GENERAL SIR DOUGLAS HAIG

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16889, 29 December 1916, Page 6

GENERAL SIR DOUGLAS HAIG

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE BRITISH FORCES IN FRANCE. " From the General to the rawest Tommy in the trenches," said a Captain of Hussars to the writer a few days ago, 'there is no British soldier at the front who does not swear by Haig. Sir John French, in one of his despatches, said, ' I cannot speak too highly of the valuable services rendered by Sir Douglas Haig; he is a leader of the greatest ability and power'; and if you ask Tommy's opinion of French's successor, he will answer enthusiastically, ' Oh, he's a bit of orl right! Give 'im 'arf a chaunce and you'll see; he'll make things 'um!' " —The Fighting Haigs.— Probably no commander of an army in the field e\er inspired more universal confidence or better deserved it; for if ever there were a born soldier and leader of men it is certainly Sir Douglas Haig. And, indeed, it would be strange if it were not so, for he has in his veins the blood of centuries of as gallant men as ever dealt lusty blows in battle. Ask any Scotsman who knows his country's story, and he will tell you that Scotland has never bred a finer race of fighting-men than the Haigs. There were Haigs who covered themselves with blood and glory on Bannockburn field six centuries ago. Haigs were among the first to rally to the standard of the "Bonnie Prince" when he landed with his handful of stalwarts in the Hebrides in the '45; and they fought bravely by the side of the yellow-haired laddie from the glory of Prestonpans to the tragedy of Culloden. And through the intervening centuries there was scarcely a Scottish battle or raid in which the Haigs were not in the thickest of the fighting. —Duggy" at Clifton and Oxford.— It was thus fitting that when Douglas was cradled at Cameronbridge, Fife, one June day 55 years ago, he was destined to continue the family tradition. In his school days at Clifton, where his father, a Scottish Laird, sent, him for education, Douglas (or "Duggy,*' as he was affectionately dubbed) was far more notable for his achievements on the playing fields than in the class-rooms. At cricket and football he was as superior to his fellows.' as any of them were his superiors in Euclid and Virgil. "A sturdy, muscular, fresh-faced Scots laddie," he is described by a contemporary, "the strongest and most athletic boy in the school, a terror to the bullies and the champion of the smaller boys. One of the most amiable and good-natured of fellows, as straight as a gun and the very soul of frankness and candour, he was immensely popular; and manv of the friendships ho then formed still survive as strong as ever." From Clifton he migrated to Brasenoso College, Oxford, where again he was more conspicuous for his muscle than for his learning; and it was only after he had passed his twenty-fourth birthday that the future Commander of Britain' 3 greatest fighting army began his career as a soldier. Curiously enough, although he was physically as "fit as a fiddle," he had the narrowest possible escnpe of missing his career altogether; for when he sought to join the Staff College, the medical examiners discovered that he was colour blind, and forthwith turned him down. But young Eaig was not the man to submit to this shattering of all his hopes without a big struggle. He consulted specialists in London and Paris; argued and appealed here, there, and everywhere, Until at last he was fortunate enough to win the sympathy and assistance of the Duke of Cambridge, who gave him a special order admitting him to the College. —In the Hussars.— Haig had not long worn the uniform of a Hussar subaltern before his smartness and zeal and soldierly qualities won the high appreciation of his seniors; but he had many years to serve before the Soudan campaign, in 1898, gave him the first opportunity of showing the stuff he was made of. He took a conspicuous part in the lighting at Atbara and Khartoum, and so distinguished himself that he was singled out for specially high praise in despatches, and returned home a brevetmajor. i*or had he long to wait for fresh laurels, for in the following year ''he wits in the thick of the fighting in South Africa—this time as Chief Staff: Officer to General French, who had already marked him out as a man of exceptional gifts and promise, an opinion which he speedily justified by much brilliant work, especially during the operations at Colesberg. It was during the South African campaign that Major Haig's career narowly escaped a tragic termination. On the day of General Cronje'a surrender at Pnard-e----berg he was crossing the Modder P,iver, swollen by heavy rains, when his horse reared and flung him into the swift-rush-ing water, which swept him helplessly away. Fortunately his clanger was seen by an officer, who dashed gallantly into the river to his assistance. The next moment Jhe would-be rescuer was also unhorsed, and equally r.t the mercy of the turbulent river. Nothing daunted, howover, he shook hirruelf free from his horse, struck out gallantly for the drowning man, and after a long and seemingly hopeless struggle, i" which he nearly tozt his own life, brought him to safety. The officer who thus bravely rescued Haig from death was General French. —Facing Death.— This, however, was by no means the first or last occasion &n which Sir Douglas Haig has looked death between the eyes. In the Soudan, in the preliminary scouting before the battle of Atbara, he volunteered to inspect at close quarters an enemy zareeba, which blocked the line of advance. The zareeba was large enough to conceal an army; and although there was no sign of life behind it, it was almost certain death to approach it. Although none knew this better than Captain Haig (as ho was then), he rode to within a couple of hundred yards of it, sat cabnly on his horse, making the necessary observations, in tho midst of a perfect "tornado of bullets as coolly as if on the parade ground, and by a miracle rode back to our lines untouched. When Haig returned from South Africa at tho end of the war he had established his reputation as one of the ablest and most brilliant soldiers in our army. Despatch after despatch had made his name and fame known to the world ; lie was now a colonel, a C.8., and A.D.C. to the King, wore the King's Medal and the Queen's Medal with seven clasps, and was marked out for a big career. But many years of peace were to follow before his great opportunity came with the present war—year.-; during which he did excellent work and confirmed his high reputation in a variety of responsible offices, from ln-podor-uener.il of Inciiini Cavalry to tho c.dminam] of the Seventeenth J. oncers. At 43 he blossomed into a major-general, within 19 yaars of first wearing his sab- I

