The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." THURSDAY, MAY 6th, 1915. OUR DEBT TO LORD KITCHENER.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 20347, 6 May 1915, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." THURSDAY, MAY 6th, 1915. OUR DEBT TO LORD KITCHENER.

In the course of a recent speech, My. Bonar Law, the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons, gave n striking demonstration of his happy power of focussing public opinion upon ■any matter of moment. His topic was the nation's debt to Lord Kitchener for what he has accomplished and is accomplishing. Mr Bonar Law, in performing his function of interpreter of his country's feelings, clearly defined the specific reason for our gratitude. ' He showed, as the "Spectator" puts it, that we have reason to be grateful to' Lord Kitchener because at the very beginning of the war he formed what

Mr. Bonar Law called "a gigantic conception," not only of the military needs of the nation, but of our ability to! meet those needs. Other men and less-! er men, even though they might have had enough imagination to see what might and ought to be done, would in the emergency have been daunted by the task before them. They would have argued that it was too late to try any new system, that we were committed to great naval but only to small military action, and that, therefore, all wo could be expected to do, and all we could do, since we were unprepared from the military point of view, was to send abroad a comparatively small but efficient expeditionary force, and to keep that force thoroughly equipped and thoroughly well supplied with men. As Mr Bonar Law declared, it is probable that no statesman on either bench would have attempted to do more than keep up the expeditionary force am? develop the Territorials. Happily, it seemed otherwise to Lord Kitchener. The de> parture of the first instalments of the force appeared to leave the military cupboard almost bare. Thcreserves of equipment and of rifles were;' we will 'not say exhausted, but dangerously reduced by mobilisation. The condition1 of our arsenals showed that the Government had never contemplated or prepared for a great improvisation oi troops, and had been content to shape our military policy wholly on the idea of a moderate sized expeditionary force. .Facedwith such a situation, Lord Kit-

chener's was indeed a gigantic, nay, a glorious conception, and one worthy "of the best traditions of the nation. The t: Spectator" declares that to resolve, as Lord Kitchener did, that he would not hear the word "impossible," but that at one and the same time he would heep the expeditionary force going, double the Territorials, and raise a new army on a scale to which the history of war affords no parallel, was worthy of Chatham himself. % The daring and the prescience of the course adopted by Lord Kitchener would have beeti less notable had we possessed that reserve store of a million rifles for which the "Spectator's" voice had clamoured to ineffectually in the past. Again, if the Mother Country had adopted in the past some scheme of universal training and had the men earmarked for improvisation, even if she had not got the equip-' went. Lord Kitchener's task would have been comparatively easy. The magnify cence of his attitude is to be measured by the fact that he had neither the men nor the equipment ready, nor even the plant for providing the equipment. He had not only to create an army, but to create the instruments required to create itv You cannot make an omelette without eggs. Lord Kitchener could not make one without-first-rais-ing the hens to lay the eggs! The situation with which Lord Kitchener was faced in the first week of August is thus explained by the "Spectator": — He had either to be content with hold-, ing out no prospect to our French Allies of our being'tfible to increase our military aid to them, or else to face the appalling problem just described of improvising at one and the same time the men and the material. Happily, Lord Kitchener's mind did not quail befor-J the task. He had imagination enough to see what he had got to do, and will-

power enough to resolve that he would do it. Finally he* had practical ability enough to realise that this was a case in which there was a great danger of n sham improvisation. If he was to improvise something that was to be worth having, he must, he say, begin by tho slow, dull work of laying deep foundations. Take an example which is iilways before our minds. It was no goo.l merely to speed up the existing riiie factories to the utmost. If the problem was not to be trifled with, it was necessary to sit down and quietly and carefully create the plant which six months hence could be used to turn out the much-desired weapons. Men more ftjghty and with less strength of judgment might have argued, "It is no good to think of beginning to manufacture

machines to manufacture rifles six nionths hence. The war may be over by then. What we must, do is to concentrate upon the needs of the next six weeks." Lord Kitchener was fortunately a man capable of taking long views. He was not depressed. He made up his mind that the war.Wbul3.be :i long war, and therefore that it was worth while to prepare machinery which would only Begin' to give: practical results six months hence. He was rios

content with wild efforts at jerrybuild*- ? ing, but determined that his cornetstones should be well and truly laid. Accordingly he began the tremendous task of arraying the manhood of the nation for war, and of developing, organising and exploiting its great commercial resources for the provision of rifles, machine guns, great guns, ammunition small and fjreat, clothes and equipment, bayonets and swords, and all the thousand things needed by r«n army, from huts to tents, from waterproofs to field-glasses, from saddles to motor cars. The Roman Senate thanked their general because he had not despaired of the republic. Well may we i-hank ours because last August he noc only did not despair of the republic in the abstract, but also did not despair of the republic's power to give us men, and also of its power to improvise the equipment for those men. Once more — "a gigantic conception," and one which the country is not likely to forget.