BRITISH RHINE COMMAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19197, 13 June 1924, Page 10

BRITISH RHINE COMMAND

APPRECIATION OF GENERAL GODLEY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, May 1. It is understood that General Sir Alexander Godley, R.C.8., K.C.M.G., General Officer Commanding-in-Chief 'the British Army of the Rhine, will shortly return to England, and that he will be succeeded by Lieutenant-general Sir John Du Cane, K.C.B. Commenting on the new appointment, Lieutenant-colonel Repington writes in the Daily Telegraph- The report that Lieu-tenant-general Sir John Du Cane is to relinquish the Western command and to take over from Sir Alexander Godley the' important and responsible post of General Officer Commanding-in-Chief the British armv of the Rhine is one that, provided that a change was necessary, will cbmmcnd itself tolh to the British and the French. General Godley has done admirably on the Rhine. His v,ool judgment, his open-handed dealings .with the Germans and our Allies, and his refusal to be stampeded by any crisis, however unpleasant, have confirmed the high opinion which his war record in spired in his chiefs. The British commander on the Rhine has to be something of a statesman as well as a good soldier, and General Godley fulfilled all the expectations of those who knew him. General Du Cane was recognised before the World War as one of the three most capable staff officers in the army. He had done well in South Africa, and at the War Office his services had been invaluable in many posts. During the war he worked un to the position of Army Corps commander, and would no dcubt have gone higher had he not been dragged home by Mr Lloyd George to fill a higher position in the new Ministry of Munitions in 1915, where he gave the greatest satisfaction. In 1917 he was again in France at the head of an Army Corps, from which post he was taken to become British representative at Marshal Fcch’s headquarters in 1918. The position demanded tact and ability of a high order, since the Marshal would no; ho bothered with t 1.3 full staff that they wished to impose upon him, and everything in the way-* of liaison services with the British headquarters r ell upon Du Cane. With a brain as quick as the Marshal’s, wide experience of men and things, and with a profound knowledge and appreciation of the French character, Du Cane rendered numerous services to the cause, and became one cf the chief pivots upon which affairs turned. After the war he became MusterGeneral of Ordnance at the War Office, and was employed in numerous investigations, such as that presided over bv Viscount Haldane in army education With Du Cane on the Rhine, and Colonel Sidney Clive in Paris, we shall be represented by the two officer's best acquainted with Marshals Foch and Petain and their methods of work, and relations should now be not only close but cordial. It is from this point of view, in particular, that the new appointment is to be welcomed.