KITCHENER OF KHARTUM

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2275, 8 October 1914, Page 6

KITCHENER OF KHARTUM

THE MAN BEHIND THE BRITISH ARMY A PERSONAL STUDY ' (By T. H. Manners Howe in tho "Pall Mall Magazine.") Though it is seldom that the true proportions of a man's greatness are appreciable by his own countrymen and contemporaries, it is often possible to anticipate the verdict of history by that of moro detached foreign observers. In the case of Earl Kitchener the opinion 'of Westerns and Orientals alike . has very definitely pointed to him as the greatest Englishman of his era. When iCitchenor visited Manchuria and Japan upon the expiration of his command in India, the Japanese laid themselves out to impress him with 1 various exhibitions of thoir militarj power, of which they were ';ery reasonably proud. But the most imposing pageant in the world, its pomps and vanities, are as nothing in Kitchener's eyes. His hosts viewed his silence, his expressionless immobility, if 'with disappointment, at least i witli ( profound respect. It was, in fact, like their own ideal of impenetrable reserve, and, as a Far Eastern friend who was in Kitchener's ontourage informed me, Kitchener is regarded by the Japanese to-day as the greatest European they have ever seen. Incidentally, my object here is to suggest a newer and more accurate estimate of Lord Kitchener's personality. S T one could be" more interesting, if only for the fact that there has been no other modern soldier or statesman whose preparation for the work awaiting him has provided such an example of reversion to the ancient methods of Providence in the fashioning 'of its heroes—from the- days of Moses onwards—amidst the wastes and solitudes of Nature. "K.'s" Reserve* Force. There is a common factor in the character of great men which an old writer has described as "reserve force acting directly by presence without means." "It is a sort of familiar genius," he says, "by whose impulses its possessor* are swayed, but whose commands they cannot impart. Such men are often solitary, or, if they chance to be social, do not need society but can entertain themselves very well alone. What others effect by talent or by eloquence such men accomplish by eome magnetism." When ■ the history of Lord Kitchener comes to be written ,surely no more fitting words could be found to describe him. It was said of Lord Chatham that there was something finer in the man than anything he said. So with Lord Kitchener there is a strango innate power which has always found' expression, not in words, bat in achievement, and in the production of achievement in others. Irishmen like to claim Lord Kitchener as a countryman of theirs on the ground that ho was born at Gunsborourli Villa, County Kerry, on June. 24, 1850. But although his father, Colonel Henry Horatio Kitchener, had migrated to Ireland from \ Leicestershire two years before the birth of his 60n Herbert, tho family is East Anglican, and in tho little Suffolk village of Lakenheath there are records of the Kitcheners going back to two 'hundred years ago, when Thomas Kitchener and his wife Abigail came thither from Hampshire in the reign of/the third William. His mother's family, , the Chovalliers of Aspall, in the.same.old eastern county, I'ave possessed 'Aspall: ;Hall for over two centuries, and it was in recognP tion of his mother's family home that Kitchener associated in his title the name of the little East Anglian village, with that of Khartum. Ireland has given many .great soldiers to the Empire—notably Lord Roberts—but "silly" Suffolk- produced trie stock from which sprang Earl Kitchener of Khartum and Aspall. "Shy, Self-oontalned Boy." Aβ a boy he seems to have impressed observers in different ! ways. An old friend of the family describee him as a "manly, active and spirited little fellow w'ho could not keep quiet; and conselike all boys of this kind, used to get into scrapes, but had great luck in-getting out of them." Another saye "he was a smart, intelligent, growingup lad, promising to be a smart young fellow",- while a third remembers him a» "quiet and taciturn, good at books, but taking a bad place in outdoor games and gymnastics." To a fourth he was "a shy, self-contained boy, who early showed a talent for figures." 'K.'s friends,of 'his famous days will readily recognise these ■ early sprouts of his later qualities. * They soon'bore fruit in an eagerness for any useful experience which crossed his path. Thus even before he entered the' Army in 1871 he had had a taste of actual war. While still a Woolwich cadet he was staying during a vacation with his father in Brittany, for the Irish estates had been sold. France's \ast desperate struggle against the Gorman hosts was being fought out by brave but jll-organised armies of hastilyraised levies. Young KUchener offered his services to the French, was accepted, and fought under General Chanzy in the operations around Le Mans. It was to be remembered afterwards when jie ' and Captain MarcTiand gallantly drank to one another on the Nile at Fashoda.