altern's uniform; and two years later he was Director of Military Training, an office quickly followed by that of Director of Staff Duties at Army Headquarters. —Queen Alexandra as Matchmaker — Long before this General Haig had established himself as a special favourite of King Edward, who had the greatest admiration for the clever, genial Scotsman ; and it was, so it is said, Queen Alexandra, with whom he was an equal favourite, who played "matchmaker" in the romance which had its climax when General Haig led to the altar the prettiest of her maids-of-honour—Dorothy, one of the beautiful twin daughters of Lord Vivian, one day in 1905. And probably never has a marriage proved more happy, for Sir Douglas is as devoted to his charming and lovely wife as she is to the great soldier her husband. As Queen Alexandra wrote at the time to a friend, "I do not know anything that has pleaded me more than this match, on which I had set my heart; for they are ideally suited to each other. They are both so ridiculously happy that I do not know whether to be more amused or delighted." Of Sir Douglas Haig's brilb'ant work in the present war the world knows as much, as it is permissible to know. Probably, however, it does not know how on several occasions he has had almost miraculous, escapes from death. —On the Haystack.— On one occasion Sir Douglas, with a member of his staff, mounted a haystack, fome distance behind our trenches near La Bassee, to watch the progress of an action. He had not been many minutes, however, on his "bad eminence," before a German shell crashed on to the top of the haystack. As, lack would have it, it failed to explode. The two officers had barely recovered from the shock, to congratulate one another on their marvellous e&cape, when a. second shell dropped almost at their feet—again without exploding. "I think, sir," said the aide, "it is getting r. little too warm for cornfort up here. Don't you think we had better climb down?" "Yes, I think it would be wiser," coolly answered Sir Douglas, -with a smile, as he prepared to descend to a less conspicuous point of vantage. On another occasion Sir Douglae had only just left a barn, near Armentieres wfiere somo of his men were lodged, when a shell crashed into the building and killed nine of them. —In the Trenches.— But such risks ae these are "all in. the day's work," and Sir Douglas faces them with a smile and without a tremour, for he does' not know what fear is. Nor does he expect his men to face any danger which ho is not ready to share with them. Probably no general has ever spent more time than he in the trenches, cheerfully risking his life in order to cheer his men in the same ventare. And certainly no general was ever more beloved by his men, not only for his courage, but for his simple friendliness and unaffected geniality. "'E's jnst like one of us," one enthusiastic Tommy said to tbe writer a year or so ago. "You should just see 'im popping up in the trenches with a smile on 'is face and a cheery, 'Well, boys, 'crw are you gettin' on? Is there anytbink I can do for yon? . Why, we feel as if we could just 'ng 'im; and there's nothink he could ask us to do that we wouldn't do, even to cirackin' our lives away." And this admiration is mutual, as is proved by the following extract from a letter sent by Sir Douglas to a friend from the front. "We have had hardish times," he wrote many months ago; "but nothing in our history has surpassed the fine soldierly qualities displayed by the troops. They have marched and fought and supported hardships in the trenches— heat and wet and frost —in a manner beyong all praise." And by his officers, from the brigadier to tho youngest sub, he is equally beloved and respected. There is not one of them all who has not the most implicit and- unbounded faith, in him, and who is not assured that, when the time comes, Douglas Haig will certainly lead them to victory. The world will then know why the Commander-in-Chief of our armies in France has been dubbed "the Thruster." —The Man.— And what land of man is Sir Douglas Haig? In appearance he is the ideal soldier and leader of men. He has the characteristic soldier's face, with strong, well-cut features, a resolute, aggressive jaw and chin, a firm mouth, half-exposed beneath a fiercely-bristling moustache, and clear, keen, commanding eyes, which seem to look straight through one. Many are the stories of the cheering and encouraging effect produced on the battle-worn troopa of the First Army in the terrific arid bloody welter of the first battle of Ypres by the appearance of this soldierly figure riding along the famous Menin road, "exquisitely turned out, with beautifullypolished field boots, and seemingly all unperturbed bv the sights and sounds of war all around him, or by the appalling grave situation of his command." For the rest it may be said that bir Douglas Havg in private life is one of the staunchest of friends and the most genial and pleasant of companions, with, a natrae as simple and a manner as unaffected as those of a boy. Children adore him, and the -Teat general is probably happiest wbea "playing soldiers" with his little boyfrends at his home in Prince's Gate, or prancing * like a real horse " with some wee mite on his shoulder.—-To-day.

