MAN OF THE HOUR IN GREAT BRITAIN

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 263, 10 December 1914, Page 3

MAN OF THE HOUR IN GREAT BRITAIN

aj* I ■' E would be a splendid manI | agcr of the War Office; I ' I lie would be a splendid iuanI 8 a^er anything," wrote the late Mr. G. W. Steevens of "K. of 1\.," as Field Marshal' Lord Kitchener is familiarly over the whole of the British Empire. "Ilis precision is so unlmmanly nuerrins; he is more like a machine than « man." Ami another critic has declared him to Wellington, but more terrible, "a man without bowels, without a friend, hated by many, feared by all,*' and "a man who will pull things through."

-the time the foregoing words were written Lord Kitchener was busy "pulling things though" in the last South African war; but nobody ever~dreamed that lie would be set to such a task as he is now engaged upon, of endeavoring to "pull things through*' as . Minister of War.

What Steevens foresaw some fifteen years ago the British government has only .lately realized. A soldier at the head of the War Office has never been known before, never been dreamed of. But '"K. of Iv."-is .more than a soldier. He is one of the greatest - diplomatists of his day;'a man of infinite tact nnd resource, strong willed; a man who will not budge an inch until he can see clearly tyhither he is going: a man who spares neither himself nor those acting with and under him in getting ready; a man who acts upon the old Scotch saw, "Never put in your hand any further titan you can easily draw it back again ;" a man who never draws back once he has set forward; a man who has never known defeat. In a word Lord Kitchener of Khartoum is thorough. All that he has accomplished in his career is proof of that.

....That Kitchener came within an ace—so, at least, he has said himself—of missing the great opportunities which have come to him is enough to make the British soul tremble in view of what is'happening now. It has been said that no man alive is indispensable. But what, in these terrible days, would Bx*itain be ' without Kitchener?

As a boy knocking about the Kerry liiils he became infatuated with the Kerrymsm's love of France, and'when the Franco-Prussian War brqke out he crossed the chanuel and took his side with France.* He afterward called it a ''madcap step," but he is none tlie worse tor his madness to-day. "When I saw France being beaten to the earth I could not resist the--tempta-tion to fight, for her," he said while the war was still going on, "even though it i* a hopeless business, as I fear it is. If Iget through this scrape I will try "to get into Sandhurst, although I fear it will not be possible. We have good friends and the authorities may overlook my escapade, which may be very foolish, but it is at least not dishonorable."

Kitchener got through, and lie has got .through many other things since then. That he will "get through'' his part in the present war with the same success that he has always achieved no one in England doubts. With "K. of K.'' organizing the British army, speeding its reinforcements on the way to the front, building up tor CJreat Britain an army such as she has never possessed in her history, all, to.the British mind, cannot fail ft> go well. AH England Ims been perfectly calm, placidly watching the progress "of the War with never a doubt as to its ultimate result, ever since his dramatic appointment to the War Office. The British public demanded that Lord Kitchener should be made Secretary for War, and never did a government so quickly submit. to the will of the people. - Lord Kitchener was stopped at Dover, on his way to Egypt, and called back. He came and accepted the office, but only on condition that he should have an absolutely free hand, that lie alone should be supreme, that all his directions should be carried out without "let or hindranee." How far lie is succeeding all the world can judge. • The public chafed at the apparent delay in sending troops to the front. But they were far from delayed. An arm.,' of 100,000 men, rapidly increased to 200,000 of England's best troops, were fighting on French soil before"the public realized it. Lord Kitchener, thorough in everything, he does, was thorough then as he always has been. Like most of Britain's greatest generals, Lord Kitchener of Khartoum is .of Irish birth; he first saw the light at-j Crotter House, Ballylongford, County Kerry, on June 24, 1850. Like many other distinguished generals ho was the son of a distinguished army officer, his father, the late Colonel H. H. Kitchener, having at one time been in command of the Thirteenth Dragoons. Some biographers say that it was while this regiment was quartered in County Kerry that the future Field Marshal was born, but his father had left the army three years before young Horatio's birth. From his birth he was destined for the

