HYPNOTIC KITCHENER

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 2, 3 July 1933, Page 9

HYPNOTIC KITCHENER

MAGNETISM MOVED MILLIONS TO WILLING ACTION

LLOYD GEOKGE'S MEMOIRS

In the first two years of the war, Mr. Lloyd George and Lord Kitchener worked side by side. • J In the following article—the second of a scries embracing the memoirs of the Welsh Wizard—the statesman essays an analysis of the qualities of the soldier in terms at once warmly commendatory and frankly critical.

(By David Lloyd George—No. 2 —Copyright.)

Lord Kitchener's rigid point of view ] and its reactionary arrogance showed; itself in many directions. Some of-hisj mental veins had hardened, and any pressure on them produced .apoplectic results. , Por example, he vehemently op: posed the recognition of Nonconformist denominations not already included in the Army List, and his refusal to appoint chaplains of these- eccentric sects provoked the fiost angry scenes I have ever witnessed at a Cabinet. The Army recognised only three or four denominations. The others, not being on the Army List, had no existence for him. Ho did not realise that with an army that was being muTtiplipd tenfold, and drawing recruits from classes, or'rather types, untapped T>y the ordinary recruiting sergeant, the variety of religious belief held must iiccessarily be greater^ Ho his :mind,-the religious services provided for the regulars of the old Army ought to be good enough for these amateur soldiers. The essential need for encouraging national co-oper-jition by deferring to all legitimate susceptibilities did not occur to him.

When he gave tray, however, tic did it thoroughly. A smaller man, according to the wont of small men, would have pretended to signify agreement, and then placed every obstacle in the path of execution. Lord Kitchener may or may not have been a gie»t man, but be certainly was aot a small one. In this instance his action was that of a great man, for having been overruled he loyally accepted defeat. His attitude towards the various nationalities that constitute the people of the United Kingdom was more.obdurate, and his obstinacy had far-reach-ing and fatal results. Scotsmen had by tradition established a military title to their nationality, and-it was a title Lord Kitchener respected and honoured. But although Welshmen and Irishmen had also their separate national regiments, he declined to encourage their national sentiments when it came to the point of raising separate Welsh and Irish Divisions. In the case of the Welsh Division he gave in, and gave in handsomely,' but he disliked the'-Irish Division.