KITCHENER ANECDOTES

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7609, 20 January 1903, Page 2

KITCHENER ANECDOTES

<. HOW THE SIRDAR ESCAPED DEATH. A very noteworthy article on Lord Kitchener appears in the December number of "Blackwood's Magazine." It is written by "A Staff Officer," who has evidently had exceptional opportunities for studying the character of the "Man of Silence." " The gift of overcoming apparently insuperable difficulties which Lord Kitcheners-- Soudan officers possessed in such a marked degree was very largely due to the unbending severity with which he treated all failures, wheth.tr high or low were responsible foi* them. A thing was ordered, ithad to\be done, and consequently it was done; no excuses prevailed for an instant. So when an officer lost a Nile steamer through the stupidity of a subordinate he was a ruined man ; when the wires failed to connect IC. with his base at a critical moment, the young officer in charge lost all the fruits of his long and merit-orio*--labours. If no chief ever acknowledged moro fully and generously good work well done, no oiie also was ever more unforgiving of failure, to no matter what ciuse the failure, might be due. Once in tho hottest moment of a blazing Soudan summer I incautiously reported that D. had got sun- . stroke, and therefore could not execute some order. ' Sunstroke !' K. replied ; 'what the devil does ho mean by having sunstroke ; send him down to Cairo at once.' However, D. boing a. friend of mine, I wired to warn him that he was under a delusion, and was quite well, and the order was carried out, and nothing more heard of the master, while poor D. livod to get KILLED BEFORE! MAFEKING. "After Atba-ra, as we rode through the 'dem,' Lord E. Cecil joined us, and presently K. pullod up among the charred corpses on tho burning grounl to make some inquiries. Cecil -mad- a .grimace and pointed to the ground : it wa. strewn with dervish shells lying about, undor our horses' hoofs and the hoofs of tlio chief's horse, with the grass on fire all round them. Neither of us spoke, but Kismet, destiny, or whatever it is that sits behind the crupper, impelled K. to move on, and a lV*.v minutes later a. column of smoke shot- up into- the air — the shells had exploded. But Iv. had passed' on — destiny had need of him •still. " No general has ever been more entirely independent of the help of. those immediaately around him. " ' Are you going to bring up General K. for this campaign:' I once a-ked him. ' No, I don't think so,' K. replied ; 'he is doing very well where he is, and on my staff he always makes a channel.' K. hated channels, hated any strait-waistcoat which hampered and confined him. This isame K. liked to issue a sealed! pattern daily order which was anathema to X., and the more as it was quite unnecessary when the army was all under his hand, and orders were best conveyed verbally." However, K. so troubled him, continues " Blackwood's " article, that Kitchener one day dictated an order to pleas, him, and, WITHOUT TELLING X., revoked it almost instantly by giving totally different verbal orders to another officer. K. only finding it out after he had laboriously • and portentusly registered, duplicated, sealed, signed and delivered in the good old style his own precious document. "X.'s officers took their cue from their chief's sans gene; and imitated his methods. Once a general office*** was inspecting a post on the line of communications, and duly arrived! at the little hut which represented the headquarters. Enter X., and, looking round, espies an*6ffice table and two trays, one full of papers. Interested, ho reads the label attached! to each. The empty one was ticketed ' Business ' and' the other 'Bosh.' 'Excellent officer,' purrs X. — 1 thoroughly understands his work and Kitchener's methods.' But when he went further, and proceeded to examine the papers iv the ' Bosh ' tray, his feelings may be better imagined than described on finding that the docuraent* consisted exclusively of his own voluminous orders."