WITH HAIG AT THE FRONT

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 184, 2 May 1929, Page 18

WITH HAIG AT THE FRONT

DISREGARD OF DANGER SEIVGT. SECRETT’S STORIES Inti(X' ate stories hitherto untold of the dauV life of the late Earl Haig during Ahe years that he commanded the BiTtfish armies on the Western Front ai'e told in a book written by Sergeant !,'■ Secrett, for 25 years tho Earl’s personal servant, published recently. Years with Earl Haig” is the title of the book. The picture it presents A? none the less vivid because penned by one who stood always at a respectful distance from his subject. Sergeant Secrett’s service with Lord Haig in South Africa in the closing phases of the Boer War. “I do not think in the history of —war on a big scale,” he writes, “there ever was .a Commander so utterly oblivious tov personal danger as was the late FiaM-Marshal. In his defence of Ypres .lie lost all sense of personal danger, i His headquarters were at one time 'lth In half a mile of the actual fighting 1” On other occasions Haig sat at a table in some chateau crumbling about him under fierce bombardment. When Kitchener remonstrated with him in the hearing of the sergVant, his reply was brief. "I am neveV conscious of taking a stupid risk,” hc» v said, “but I sometimes find it absolutely necessary to form my opinion at firs V-hand.” A remarkable story is tolyl of one of Lord Haig’s visitors to G.nJ-Q- —Lord Lonsdale, the man who writs equally at home with the Commander and the least of his men. Sergeant Secrett describes his continual visits to the hospitals, his generosity to th<? wounded, the pains he took to eaile their minds by arranging their afl’nirs at home, and particularly his solicitude for the lonely soldiers without correspondents at home.

“Lonely Girl” Letters. “Very shortly after his visit many of these fellows began to get letters frpm •a lonely girl,’ or ‘your anonymous girl pal,’ or ‘a little girl who loves soldiers’;,” he adds. “The letters came in bulging parcels, which showed great discrimination on the part of the ‘lonely girl,’ because the tobacco and the cigars and cigarettes were exceedingly well-chosen. “The secret was never given away, but I know many staff officers who had a shrewd idea that a certain great gentleman and golden-hearted sportsman spent hours in his library writing letters which sent a thrill through the heart of many a ‘lonely soldier' —letters which were well packed.” A different kind of visitor—and one whose visit ended abruptly*—was “a certain great lady” who came from home and “purposely made herself ultra-coarse” in the mistaken belief that she ■would show to the men among whom she was working what a “sport” she was. “At lunch,” he states, “she dropped several ‘rocks’ in the shape of very ‘advanced’ expressions. Sir Douglas (as he then was) looked up startled, and I saw two - junior officers at freezing point. The lady prattled on, and the more she talked the stronger became her expressions. After a while the Field-Marshal leaned over to her—she sat on his right—and said something in an undertone. The lady raised her eyebrows and seemed to say something sharply back to him, when Sir Douglas again said something which could not have been more than two or three words.... Then he addressed a remark to someone else, and the conversation became general again.” Haig and the Prince.

Once a General suggested to the Field-Marshal that, for safety’s sake, the Prince of Wales should be allotted a definite daily itinerary during his stay at headquarters. “Not a bit,” replied Lord Haig. “He knows my wishes, and he is old enough to have discretion. You must leave the rest to him. I certainly will do no more.” And his kindly sympathy with the lower ranks is shown by a story of a journey to England to attend a Council of War in London, when the Com-mander-in-Chief crossed the Channel in a leave-boat, and was lost to those who were to receive him among the rank and file in the darkness of the deck. For hours he stood unrecognised among his men, listening patiently to their grumbling and joining their lusty choruses. “When the boat got to Southampton he went down the gangway with the rest in the grey light of the early dawn, but a quick-eyed transport officer spotted him in a second. He sprang to attention and shouted the warning down the quay, ‘Guard turn put! The Field-Marshal’s salute.’ And a crowd of horrified Tommies then saw that their companion of the crossing, who had heard all their bawdy jokes and fearful and weird criticisms of the High Command, was none the less than Haig himself. “He turned to them: ‘Good-bye, boys 1 Mind you enjoy yourselves! he said,-and they raised a cheer then and there.