdy, vigorous body, -\vith broad shoulders, deep chest, clean, hips and thick springy k'gs ? aii atmosphere of quiet mastery, a gait of intense eyes that talk, lips that imprison thought meet John Standish Surtces Gort, Commander,-in-Chief of the Armies of the British Empire. Holder of a title created in 181 f>, he is the fifth of his line and the first to attain exalted rank. One of the governing classes, he has lived and toiled like the people for more a generation., England has been vastly fortunate intthatt t given the necessity great military leaders have emerged to direct the fortunes in the field. And though it may surprise some, she has sorely needed them for more than, a century. Ever since the Crimea, European nations have affirmed that she lias been used up. They have lived to learn better, or died as price of their ignorance. There are those who believe that the high commands go by favour in the Old Country. They don't. Viscount Govt's career proves this. He entered the Army in 1905, having for years been attracted by military service as his life vocation. Tiie Great War found him a bustling captain, and in 1916 he became brevet-major and was not promoted colonel to be the Father of his Regiment until 1926.

Mentioned in despatches upon nine separate occasions awarded the Y. C. tlieM.C., and the D.S.O. (two bars) his advancement had nothing meteoric about it. Aristocratic influence had nothing to do with it. and he was well content to climb slowly to the top e,P the ladder, making sure that he was qualified for each foot-* hold as lie climbed.

Probably he considered that he had reached the highest point when lie became general of the famous Grenadier Guards, but that elevation "was only another opportunity to study his profession and acquire the secrets of world warfare. It was patent that he was destined to go and in 1937 lie was Chief of the General Staff.

It was my good luck to meet him at Cambcrley in the company of an Australian who has gained renown in Harley Street, and conversalion revealed that ho always had in mind the essential condition that "England should hulk big as an armed nation to other peoples. Pithily he put it: "The moral influence of a nation depends greatly upon its display of physical power." His constant aim was to make the British Army the most perfect mili--* tarv machine in the world and this called for exceptional self-reliance upon many occasions, and where he and his fellows looked for sympathy and encouragement at times among statesmen of the Ramsay Mac Donald class, they received little but discouragement. The Gort blood, however, could "take it." It has not been an insular stock. Viscount Gort is a human with a wider knowledge c,P what we call tlie average man. He is a staunch disciplinarian but one who can understand his fellow-men. Early this year he toured Palestine, and the rebellion was cjuickly Quashed. He examined the defence measures taken inEEgyptt t and buttressed them against a possible Italian incursion from Libya, a"id on his way back to London, he insepctc.l the Maginot Line. He is the very model of the modern English gentleman, whose intellectual and bodily powers have been strengthened and matured by habits of a ripe life. Look at him on his legs—only those muscles in play which are needed axl the moment. What strength serins to lie in his weil-Pormed and manly figure! How fu'li in his face of power, sharpness and determination! How clearly and pleasantly he spew!;:,! How ready and practical he is—a great broad-shouldered, genial Englishman. proud of his country, proud of his nerving himself to action!