“A VALIANT GIANT”

Gisborne Times, Volume LII, Issue 5464, 27 April 1920, Page 5

“A VALIANT GIANT”

' CHURCHILL’S PEN PICTURE OF j KITCHENER. GREAT WAR TOO HUGE FOR j FIELD-MARSHAL. FATAL DILEMMA AT THE DARDANELLES. United Press Association-Copyright LONDON. April 25. Air Churchill, in .an article in the Sunday Herald, states that the most extraordinary fact about Lord Kitchener was the amount of responsibility, work, and power thrust on him. He had to carry on the war during its most convulsive period and create .a mighty army 'out of a population destitute of military training, and to equip and supply it, though the available machinery was utterly inadequate. It was a tragic, magnificent spectacle to see this valiant, faithful giant advancing at the call of duty to grapple with a problem utterly out of relation to the personal capacity of any human being. Scarcely less striking wci> the limitations under which the unparalleled task was undertaken.

Lord Kitchener was a greater man than a. general. He had displayed the highest qualities as an administrator, diplomat, and a commander while ruling provinces and leading armies small enough to he personally directed l and controlled, but had not made a scientific professional study of war on the largest scale. He did not understand staff organisation connected therewith as understood in the great European armies. The decisive and) fatal dilemma of his war administration arose at the Dardanelles. Another reason was that "his profound instinct and the current of events drew him to the East. He appreciated better than any other Allied soldier the immense possibilities of success or failure in the East, but General Joffre and General French were writing and telegraphing, appealing day after day for every man, gun and shell that could be found for the West.—A. and N.Z. Cable Assn.