KITCHENER AN “ENIGMA”

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 June 1936, Page 12

KITCHENER AN “ENIGMA”

GENERAL’S DEFENCE.

LONDON, April. 29

An outspoken defence of “his old chief" Lord Kitchener, was made by SJ-year-oM Gen. Sir lan Hamilton, Commander-in-Chief of the Dardanelles operations, in an address to survivors ot the 29th Division on the 21st anniversary of the Galilpoli landing yesterday. Sir lan. who was Kitchener s Chief of Staff in South Africa, spoke from tbe plinth of the Kitchener statue on the- Horse Guards Parade. He ,said: “Lord Kitchener was a genius. In spite of the torrents of words that have been poured over his tomb he remains an enigma to most of his fellow-countrymen. “Sweeping criticism passed on him, like those which the late Lord Balfour was the other day reported to have made, to the effect that he was no organiser, no administrator, no tactician, and that he knew it, cannot be tackled in a lew minutes.” With one point he would concern himseli’, said Sir lan. Kitchener had implicit and absolute '"trust in the British rank and file. He carried that to dangerous lengths because _ he thought that working with British soldiers generalship was a secondary consideration.

“So he picked a good one now and then, like our Sir Aylmer (Sir Aylmer Hunter-\Veston, Commander of the 29th Division at the Gallipoli landing) or Sir Beauvoir de Lisle, but he thought a dud or two did not. matter." (Laughter).

Turning to salute the statue Sir lan added: “As for the administrator part of the business, you organised the Field Force Canteen, which you hoped would provide millions to be spent for the well-being of the ex-Service men. The millions have been spent all right, but how much of them reached the ex-Service men is another matter." (Laughter.)

(In the Life of Lord Balfour, it was revealed that Lord Balfour’s judgment of Kitchener “became more, and more critical as time went on. Balfour might have condemned many of Kitchener's weak points far less harshly

. . . had it not been for one which he held Kitchener to suffer from, and which for him was the unforgivable sin—the reluctance, namely, to assume responsibility.’’)