KITCHENER'S GREAT BLUFF.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 September 1915, Page 6

KITCHENER'S GREAT BLUFF.

HIS MYSTERIOUS ARMY

HOW THE GERMANS WERE HOOD. WINKED.

Mr. J. Herbert Duckworth, an English journalist, contributes an airtkJe to an American magazine in which he describes iixivr Kitchener's army was socially increased from 1,000,000 to 4,000,«» men night under the very noses of tibia übiquitous Gorman spies. "This feat of clothing, arming and training Vhjs mighty ihost, and of then smuggling it out of a supposedly submarine-bloclcad 4 ed island to France, has no patollc!}' in history. As an exhibition of high strategy alone it surpasses the finest performances in the field of cither General Joffre or General von Hindcnbuuj.' "It completely deceived General Staff as to' England's military.' strength, and confounded the Teutonic theorists who 'bad always maintained that it was impossible, to make a soldier in less than three years. T/h>* grim joke on the Kaiser was <oneocted by Lord Kitchener himself. • He cony mandeerod the cervices of the Press tp assist him to carry out the great bluff, and there can be no harm now 'in' falling how It was done. • • "K.'s" SCHEME; • , • "When tho British Secretary of State for War first-conceived the idea 'of putting into tlhe field 4,000,000 men, he realised that it would be' a grave strategic blunder to allow 'the enemy to know what was really afoot; ■ Rather, the game should be-to call for 1,000000 men, and then Press-agent-' tho World with stories lamenting the fact that,-at last, the British Empire-nvoa about to crumble up because the men df EngjSfid' had not the pluck to'defend'it/ ••AW the German stories that; the >rhodern Englishman had become effete 'and anaemic were, indeed, too true! > "The scheme worked out admirably, Recruiting was phenomenally brisk' froVi the fret. Yet -the- Germans eagerly swallowed the ekilfully iphrascd vitrns . that were published broadcast, that told how only conscription would save the British from utter diaastejv. , WjiUe.6»o cartoonists and funny verse writers of tlhe rest of the world were holding up to ridicule the sport-loving ingiishmah, who was supposed to be refusing io shoulder a gun in defence'.of his hearth. and home, Great- Britain* wafrapiaiy and thoroughly building Up her ■ owit big' Steam Rolfer.' -(• -..'•-*■

'A CAMPAIGN OF SILENCE.

"Tlie campaign of silcncfl was cap' ducted on strictly scientific lines. Th'c newspaper editors were first warned that any indiscretion wiild' moau a courtmartial, under the Defence of tHio Realm Act on charges of haviiig 'spread reports Ekely to interfere with tlie success of ha Majesty's forces-'-/Tliey tferfe'insfanctej to publish only the recrjuting' returns sent out by thenar OfQc*. Itidependent census taking .iiras etfietly forbidden. All .arfiotys oh tlib ' new army, and jictttftea of eoldiets; ted first to be Submitted to |Jic censor. ''A permit was required even' to' own a camera, •

"The English have the', reputation i>l having 'muddled through', moat of."their ware. They are muddling, through.this one, but for once there has been inctlivJ in the muddling, '.Tricks' and subterfuges, cunning and/ innumorabfo were adopted in order to hoodwink the pii(>pry as.to size and disposition .of the army. Battalions of the'same regiment' were trained in different parte .of, the country. Instead of creating. new corj* old ones were increased, to colossal proportions. The Manchester. Regiment, for instance, grew from 4 to 30 battalions—to 36,000 men. Of course, it;was.oV. vious to the most casual observer that Great Britain was getting together. a tremendous army. But wfco could &»y whether it numbered 2,000,000 or 4,000,000 men? . ~:>•

"Nothing was ever said . about the 500,000 very efficient .Territorials. And yet these men virtually belonged to Kitchener's army. < Men who- -.enlisted in the Territorial forces after the' 'declaraflion of Avar undertook the same obligations as the men in the regu'ar army. The old members, recruited for some defence only, were easily brought into line. They were paraded; before their colonels, who would-bawl out:! J ".'Any man who doesn't want to go into the trendies please Step one pace to the front.' ,;■"•'•..

EXTRAOBSINARY SECRECY.

"When it camo to moving the, upw troops to France, extraordinary precautions were taken to 'mislead the spies. The regiments were not all' transported from Southampton to . Boulogne or Havre. Instead, they wero shipped from what were really out-ofrthe-way and inconvenient ports—Bristol, Avonmouth, Cardiff, Swansea and Barrow, for example —to French ports as far from tho ftribg line aa St. Malo, Brest and even Bordeaux on the west coast, and Marseilles on the Mediterranean. Troop train* were invariably moved, at: night with drawn Minds. Often-times they were run half-way round the country" beforo being sneaked alongside a transport. Not even the officers wero aware /of tlheir ultimate destination—whether -It was to be France, Egypt, India or the Dardanelles. .....-"

"The engine-drivers _w* re . .changed every twenty miles or so,' and the !captains of the troopships received thijir final instructions by wireless after t)iey had put to sea. Last spring, when the movement of Kitchener's army was in full swing, I visited Ryd'c, - in' the/Isle of Wight. One lay a fleet of: at. lea'9t'3o transports collected in the' Solent. Nobody knew where they had come from. At dusk a score of 40-knot torpedo-boat destroyers, the escort, put in an appearance. When night fell nothing could be seen but the searohliphts' sweeping the entrance to Portsmouth Sarbor; bn, the mainland, -for enemy periscopes. Th the morning transports and' destroyers had pone. "What was the secret of Lord Kitchener's suecess in so easily persuading 4.000,000 men voluntarily to enlist? It wis advertising. A very few days after England had decided to. enter the flict millions of posters, calling for volunteers to enlist for 'the period of the war only' were plastered up. The wMe country, from John o' .Qrqat's to J ■ ■• "s End, looked like one huge bill-board. It Hias the biggest and most thoro'V.*, «d----tfertteing campaign ever*'.conc«lved arid successfully carried, out.''