—Mr William Michael Rossetti, the third born" .md only surviving member of the distinguished family of Gabriele Rossetti, Italian scholar and patriot, recently entered on his eighty-eighth year. Ho has passed all his life in London, and from the Board of Inland Revenue ho retired in 189*. For over half a century W. M. Rossetti has been associated with literary work; he is the historian of the pre-Raphaelitc movement, and he is the writer , of memoirs of his father, and of his brother. Dante Gabriel, and hia sister, Christina Rossetti. the poet. Ho edited the " Germ," the organ of the preRaphaelkes, in 1850, and prepared excellent editions of many of the leading English poets in Moxon's and other 6eries. Ten years ago Mr \V. M. Rossetti gave us tho " Bibliography of tho Works of D. G. Rossetti"," and in 1910 " Dante and his Convito " came from his hand. — Sunflowers, now planted everywhere in Germany by school children along the roadsides, for the sake of the oil extracted from the seeds, are sadly neglected, except irMhetically, in thriftless England. Their economic value is better appreciated in America and Russia, where every part of these handsome herbs is utilised. Apart from the oil, hardly inferior to the produce of the olive, tho seeds are made into bread, Oi eaten :iu nature!, and both seeds and leaves arc given to stock, while the stalks furnish fine fuel. However, we do occasionally and unconsciously make use of these meritorious plants in tho guise of Jerusalem artichokes, which have no connection either with Jerusalem or artichokes, but are a kind of .Minflowor. The name "Jerusalem" is a corruption of the Italian "girasolo," derived from a fancy that the flowers keep turning tp the sun.