IMPERIAL GENERAL STAFF.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19759, 9 April 1926, Page 6

IMPERIAL GENERAL STAFF.

SIR GEORGE MILNE. KEEN SOLDIER AND DEEP STUDENT. (From Odr Own Correspondent.) LONDON, February 24. A special correspondent of the Times contributes a splefidid article on the career of General Sir George F. Milne, G.C.M.G., K.C.8., D. 5.0., Colonel - Commandant Koyal Artillery, p.s.c., A.D.C., on his appointment as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (first military member Of the Army Council). There are doubtless many readers in military circles in New Zealand who will welcome the opportunity of seeing what has been written about him. His appointment, it is remarked, is significant because it is the first time that a gunner general of the Royal Regiment of Artillery has been selected for a normal tenure of the post, and because he will, as a member of a technical branch, direct the de velopment of the mechanical side of the modern field army. Not less interesting is the fact that the directors of his department will all be newly appointed officers this year—an infantry man of Highland descent like himself for the education branch, and one who has been on the staff at Sandhurst and Camberley; a line soldier with colonial and Indian experience for the training branch: and possibly a gunner for operations. Outside the War Office his productive right arm at the Staff College for future leaders will be a sapper with a wide knowledge of Imperial requirements and one who did much to develop the Australian General Staff. (This offier is Major-General C- W Gwynn, C.M.G.. D. 5.0.. late Royal Engineers, p.s.c.). Within a vear also the training personnel in the commands operating under his control will change, too, giving in the aggregate four new genera] qffi cers commanding-in-chicf and f° u , r . fi' v ' sional commanders for the Expeditionary Force, two this year and two at the turn of the year. The accession of Sir George Milne to the most important post, involving all questions of military policy affecting the security of the Empire, brings to Whitehall a type of soldier who is a deep student of war and the art of preparation for it. Allied to this marked characteristic is the fact that he has been a Com-mander-in-Chief in the field, a valuable experience which had due weight with the Prime Minister in his selection. He has seldom lost an opportunity of acquiring new experience, whether as a mounted infantryman, a commander of Imperial Yeomanry, a Territorial staff oi.icer, or in attachment to other arms. He was especially keen on umpiring nt manoeuvres and was one of Sir John French’s umpires as early as 1899, and he served him also in the Goodwood country, and at other trainings when the B.E.F. was being evolved as a concrete field force. THE FOUNDATION OF HIS CAREER Staff training in peace and war was, however, the foundation of his career. While still a captain, in the 37th Field Battery, he passed through the Staff College under Lieutenant-general Sir Herbert Miles, his fellow-students including Sir Walter Braithwaitc, who has this week succeeded him at the head of the Eastern Command, Hunter-Weston, Fowler, and Lynden-Bell. The newly-fledged graduate went straight to the staff of the Director of Intelligence in the Boer war, where, for the second time, lie came under the notice of Lord Kitchener, who had employed him in the advance on Khartum. His work was specially marked in the Boer campaign, ani when Lord Roberts came home to take up the Commandership-in-Chief, George Milne was one of his intelligence staff at the War Office under Nicholson, and also an umpire at the wet manoeuvres of 1903, which preceded Lord Roberts’s departure from office under the Esher reforms. SERVICES IN THE GREAT WAR. A definite General Staff was created with a department of its own, under General Sir Neville Lyttelton as the first chief. Lieutenant-colonel Milne was retained, and thus became one of the ; original members of the department on formation. His special work centred on operations under Sir James Grierson, Sir William Robertson, and Sir James Ewart. , After a period as General Archdale’s i

chief of staff to the North Midland Division, he followed his old chief. Sir Neville Lyttelton, to Ireland, remained with the 6th Division as G. 5.0.1. So far, his experience had been broad — intelligence, operations, and trainingand he then reverted to the technical and took over the guns of the 4th Division ■ at Woolwich under General Snow. These he commanded in France, and at Le Cateau took a brilliant part in holding up the enemy and in covering the retirement, during which the guns of the 135th Battery were almost sacrificed to I aid the infantry, yet were drawn clear in the face of the enemy. At Armen- ! tieres the German attack on the 111 | Corps failed, and the most notable assault was smashed up by Milne's guns. The 4th Division was backed by his guns 1 cross-firing, and they had an- extraordinary effect. FOREIGN APRECIATION. From this point he studied new artillery methods and deevlopment, barrage, and variations of control, and made his mark qn the gunnery tactic <{ the future. Ho placed the impress ot his personality on the operations, and bis rise was rapid as chief of the staff to Byng’s 111 Army Corps and Plumer’s Second Army until ultimately, after leading a division, a corps, and an army, he became Commander-in-Chief from the Balkans to the Black Sea. In one foreign despatch he was referred to as a man of uncommon intelligence, with shrewd powers of observation and insight. The following officers of the Imperial General Staff are interchanged:— Brevet Lieutenant-colonel H. D. G (Jrerar, D. 5.0., Royal Canadian Artillery, p.s.c., General Staff Officer, 2nd Grade, Directorate of Military Operations and Intelligence, War Office, and Brevet Major J. H. F. Pain, D. 5.0., M.C., Australian Staff Corps, p.s.c.. General Staff Officer, 2nd Grade, Directorate of Staff Duties, War Office; whilst Brevet Majot C. J. Wallace. D. 5.0.. 0.8. E., M.C.. Highland Light Infantry, p.s.c., is a General Staff Officer. 2nd Grade, at the Royal Military College, Kingston, Canada, and Major C. B. Costin-Nian, M.G., Royal Tank Corps p.s.c. (formerly Canadian Military Forces), is a General Staff Officer, 2nd Grade, Directorate of Military Operations and Intelligence, Australian Military Forces.