THE EX-CHIEF OF STAFF.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 30, Issue 18, 5 March 1918, Page 3

THE EX-CHIEF OF STAFF.

SIR W. ROBERTSON’S CAREER.

Sir William Robertson, K.C.V.0., K.C.8., D. 5.0., late Chief of Imperial General Staff, and now in charge of the Eastern Home command, had a most remarkable career from the ranks to chief staff of the army. A powerful-ly-built country boy, ho went to London at the age of 19 and enlisted in the 9th Lancers, Promotion from the ranks is not frequent. The great majority of officers come from the military school at Sandhurst. But the door is kept open for a private of good education and character. By passing a stiff

examination he may secure a commission . Young Robertson had had only an elementary education; but he sot out to make up for the deficiency by study. He invested his shilling a day, which is the pay of a British private, in books. As a British regular trooper has none too much time to himself he used to get comrades to read to him from Bacon and the English classics while he was grooming his horse or cleaning his equipment. Not until he had served ten years did he pass his

examination which gave him a commission in the Third Dragoon Guards. He was then 29, and the average second lieutenant had about eight years the start of him on the army list. In the course of lineal promotion he could never hope to bo more than a major. Special promotion could come only through distinguishing himself. MacDonald, who won fame by his charge at Omdurman, and other eminent British commanders who had risen from the ranks, had won their way as natural leaders of men in the field. Robertson’s career is the more striking, officers say, because it is due to excellence in organisation and in the application of the methods of modern war which presupposes the grounding of a thorough scientific military education.

Four years after he had received his commission he had won enough attention to bo assigned to the intelligence branch of the quartermaster's depart-

ment in India. In India he found his opportunity. Rewards arc given officers for learning native dialects. To the average officer there is nothing very attractive in spending hours with a native "munshi” or teacher in acquiring a tongue which can be of no use with only some frontier tribe. Robertson offered his munshi a quarter of the reward when he was proficient enough to earn it by passing an examination. This gained for him another opportunity, which was to apply his knowledge by explorations on the north-west frontier. When the Chitral trouble came his linguistic accomplishments and his knowledge of the country were invaluable. He came out of

ho Chitral campaign with the distinguished Service Order for services which included gallantry in action when he was severely wounded. Now he was a “marked man” in the service, marked by stubborn application which had brought him from the ranks and his demonstrated ability. On the staff throughout the South African campaign ho earned the praise of Eobcrts and Kitchener by his capacity for getting things done when others sometimes failed. When in 1910 he was placed in command of the Army taff College, even those who agreed that he had shown himself to be the man for the place were amazed at the thought that a man who had been for ten years a private without any groundwork of regular academic education, should become the director of an institution which gathers tho ablest officers of the army for instruction.

Meanwhile he had kept on with his languages. He now knew French and German, and he had studied the Continental army systems. As Director of ilitary Training at tho War Office he later had much to do with the preparation of the British Expeditionary Force. He went to France with it as the Quartermaster-General who was responsible for keeping that army overseas supplied. His success in this capacity led to his appointment as Chief of Staff in December, 1915.

the deadlock by supplying sufficient numbers to give her Allies the numerical superiority permanently. The element of time remains with the Allies. Not only do the European enemies of Germany possess an equal number of men, but they have behind them the resources and man-power of the United States, which, now that Russia has disappeared, is the greatest of all countries in the war. If the Germans fail to achieve a decision, if they fail to accentuate the war-weariness in Prance sufficiently to bring the French to a separate peace by their offensive of next spring, they will be in a far worse state that at any moment during the war, because they will have used up that strategic reserve supplied by the Russian defection, and they will have no reserve at the moment when the American army is taking its place, at least a million strong, on the Western battle line. But for the arrival of that army the Allies must wait, and during the period in which they are waiting they will unquestionably have to face the fiercest German attack of the war.

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