army, though the selection of the Engineers for him did not promise great opportunities. Instead of fighting and winning his spurs early in life he was set to the drudgery of surveying in Palestine. But what in the case of most people would hare foredoomed them to obscurity, in , Kitchener's case was a stepping stone to success; for the leisure that might have been wasted or misused was utilized for the acquiring of dialects, which, perhaps more than anything else, afterward procured for him his appointment of Sirdar in Egypt. .When he volunteered for service in the Egyptian army and became a beau sabreur in a native regiment of cavalry lie had an immense advantage over his comrades. He could speak Arabic like a native. He could disguise himself so that the most astute native could not detect hira. In this way he dwelt among Arabs and discovered their secrets, obtaining over them a hold and a power which enabled him to render perfidy, harmless aiid discount their discontent.* From that time his career has been one of steady and unbroken brilliance. His ceaseless activity and faculty for organization overcame all obstacles. One difficulty overcome he has always shown eagerness to encounter another. It was his hand that fashioned the native Egyptian army, built up a splendid fighting force out of the rawest material, and made the conquest of the Soudan a possibility.

Lord Kitchener was in command of the Egyptian cavalry in 1882 at the retaking of Trtkar, in the Soudan, when a bullet from a heavy Remington rifle missed, as by a miracle, both windpipe and jugular and was imbedded, in the back muscles of the neck. It was a spent bullet, which, by the way, is much more immediately painful to the -victim' than the other kind. It knocked the commandant out of his saddle and set him coughing for a couple of hours. Moreover it altogether declined abstraction. There were no X-rays in those days. For nearly six months that bullet stuck there. At last, through the vicarious agency of an errant fishbone, the Sirdar fell to coughing violently and suddenly found Os;man Digna's souvenir in his table napkin. It was during this period in his career that he performed most of his daring feats, disguising himself, passing into the enemy's camp, learning their pians, and making the acquaintance of suspected spies by pretending to be a spy. So well disguised was he that on one occasion one of bis soldiers cut his head open with a stone.

Lord Kitchener's most important adventure at this period was when, after the fall of Berber, he undertook to reach the mysterious Mudir Mustapha Zaar of Digulu. With £51)0 (.$2,500) to use in argument he set out on a six days' camel ride across the desert and did not return

xintil he had changed the Mudir's intention to become one of the Mahdi's Emirs. / In his reconquest of the Soudan Kitchener may have been slow, but he •ft"as sure. He followed the Roman policy of building roads and advancing toward his goal by short stages, only in the Soudan the roads were railroads. His motto was that difficulties were made to be overcome. His work in the Soudan was; hardly finished when he was called upon to co-operate with Lord Roberts as Chief of the Staff after Sir Redvers Buller, Lord Methuen and General Gatacre had met with disaster in South Africa. Kitchener changed the whole aspect of the Boer War.

| As Commander in Chief in India he J reorganized the whole system, and when his term of office expired he left behind him nine divisions of well trained troops ready for active service, instead of the three there had been when, he took command.

The character of Lord, Kitchener has been described as sullen, sombre, unbending, but that is the description of certain newspaper correspondents who, perhaps, have studied him from a distance. I have mentioned that he is known familiarly as "K. of K.," and a nickname is usually the hallmark of a good fellow. lie in a good fellow, with a keen sense of humor. A raw subaltern was sent but to South

Africa toward the close of the Boer War. As he happened to be very highly connected, the mail carried a sheaf.of letters from high personages asking that he be given special opportunities for'distinguishing himself. /

"Certainly," said Kitchener, with a quiet smile, "send him to —— blockhouse."

"Thafs a very unlikely place," suggested one of his staff. "Exactly," said Kitchener. "But if the Boers should attach in force and he should succeed in defending it he would distinguish himself very greatly." Neither contingency happened.

