HONOUR WHERE HONOUR IS DUE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 223, 24 October 1914, Page 8

HONOUR WHERE HONOUR IS DUE.

1 THE MEN BEHIND THE SCENES. I Honour must be paid where honour 1 is due. > Without some very extraordinary or- . ganisation spread over several years . past, the swift transport of the British ? Expeditionary .Force could not have - been made in the way it was. Who 5 planned it? Who conceived it? So . that at the moment required the { machine could be set in motion —and work I J The Work of Lord Haldane. Both the '.fMorning. Post" and the L "PalbMall" Jreely admit that to whom honour.is due is Lord Haldane —the present Lord Chancellor, Secretary for War, philosopher, lawyer, literary man. "At this hour it is right that we should acknowledge the debt due to one whom we have often had occasion to t differ from and to criticise freely," says the "Pall Mall." "It is to the indefatigable work of Lord Haldane, loyally backed up as he was by his military colleagues, that we owe the great success which has attended the ' mobilisation and dispatch of the Army. We do not, at this moment, recall points of difference; we simply record the fact that his administration has given the country a military machine instead of an incoherent assembly of good regiments: Our problem of defence is different .from that', of any other Great Power, and there was room for a wide divergence of opinion as to the amount of cloth which the War Minister ought to have taken. But we are the first to admit that he made a'very good coat -ut of that which he thought fit to take. Having paid our debt to the Minister and the Headquarters Staff, it is most fitting that the untiring work and devotion of the regimental officers should be recognised.":' A Triumph of Perfect Organisation. The smoothness and celerity with which our Army was mobilised is the subject of some interesting comment by a military correspondent in the "Morning Post." .., " When all the detailed reporjts are dealt with," says the writer, "it will be found that the mobilisation of the Army has been a veritable triumph foxall concerned,, and is one of the best feats ever performed in the preliminary . stages of "war. "When the order to mobilise was received on August 4 by Generals Sir Arthur Paget, Sir Horace Smith-Dor-rien, Sir Douglas Haig, the late Sir James Grierson, and other General Officers Commanding, the whole machinery s carefully prepared in peace time began to move. The word •'■' mobilise' was flashed to every station, and at once there began to appear on all public notice boards the call to'arms, whilst' the General Post Office, by studied arrangements made in peace, delivered to the address of every reservist his orders for rejoining. A warrant for his journey was enclosed, and on •August 0 the depots in every town were opened to] receive, clothe, and equip reservists. '' Whilst this massing of men was go-' ing forward the Special Service section of the Territorial Force had been, at the very outset, posted on every railway line, bridge, culvert, and cutting." Who Made Eeady the Tieet? And who made ready the Fleet? . "When the history of this war comes to b.e written three names will be associated with the imperishable glory which Sir John Jellieoe, we feel ] confident, is about to Barn for the Brit- 1 ish Navy, "says Mr Harold Begbie, in 1 the '.< Daily Chronicle;" " First of all 1 will come the name of Lord Fisher, 1 creator of the modern Navy, and the 1 bravest, wisest, and most hated sailin " of our generation; then, perhaps, to the surprise of some people,- will come the : name of fteginald M'Kenna—a chival- 1 rou.;, lo\al, and courageous spirit, who j stoe'd fast in a dangerous*hour; and fi.i • < ally, the 6f %}nston Churchill, a < politician 1 ihprv Hated tbajl :Tk>vd Fisher i as a s-ailor, btft the' ~m6st imaginative, j most brilliant, and most audacious" ( statesman that-ever handled the Brit- i ish "It is a piquant and curioiu> fact } that before he was at the Admiralty t Mr ;Churchill .was a fervid economist, 1 and .was one of Mr M'Kenua's keenest critics against the naval programme of c

A SOLDIER PRINCE.

•l&OP and 1910, which produced the very ships /which are now our first fighting line, "It is impossible at the present moment to give any reasons for this prophecy, but the public will assuredly learn that but for these three men, our whole position at the present moment would be precarious to the point* of death. Instead, we have the- mightiest Fleet in the world, our communications are as open as they were before the declaration of hostilities; and the enemy's fleet is in hiding and his merchant vessels carry him not one ounce Of food." ' The Man in Command. Mr Begbie points out the signifi.cance of Sir John Jellicoe's appointment to the supreme command of Navy: "Sir John Jellicoe," he says, "the greatest of our captains, is in 'supreme command to the considerable astonishment of the Germans, and all the drawing rooms'of. London and all the powerful cabals of society have not been able to place either a gilded blunderer or a second-best at the head of the British forces. : To: give England her greatest captain, Mr Churchill not only. had,.-to ignore ihe social world, but had actually to pain a number of very able and brilliant seamen—Sir John's seniors. 1 It was an act of high courage, and. an act that could only be justified by the immense issues that hung upon it. And by that act of courage Mr Churchill gave inspiration to the British Navy, j for Sir John Jellicoe is the Navy's choice." /■':"'■< Honour to the Dockers, Seamen, and ->■''? . "The Press has been loud in its praise of the splendid manner in which the mobilisation and landing of the Expeditionary Force have been carried out by the military authorities. We yield to none in our admiration of this masterly piece'of work," says the "iJaily Herald." "There is, however, another side, and one to whieh its ; due emphasis must be given. Without the hearty co-oper-ation of civilian vdoefcer; and stevedore, civilian engine driver and sigiiajfijaii/ these gigantic ef for^sj-^^d^li^'^en;'fruitless. It was above airbu the initiative and efficiency of railwayman jand transport workerthat its whole success depended. "For let us visualise what happened prior to the beating of the drum and the sounding' of. the bugle. ■ Every .miner,every railwayman, every docker, were .being mobilised to ensure tile success of this tremendous enterprise. It

was the common docker and stevedore who stowed away the guns - and packed , the ammunition. It was the railwaymen's efficiency which saw to it that ovei-y soldier was at his post exactly; at ■* the. moment required. It was the miners' industry which provided the basis of the whole scheme*. To them we owe this triumph of organisation. "What lesson are we to draw from

this! Above all, as we think, our abso- - lute dependence on the industrial classes, our unique helplessness without the labour and skill of those we call ' unskilled. ' We see how stupid is any reliance on the power of militarism alone, - "Let us determine that, for the future, the work of this ' bottom dog of industrialism' be appraised at its full value. Lord Kitchener and his staff must take into their confidence the or- _ ganisers of Trade Unionism." „