GENERAL BIRDWOOD.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15219, 5 March 1915, Page 3

GENERAL BIRDWOOD.

-I THINK HE'S FINE.' OFFICER'S NOVEL EXPERIENCE. Following is an extract from a letter from a Sydney officer, fsivg. in.; Excellent work; iia* been done'in the short time we have been m Egypt. Sometimes 1 feel rather — " e P t,cal ' mr-'ht I say, about the chances, of the VIF, going to Europe- I know nothing, of course! J.nst keep in mvnd though, that part of the world _ ca-Uri Syria, quite close to Egypt; troops guard it at present but will KiHand uiies this opportunity of adding", , such a fine territory to the. Empire, and of crushing the Turks, when everything » ready close at -hand I Personally. I am not averse to doing the Crusade,- act; I hate the Turks worse thanthe Germans .a good deal. Tl'p- -irnvv corps consisting ol the A\n>raliSn? nW Zcalanders has d.cen placed under-the command of an in dian General, one ot • Kitcheners Men.' Sir William Birdwood. C.1., etc. Well, curiously enough, 1 had the special llonour of making the aequamtouco of this distinguished soldier in the most amusing" way possible. The -funny-part is that 1 have only seen two Generals before in my life: so to converse tete-a-tete, with the G.O.C. Colonial Army Corps, as I did. was rather novel, it was this way: 1 went to Cairo one day ! Inst week, did some shopping, for my><>lf and others; had a badly-needed hair I cut, bath, etc., and went to bhepI beard's about 3 p.m. for dinner. Atter-xvard-i I went into tfc'o smoking-room ' tn road the British papers. 1 was read- \ in<' away, rather interested, when somebody' near mc 'chipped up, as , the siyinT, coes. 1 . turned' round aim '.saw a little fellow in evening dress. Hβ had rather knowing grey eyes, and was ' rather a cute-looking person, now that i 1 come to think. He seemed politely mI feve-ted -ji the A.1.F., asked mc where 1 eiime from, how long I had been soidiering, what battalion. 1 was J. . mid 'co'o'ir seemed to know a hntle »r. bout -military work, and remarked that, we wore , very fortunate to be abie 1o t-iiu in Esvnt instead <->f Salisbuiv Phtin, as the' w«utlier in England was most ■mc? rt nio!it nt this ti.nie of the '•par I warivpt , . to the subject, told : him my opinions of the of •'war at the nrese" + day. and my im- ' iM-e«iio-K of the different troops we had j seen. He had rather a. knack of iru t vii-ins confidpnpp". I. to T d him that., in :my opinion the Australians would soon ■ irivp acewvit of tliemsolvrs, ana ' settle down to the. new conditions. I i nhn to.d him tlm+- I considered that a '. l»tte*-' ■snnt to officer? and n.c.o.'s of i-,tV A T. 7. by the new G.0.C... Sir WilI Hani Hirdwood, 'was a very fine one, I :md. that one and all would profit by ' hi* advice and counsels. He- said, 'I'm vory il:id you liked it; I'm General i !* : rdwood!' I-i n-.v\ I havo more control of my fci'lirirs than 1 thought. I only went ! a little rod. and murmured. 'Really. |iir. I didn't you.' 'Oh. no,' • sun] h(\ 'a helmet makes a big differj once, doesn't it.' , ; "He talked on just the same, gave ,mc a lot of littk- tius about platoon • awl company traiisinje. and told mc -.vhnt he was .arranging in the- way of instruction for officers and amusement for men. I think he's fine. He's very iron tie. and very nice, very undorstandinc. and so on* but he means to make the force, a top-notch one. and won't stand any f-omfoo'ing. He wished mc rrcod-nicht at last, and told mc he isopod he'd se»> mc in the training • r round. I prti.j I hoped so. too! I felt , like asking' him if he had a vacancy on ,' bis «tan" -— : 4 *l mentioned my experience to a couple of our fellows when I got back, it got round the very quickly, and F was 'srmia: , noxt day for feloniously hobnobbing ~ with generals. It was I worth it. anyhow."