GENIUS OF KIPLING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22356, 29 February 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENIUS OF KIPLING

KEY TO HIS POWER VIRILE PATRIOTISM KINDLED MAN WHO SWAYED A NATION Probably no British writer has ever been bo much argued about and discussed in his own lifetime as the late Rudyard Kipling, writes Mr. Oliver Pitt in the London Sunday Graphic. It is the peculiar quality of his writing, especially his verse, that has evoked the wildest enthusiasm and the fiercest antagonism. Those who read Kipling became at once violent partisans. They were either tremendously for the man or terrifically against him. There were no neutrals in the wordy war.

The battles which have raged around his name for nearly 40 years are to be explained by the fact that Kipling must be regarded as something more than a novelist and poet. In the early nineties he was the sonorous and eloquent mouthpiece of a vast and growing section of public opinion. He reached his prime at that period when, after a long spell of quietude, the spirit of expansive Imperialism was once more firing the public imagination.

Its spokesman in politics was Joseph Chamberlain, who, waving the Flag with high gusto and shouting the slogans of Empire, had won the ascendancy in the Conservative Party, and was fast gaining the allegiance of the people. Days of Joseph Chamberlain By a singular accident, the emergence of Chamberlain as a powerful and popular politician coincided almost exactly with the arrival of Kipling as a forcible and successful writer. It was his grandiose conception of Empire, expressed in resounding verse, which gave him his influence and fame. As they read his stirring lines hiß admirers flung out their chests, squared their shoulders, held their heads higher. Ho had reminded them in language they could understand, and in rhyme apt for ready quotation, that they were not citizens of a tiny island but of a far-flung Empire spread over the earth's surface, bordered by the Seven Seas.

Between the speeches of Chamberlain and the songs of Kipling the bulk of the nation had been won over to the new Imperialism. These salient facts of history must be borne in mind if we are to reach any true appreciation of Kipling's position in the nation's life, if we judge him simply as a novelist and writer, purely on his literary merits, wo shall utterly fail to measure the man. Schoolboy Memories I was a schoolboy in an upper form when I first encountered his verses. I remember how thrilled, excited, captivated we all were by the lilt and rhythm of his lines. The part of English history which had interested us most was the Elizabethan tales of conquest and adventure, the shining triumphs of Marlborough, the Napoleonic struggle ending in the victories at Waterloo and Trafalgar. But these bygone glories were far-off thingß to our youthful minds. We had fallen upon dull, unromantic times. We were too young to think sensibly. We did not understand the preciousness of peace. Then Kipling spoke and all was changed. We instantly grew a superiority complex—we were brave, bold, British—and soon looked with scorn upon "lesser breeds without the law." The new Imperialism, which ran rampant through the land, was soon to receive a severe shock. There was grave trouble in South Africa. Summit of Fame It was evident that war was coming, and in 1899 an ultimatum from the Boer "President Kruger caused an immediate outbreak of hostilities, 40,000 British troops being despatched to the Cape. It was at the summit of Chamberlain's power. It was at the zenith of Kipling's fame. Almost everywhere there was tremendous enthusiasm for the war.

There Was acute disorganisation at the War Office, however, and soon the wives and children of our soldiers were in hopeless distress. Kipling seized hi.s pen and dashed off "The Absent-Minded Beggar," which was set to music and sung, as well as recited, at innumerable public gatherings. It was the sheerest doggerel:— Cook's son, duko's son, son of a belted earl, Son of a Lambeth publican, they're all the same to-day, Each of 'em's doing his country's work so who's to look after the girl? Pass the hat for your credit's sake, and pay, pay, pay. Influence During Great War The chanting of this ditty—there were several other verses—in patriotic

cars brought in more than a million pounds. This was tin; author's present to the "Tommies" whom he knew and loved so well since his association with them in India. In the very quality of "The Absentinded Beggar" and many other examples of Kipling's much criticised verse we have the key to his genius. Its sentiments, though crudely expressed, wero exactly attuned to the mood and temper of the time. One thing is unquestionably true of Kipling. It was he who, as much as, or more than, any man kindled and kept alive that spirit of virile patriotism which was the country's most precious asset at the onset of the Great War. During that bitter conflict he was mostly 6ilent.But the spirit of his heroic verse was reflected in countless deeds of valour at the crisis of the Empire's fate.