PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3195, 9 June 1915, Page 74

PERSONAL NOTES.

The Earl of Crawford, premier earl of Scotland, has enlisted as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps for the duration of the war. lie drills with other recruits at Aldershot. The Earl is <54 years of age. It is understood that he is anxious to go to the front as early as possible. Since the outbreak of war his Lordship has done excellent service in assisting recruiting. Lord Roberts’s elder brother passed away at Richmond on March 23. It was not given to Major-general Roberts to achieve the fame of the beloved “Bobs Bahadur,” but ho was a hard-working Indian _ soldier, who did good service to the Empire, rather in peace than in war. A tender affection existed between the two veteran soldier-brothers, and almost the last letter which the younger wrote before the visit to Franco, from which he was to return no more alive, contained the words, “Look after ray brother. He is .a very old man.”

Crewe, who has written a poem in memory of his son-in-law who was killed in action, is a poet of great merit, and has written a large number of very beautiful verses. His Lordship tells an amusing story of his father, the late peer. It was during _ the controversy over the Deceased Wife’s Sister

•13ill, and his Lordship wrote to his wife as follows“ Have you heard the latest argument in favour of the D.W.S. Bill? It is unanswerable. If you marry two sisters, you have only one mother-in-law !” —As a politician the late Lord Rothschild was never conspicuous, but so great was his influence that Mr Lloyd George once felt himself impelled to denounce him as ‘‘the Dictator of England.” At that time, it is true, he was working very actively Mr George’s financial policy, but the influence ho exercised was out of all proportion to his rare appearances on the public platform or his still rarer interpositions in Parliamentary debate. By tradition and temperament ho was a- Liberal of the Manchester type, but he joined the Liberal Unionists with John Bright, ■ and of late years he came very much under the personal influence of ilr Balfour. He was a strong Freetrader until the advent of Mr Lloyd George, and even then ho was one of the last Liberal Unionists to try to make a virtue of tariff reform.

- One of the cleverest sketches of Lord Kitchener ever published was that of the. well-known German officer, Von Tiedemann, who went through the Egyptian campaign at his headquarters. ‘‘Personal danger,” Von Tiedemann said, “does not seem to exist for him, although he has nothing whatever of the braggart about him. His entry into Omdurman was madly venturesome, but there was something almost comic about his calm, when, for instance, he lit a cigarette, carefully considering which •way the wind blew', while bullets wero whizzing all round him; and this in his case is not playing to the gallery—it is simply the man’s natural manner. The Duke of Connaught tells a good story against himself. Some years ago. when he was raised to the position of Lieu-tenant-colonel of the Ist Rifle Brigade, the late Queen Victoria commanded that ho should be saluted only as a regimental officer, and not as a member of the Royal Family. On one occasion, however, an Irish sentry, seeing the Duke and Duchess approaching, turned out the guard and gave the Royal salute. The Duke ■was much annoyed, and proceeded to give the sergeant in charge a piece of his mind. But tho quick-witted Irishman was equal to the occasion. “The guard, sorr,” he Said in the richest brogue, “is for her Royal Highness, who. as a member of tho Royal Family, is entitled to it!” After that tho Duke could say nothing. The Duke of Norfolk 'is, in spite of the fact that ho is our premier duke, very careless of his personal appearance._ This fact has sometimes led to very amusing: results. Some time ago his Grace was walking towards a railway station when he came upon a man who was struggling to move a handcart laden with heavy luggage. “Hi,” shouted the man to the Duke, “do you want to earn twopence?” “I don’t mind if I do,” replied his Grace, who thoroughly entered into the fun of the situation. “Then give us a hand with this truck!” commanded tho perspiring porter. The Duke did as he was asked, and helped to push the cart into the station yard. The twopence was duly handed over, and the Duke put it m his pocket with a smile. A moment later ho was walking along the station platform to his first-class carriage between a line of bowing officials. A Scottish correspondent of the Daily Chronicle declares that General von Mackensen, Field-marshal von Hindenburg's second in command,, is of -Scottish descentHe traces the name to the surname “Mackieson” which is not very common, but which was borne by several families in the town of Inverurie, in Aberdeenshire. Some of them migrated, like many Aberdonian®, to Poland, either under the name of “Mackie” or “ Mackenson.” Probably General Mackensen could trace his ancestry back to 1732, to the son of John M-ackie, of Midtown, Inverurie. The late Herr Theo Fischer, declares the correspondent, wrote a big book in 1903 on “Tho Scots in Eastern and Western Prussia,” as ‘a sequel to his “Scots in Germany,” which appeared in tha previous year. It was lucky that Herr Fischer performed his task (which he performed with Teutonic thoroughness) when he did, for at the moment no self-respecting German would claim British blood, and the harshness of the Fatherland to kilted soldiers seems to indicate a particular dislike of the Scots, and a total forgetfulness of tho fine services rendered to Germany by Marshal Keith, in the time of Frederick the Groat. —lt is not generally known that but for a relaxation of the regulations at the instance of the late Duke of Cambridge we would have been deprived of the services of one of 'our most promising generals, Sir Douglas Haig. Ho was not a great public figure until the battle of tho Aisno, when lifs bold work in attack justified the confidence that Sir John French had nlaccd in him. His defensive in the huge struggle for Ypres was equally sound and forcible. Next came the important victory of Neuve Chapelle (great even if incomplete), which made him a hero in public estimation. At the age of 24 he joined the 7th Hussars. At the entrance examination he was found to be colour-blind, but on tho Duke of Cambridge’s nomination was accepted. Fate kept him out of action until 1898, when he served in tho Sudan at Atbara and Khartoum, and was mentioned in despatches. But it was not until Colesberg, in the South African war, that he, as Chief of Staff to Colonel French, cleared the way for Lory Roberts, and made the running with brilliant cavalry operations. That secured his position. From 1903-6 he was Inspectorgeneral of Cavalry in India, and was made Major-general. Then he had a spell of War Office work as Director of Military Training, 1906-7. Indirectly we are reaping the benefit of his efficiency now.