BULLER BRIDLES HIS TONGUE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7377, 1 February 1902, Page 3 (Supplement)

BULLER BRIDLES HIS TONGUE.

A Buller "banquet and a Buller demonstration fell to London's lot as a wind up for last week. The former took place at the Cecil', and the latter, of cotuse, in Hyde Park, and both were preceded by a vast deal of nonsensical talk. At the banquet Buller was to "show up" the War Office, Lord Roberts, and heaven knows who else among the "conspirators" against his name and fame. The demonstration was to show the Government that the great heart of the B.P. was still throbbing tumultuously over the wrongs of the "Saviour of Natal." But both functions were disappointing to those chiefly concerned in their initiation. The banquet at the Cecil, to which 700 Devonians sat down to dine and wine in honour of General Buller on Saturday evening proved quite a tame affair, for the general had placed a bridle on his tongue, and instead of a "wild fling round" on the topic of his own. treatment Buller, V.C., gave his audience a speech on a subject too often forgotten or unrealised bj r those who may only follow the course of war by report and from a distance. Ha spoke of all -the unestimated sums of pain which goes to make a success and the still greater sum of pain which goes to failure. There are things in war which the most : vivid narratives can never make us ! realise — things which are lost from i sight by all who do not suffer them. — the weary marchings, the way-worn feet, the filthy clothes, the muddy camps, the heat, the cold, the sickness, the thirst, and the unpalatable food. Those common things are the worst part of war, and they are beyond compai'ison the greatest part as well. Taking the splendid record of the two Devon battalions as hia text, General Buller spoke of these things as only one who has "been and seen" could speak, and though there were doubtless many present at the banquet who would rather have had their curiosity satisfied, the greater majority, I think, felt that Sir Eedvers had chosen the better path. The temptation to shrive himself in the eyes of hiscountrymen must « have been great. Sir Redvers is himself the president of the "Devonians inLondon" who had assembled to do him honour. They had recorded on vellum their unshaken confidence and regard and be* lief in him as a skilful, courageous and gallant officer, and they were ready to hear anything and to cheer anything that the Devonian general might say. He felt the temptation himself. "Among Devonshire friends especially, or among any friends," he said, "I would gladly take you all into my confidence and say — well, all that there is to say." The phrase produced a thrill of expectation, but the general cut short the hopes and fears of his audience by adding, "Did

not considerations of discipline prevent me."