Many first rate critics of the armchair variety severely criticised Kitchener's block house system, but the youngest general in the British army, as he was then, knew what he was doing. It was a slow business, but it was vindicated by the results, by which he succeeded in completely paralyzing the Boer forces and compelling them, prepared, as they declared they were, to fight to the last man, to lay down their arms. A silent man, he believes in deeds, not wordis. Ilis gift of silence is one of his greatest powers over the crowd. His silence springs from a solitary nature; 'his austere mind, indifferent alike to attack or praise, is fixed only on the task in hand. What he has done, he has done. If you like it, all right; if you don't like it, that is your affair. He would think

as little of placating public opinion as Coriolanus thought of flattering the mob. Even if he is found out he does not trouble. No one of his time has said so little and done so much, nor has any one of his time gone so far with so entire a reliance upon his own merits and so complete n.scorn of the arts of'advertisement. It cannot even be said that he owes his success to an electric personality or to indisputable genius. It Is true that his presence gives a sense of security and power. If he does not make you feel brave he at least makes you feel strong. ■ „

His process of thought may be slow; he belongs more to the school of Wellington or Grant than to the school of Napoleon or Lee. He will "fight it out 011 that line if it takes all summer." He has the patience of Torres Vedras rather than the swift inspiration of Austerlitz. His merit, in short, is for organization rather than for battle. He may not be a great 'warrior, though there are many who will ask if his victories in the field did not prove him a great fighter. At any rate, like Carhot or Moltke, he is a great organizer of victory. Both in Egypt arid SoiithNAfrica his record was that of an engineer slowly and surely , capping and mining the fastnesses of the enemy, here building u railway and penetrating the desert, there carrying out a vast system of block houses to round up the Boers, striking

only when his schemes were perfected. In everything he is the business man of waiv—cold, calculating, merciless, moving without pity or passion to his goal. Some men say that Kitchener is cruel. But he is cruel only in the sense that he is engaged in a cruel game, which has no place for humanitarianism. He believes in Lord Fisher's "Three R's of War""Ruthless," "Relentless," "Remorseless." Lord Roberts' failure in was due to the horror of the sacrifice of life and his determination to wait for surrender rather than the shedding of more blood. Lord Kitchener has no such qualms. Although he is not cruel, he is without compassion. He keeps his eye on the end and steels his heart against the dictates of pity. To him soldiering is not a profession; it is a religion. Solitary, without home ties, living his life in strange lands, he is a martinet to himself insists upon the same hard regimen for others. ,He would have no married officers with him in the Soudan, nor would he allow his staff to go to Cairo for the dissipations of the season. So in South Africa he refused tb permit any of his officers to be joined by their wives at Pretoria.

; He may be a harsh taskmaster,'but he is obeyed. 1

"How wiill it take you?" he will ask one to whom he has assigned a military operation. "Twelve days."

J "You must do it in six;" and it is done I in five.

j A merciless purpose dominates his subJ juration of the enemy. It was shown | in his burning of the Boers' farms and j moving of their women and children | into the concentration camps. It seemed | cruel, but it was necessary to conquer an I ultra-stubborn enemy. He desecrated j the grave of the Mahdi, and threw the i head of the "traitor"' into the river, i which raised an outcry against him | among Christians and Mohammedans | alike. But it had to be done, lest the J grave should become a shrine, and the i seat of further rebellion; for he under- ! stood the native character better than : any other man of his race did. His is ; the iron hand without the velvet glove. His probity, too, is splendid. For corruption, jobbery, intrigue, he has the: most intense detestation. While he was ; in South Africa the contractor was held in an iron grip. He will never try to fit any but the square man into the square hole. It is no use pointing out to him that a candidate for a position is a good fellow, a first rate polo player, that his uncle is the Duke of His policy is that of Napoleon's. "What has he done?" If he does not answer that successfully he has no use for him, even though he were his brother. Not less significant of the man was

the memorable scene at Fashoda, when he met Major Marchand, and war be* tween Britain and France trembled in the balance. It proved him one of the ablest diplomatists of his time. Nobody who watched events then can forget the masterly tactics by which Kitchener got his own country and France out of an extremely tight place* Marchand has himself recorded the dialogue, one of the greatest of history, so diplomatic, so full of immense significance.

