LORD ROBERTS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 18, 22 January 1913, Page 2

LORD ROBERTS

"THE SUPREME STRATEGIST" DISTINGUISHED CONTROVERSIALISTS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, 6th December. ' A good deal of amusement has been occasioned by the terms of a stern rebuke administered by Lord Haldane to Lord Roberts, whose ardour in the cause of universal service has been rather awkwardly felt in some official circles. Beginning with a dissertation on the "higher strategy," the Lord Chancellor said : — "There is no such thing as an expsTt- in higher strategy, unless that expert be somebody who is not only an expert in, a particular department, but is also an expert In the sense that he has 6tudied in the school and alongside of 1 the men who aro ei-perte in naval things and iuthtJ affairs of Bface. Otir byeteni of national defenre rests upon understanding what it is 'that we, aa an island centre of an Kmpire, have to defend and protect, and that, involves the eailor, soldier, and the tHalc. It involves even the consideration of finance, because we cannot keep up armaments unless we take jjicsit care thai out' social arrangerienls ;jiv. such that the people have the best chance of iyednj; ibl<> to bear the burdmi. "Tile expert in defence in the man who looks at tli.: of things, noc from the pohii. of vkw of the mere soldier, or «u!ov. rr s&ateenian, but- Ss a person who hhs st>fc hia mind to study all things, ''lint ip Avliy I am bound to spenk out on oae thing strongly. • .Nobody has a greater veneration- for Lord Roberts than I heive. He has done great things for his country: he isj ofte.of the most distinguished leaders of troops in tho field that we possess. It ki one t4iing to lead troops in the field, it is another thing to be a strategist; and unless yon are a strategist you cannot carry out plans for the organisation of the defence of the country. What I miss in Lord Roberts to-day is just that understanding of the point of view of the eeaiuan and of the statesman, which is absolutely vital if you aYe to make a proper -military organisation. It has always seemed to me to ba treason to the true principles of strategy to spend a great deal of your money, or to devote your highest energies to the merely military part of home defence: You most of course have some' •thing like your Territorial Force if you are to deal with whatever may get through your double, naval wall, but to put that first, or to imperil the Navy lor the sake of that, in to make & most profound strategical blunder. ".Why do, I condemn .the National Service League ? I condemn it first because it does not mean what it says. I have had a good deal to do with soldier's. Most soldiers hanker very naturally after a compulsory service such as has been adopted by countries that have different strategical problems from ours. What those people want is not six months' training, what they /want is,, as in & Continental army, three years' training for the cavalry and artillery, and two for the infantry. That would coqfc- you two things — your professional oversea ai;my, which you would not be, able to recruit on the same basis, and secondly an enormous amount of money. Those very men who want that very army scout and laugh at the military programme of the National 1 Service League. lam not talking of the cqlonels who sit "in the bojMvindofvs, of the clubs, I am talking oF expert soldiers., I have a . worse objection to jLord Robrts than that. OBJECTION TO LOR© ROBERTS. "If you carry 1 - oUt nis- programme 70U would find you weite short of money for the 'army and the havy.> You Cannot keep up both. -I- consider any policy that is put forward oh any bdsis that- is uncertain about that is a policy not of the- strategist, but of the amateur. That is why I stand before you to record my protest against the strategical principles of the National Service League."A TREMENDOUS POLEMIC. Lord Rosebery and a dozen newspapers have come to the veteran Field-Marshal's support. Lord Rosebery says he is far too canny a Scot to intervene in the " tremendous polemic and controversy between the best Law Lord and the best War Lord " of the realm i— • "The Law Lord thinks that an infusion of statesmanship ia required in the -head of our forces, in which he rather hints that Lord Roberts is deficient. On the other hand, Lord Roberts appears to think that some military experience is not wholly useless to the head of our forces, and in which he thinks that Lord Hatdane'h! somewhat defective. (A laugh.) My own conclusion is that I should hope that if the facts 'alleged be true an expeditionary force, as it is called, should make no expedition outside this island until we are quite sure that the Territorial Army has received sufficient training to defend it. (Cheers.) I appreciate both the leaders on each side in this : controversy. Lord Haldane for six or seven years has given an amount of energy and ability and attention to his duties which, I 111 1 think, no War Secretary perhaps has ever done before, and as for Lord Roberts, his name speaks for itself. (Cheers.) I know no more pathetic or touching spectacle than that of this old, hero, full of years and honours, giving up the last- years of 'his life to mge on his countrymen what he, believes to be the alarming facts with regard to their military organisation, a task onerous and unDopuhr, but from which he does not shrink. (Cheere.) I believe thathistory, when it comes ,to , sum, up this > time, will regaad it «*s one of the most astonishing facts hi our record and generation that we should turn a heedless' and insMentive car to- the warnings — ' warnings full of weight and full of experience", of tho greatest soldier wo are privileged to possess." (Cheers.) ' Lord_ Curzon said for years we had been listening to the bland assurances of our War Minister, not our Law Minister, that our Territorial Army, of which' he was founder," would have six months in which to prepare after an outbreak of hostilities. Those who had scoffed at such optimism now saw thempelves justified' by what had taken nlace in the Balkahs, which had knocked the bottom out of our Territorial scheme.