ADMIRATION FOR GERMANS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 25, 29 July 1933, Page 11

ADMIRATION FOR GERMANS

Sir William Kobertson was one of the enigmas of the war. He was neither a great soldier nor a great man, but that he possessed an outstanding personality is beyond question.

He was industrious, steady, intelligent; all the administrative tasks entrusted to him, whether as ranker, N.C.0., or commissioned officer, ho discharged competently. He- was an excellent organiser. He had, during his military career, few opportunities, if any, of leading men on the field. His experience had been of an administrative kind, and hero he was a conspicuous success. In that respect, amongst all tho generals, he was second only to Sir John Cowans.

He had other qualities which made for speedy promotion in the Army. He was cautions and discreet. His massive reticence made a deep impression on all whose duty it was to seek his opinion.

These qualities of circumspection in judgment and speech led shrewd and experienced observers like Mr. Asquith to declare him "the greatest strategist of the day." That he most certainly was not.

In the order of his distrust came Frenchmen, first and deepest of all; then Italians, Serbians, Greeks, Colts, and, last of all—if at all—Germans.

The Austrians had no existence for him, except in his arithmetical tables.1

Of the Germans he had a very high opinion and no dislike.

In 193 C, when the 'German Army was making its stubborn defence of the slush on the Sonirne plateau,,he said to me: "If we and the Boche were together we would have beaten the whole lot of them long ago." I do .not believe ho ever visualised the full significance and responsibility of the great -position, of Chief of the Imperial Staff. His function ought to have been .that of chief military adviser to the Cabinet on the war as a whole.

Sir Douglas Haig was a stronger man. I doubt whether he ,was abler than Robertson, but he had better fighting qualities.

lior.ert.?ou was not a timid uircft, l,ui he was not endowed with the intrepidity in thought and action that makes great generals. He thoroughly disapproved of Foch, Nivclle, Joffre, and Lyautey, but he never condescended to dispute with them. He seemed bored, if not cowed, by the voluble confidence of the French generals. (To be Continued.)