LORD KITCHENER'S CHARACTER

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2846, 10 August 1916, Page 7

LORD KITCHENER'S CHARACTER

HOW THE-NATION MAY DO HIM HONOUR

.(By an lntimats.Friond.)

For.nearly thirty years Herbert Kitchener was my closest friend. We met in a tent near Metemneh on a, scorching day lin tho middle eighties. •. Ho was sitting at an improvised table/ with his legs crossed, the tent flaps bent back, his vision a wasto .of hot sand. Before him was a heap of work, over which ho was studiously bending. Tlho Nile Expedition was ended, aud we ohatted till sundown. To me, then, ho appeared shy and intensely reserved, but out of that meeting sprang a friendship which I shall treasure as the greatest privilege of my life. With all restraint, I wish to write as ho would havo me write .at this moment—if, Indeed, anything may bo written. Of his ; brilliant career I would rather say noth r . jing. Of himself I fain would write more than 1 dare, for to mo he was not alone abravo soldier, and a marvellous organiser, but a great gentleman, and a vory great man. I saw him atevery phase in his life while he was emerging to tho climax of his public ,usefulness—Dorigola,/ Khartoum, South Africa, and India. Wo often chummed together in Egypt. I have chatted often with him behind the scenes of this gigantic conflict for twenty months or more, and in the presence of this distressing;tragedy, which the wholo Empire mourns to-day, one may unconsciously be tempted to assign a value different from that which one sets when, a . career is in historic; perspective. I shall bo pardoned, for I mourn my.friend. He leavos an example of duty which should be an inspiration to tho whole. Empire in its sorrow . at. his passing. Could ho but speak, there would be no mourning in his voice. His sense of duty was ever too great, his vision too large, his patriotism too sweeping for idle tears, 'io the world he was relentlfcss, unsparing, unflinching in tho path <•,{ duty: but the world did not know Herbert Kitchener as he disciplined himself. If perchance his _swift decisive judgments withered.inefficiency, to none.was he so harsh, so unsparing, so cruel as to himself. H« 'had an amazing facility for standing out of himself not in the. smallness of mere self-criticism; but in an almost inexplicable . introspection and' self-discinlins which in any work ho undertook laid tho greatest i burden on himself.

Ho was an inspiration to all who'inew him intimately.. During thirty years I never saw him "busy" as smaller men are. About him there was nothing of the spirit of fuss. .He seemed 'by intuition to move to the end of things with lightning swiftness. The' degrees by which they should Tie attained he worked out with almost painful care and thoroughness. Years before he avenged Gordon at Omdurmari I recollect him outlining tho end. I,did not grasp it at the mo. ment. I saw it olearly years after. By what means.did ho attain that end? By. concentration : and amazing assiduity. In India' his keenly analytic mind , pierced tho weakness of our Army system almost "in a night." He saw the end to ba achieved, and set himself to accomplish it. _ The North-West Frontier Army conditions to-day are his memorial. When the' present gigantic ' conflict; opened,- with unerring accuracy he saw whither it would lead'-us, before tho' nation or . the,,majority of ' its leaders grasped the fringe of this enormity. His. mind was a ■wonderful example of independence. and receptivity. It had an extraordinary—almost a passionate—capacity for fashioning rude 'material iffto due' form. At'.York House, in his room at' the War Office, and in my own study I have sat _'and watched its play—sat in conversation" without speaking for ten minutes'-at a time. '■ There was absolutely no "garbage" about the play of his-in?, tellect. With such a career; having inet and handled men; having touched the four. corners of the globe; having, had a wealth, of. all kinds of experience, he rarely indulged in reminiscence," and nevor in the small talk or lhero sentiment of life. Whatever was 7 before him occupied him. ■' • * "' - While O.thers Sle'pV. .'1 I wonder if tlie public who viowed him as an inscrutable organiser ever'Ttcognised what that meant. .'Hero was a mail: set in the highest position, with terrible,: almost- overwhelming, responsibility thrust upon him.-- -Yet he remained frugal, punctilious, persevering, and fit, taking work for his recreation and-the highest patriotism for his ideal. - While londoh slept, far into the night the little silver lamp„ on his study. Cablo burned. He had visuali»pd the armies; and ho knew; their weakness and their wants. The great «rork he had willingly laid his h:ir,u' to' was 3i-iir in his grasp. The resultant; man after years of harsh self-discipline was a simple thing in human genius. I have been amazed with his capacity for ignoring the nonessential things which leapt up to impedo him. To, the superficial observer he had ' the' mathematical •- brain, : tho pigeon-holed-and "com'partmented" mind —a dissector drawing deductions , and' building and fashioning on them. . But lie also had imagination and vision well under control and rarely colouring his actions, while enlarging them and putting them into a truer perspective. Ho rigidly did tho day's work in the day. Ho was an arresting completeness, not depending on others, though •using them for tho end in view. I do not believe that his great achievements were ever the Tesult of elaborate theories, but the application ito tho work in hand of tho strong common sense he possessed—a combination of sanity and high principle. His aloofness may have' had results ho never desired, but ■in rocent years I had detected the growth of a more pronounced conciliatory tone that mellowed a oertain critical vein to which lie rarely gave rein, but which was always apparently there. Were I to attempt to assess my friend as I knew him as a man and as a great public servant, I should say that ho was the embodiment of simplicity, and that lie brought his own seasoning to the plain fare of duty unconsciously by self-discipline. He had no faithless terrors about what should be. He never recognised a position with panic, for in thebackground was always tho residua of hope. was ever the determination to do the best with courage and sincerity under all conditions. He leaves a splendid example for the nation, and an inspiration to go nnheedingly towards our goal, not standing in the'streets to sorrow, but to lay hands on duty as ho laid them. And if in doing that we hesitate for a moment silently to snluto liis memory and pass to our work for victory,, tho great soldier and gentleman whom wo mourn will have been honoured as. he wished.—"St. James's Gazette."