The French flag floated over the fort;

but the Egyptian flag'must fly in iti

place. So said the Sirdar. The Ma jot was firm; but Kitchener was firm also; The penalty was the plunging of 3 two great and friendly nations into war, perhaps the ruin of two nations which might some day require the services of each" other in more serious business. 1 "Kitchener the mystic," he has been called by one of his critics. But one wonders if he was then a- real sew: into the future.

In any case the conversation ended with the Egyptian flag floating over the fort at Fashoda. And then Kitchener, did a thing characteristic of another side of nature. When he met Major Marchand he noted that he and his gallant French comrades were half dead with fever and hunger. Sending for doctors, drugs and wine, he carried Marchand off to his tent, filled up for himself and his guest stiff glasses of whiskey and soda, and, in this exchange of courtesies, passed one of the most perilous crises that ever occurred in the relations of two great nations.

There: is no record of Kitchener ever having spoken of this affair, except in his report to the War Office. He was ever modest in discussing his own experiences. A war correspondent has told how, after Athbara, when the great blow had finally been struck at the power of the Khalifa, he went to Kitchener's quarters to congratulate him. The General held up his hand. "Thank you I. thank you!" he said earnestly. And then, as if to himself, in a terror of the thoughts to which his \ visitor's words gave birth, "My God! If I had failed!"

This correspondent; told how on one occasion he presented himself to Kitchener to get his signature for a pass to : the front. Every one knows the Field Marshal's stern objection to newspaper correspondents accompanying the armies in the. field. He disliked them at the time of the South African war, but ha did not carry his objections so far as he is doing in the present war. ' "I suppose you have come for your papers," he said, and then, twisting thja " | pass between his fingers, he added "Do you know what I Vould like to 2 with you? r would like to haye you seat ? to" the' rear and shot. But as I cannot have nay way, I suppose I must give y6u the pass." And with a stroke of the pen he completed and laughingly handed over the license for the civilian critic. Born ruler of men as he is; cool, stern, remorseless in war as f he is, Lord Kitchener has also th& tenderest of heartsT His cold manner is probably very largely the result of sbyness, for, strange as it may seem, he is shy and reserved. He is a man who "keeps himself to himself," as the verse goes, to an extent that Would be remarkable in a man of any position in , any class of society. At the Service Club, of' which he occasionally makes ' use, he is never by any chance seen ia conversation with another fellow member. He lunches by himself, and after lunch betakes himself to a corner of the smoking room, where, sitting alone, he glances through a newspaper while drinking his coffee. He will only be occupied thus for the fewest possible minutes. Then he gets up, leaves the club, and goes, as he came, alone. Equally his disciplinarian methods are all that his popular reputation in this respect makes him appear. But stern and unrelenting though hc.inay be in the fight, Lord "K.'of K." is a man who loves peace. His kindness and Considera-' tion to the vanquished when peace was declared at Vereeniging has never been forgotten by the Boer population ia South Africa. He called together the peoples of the various denoniixiations and told them that he was desirous of cele- ... brating the happy event. It was his wish to avoid anything that appeared like a triumph over the enemy. He therefore proposed the thanksgiving service in which both Boer and Briton could join. The"" English Bishop, thinking to draw the general, said ..that he would like to give out the hymn, "Now thank we all our God," and asked Kitchener what he thought about it. Without moving a muscle Kitchener replied that he thought it a very good hymn, but that "Onward, Christian Soldiers," was equally fine. And so it happened that a great service was held in which British soldiers and the fighting farmers 6f the Transvaal, with their wives and children, united in thanksgiving for the blessing

of peace.