But we need not go out of our way to seek for early germs of K.'e. after greatness. Hβ would be the first to deny that there was any'finer quality in his nature than is to be found in the generality qf young Anglo-Saxon soldiers. But he was subjected to a noviciate which has produced many of the world's finest souls. Hβ was led forth into the wilderness. He did not adopt a raiment of camel's hair or a menu of locusts and wild honey, but ib'e. strong Teflective elements in his nature, the self-sufficing, self-reliant were developed and hardened into wondrous temper in the free atmosphere and. vast lonely spaces of the deserts.. , f Tale of a Telegram. It was characteristic of bo unconventional a nature that his first step to fortune and greatness was a piece of indiscipline. He was on leave in Alexandria on the eve of the famous bombardment, and knowing that a telegram recalling him to Cyprus was imminent he arranged with a friendly press-man io delay its reaching his' hands until the weekly boat to Cyprus had gone Lieutenant Kitchener' with his, at that time, unrivalled knowledge of the natives and their language, was, of course, a welcome find for any commander like Lord AVolsoley, committed to ozonations in a comparatively unknown country. Accordingly his services were retained, and from that moment his future was assured. There followed twelve months' unremitting labour j broken only by a journey to Sinai, and then, as an intelligence Officer, ho disappeared into the desert to the south. His nature had becomo fully responsive and attuned to the voice of the wildorness, ond it was a call he could not resist. For two years ho wandered from Cairo to Abu Hamod, from Berber to the Red Sea. , Hie Arab whose language ho epoke and whose garb ho wore mot him sometimes in far-away villages, in crowded bazaars, or in desert oases. Living tho life of the native, he talked trade and commerce with cross-leggoo , Arab'merchants between puffs of his chibouk, or Soudanese politics with Bisliareon Sheikhs by ■ palm-sliadod I wells in the Lybinn ■ deserts. ■ And all I the time he woe absorbing that vst

Eto're of information and knowledge which in due F.easou, after fifteen long years, was to materialise in the regeneration of the Sudan. Kitchener's Way. Genial, affable, kindly, and k-ff e* a joke at ordinary times, when nard work or lighting is afoot he freezes into an uncompromising severity. JTence the conetant triumph of his subordinates over apparently insuperable difficulties. Onco, in a blazing Sudan 6ummer, a young officer on a deseirt post, to whom an order had been sent, was down with a touch of suustroko. It was a direct contravention of K's regulations, for every one of his officers had to'be tit and ready to march in K's invariable half-an-hour in any direction. One of K's staff thoughtlessly pleaded tho young officer's physical incapacity'. ; "Sunstroke 1" replied K. "What the devil does he mean by having sunstroke? Send him down to Cairo at once." As this was 1 K's invariable sentence i of professional death, the staff-officer •' hurriedly wired to his friend a warning that he was under a delusion and was quite, well. The order was somehow carried out, and nothing more was heard of tho matter. Only one man is ever known' to have given back-talk to Kitchener in the matter of an order. Whon at the most critical stage of the long advance towards Khartum the all- ' important desert railway was heiiig; pushed into the gleaming wastes of rock and sand beyond Wady Haifa,, K. one day made a suddon descent' upon the officer in charge of the work and strongly objected to some method of construction. [ It might have silenced some men. I But the young, and at that time unknown, sojdier of French-Canadian extraction, Percy Girouard, looked calmly into the eyes of tho dreaded chief and replied deliberately; "Look here, ; sir, am I working this job or are you.?" Kitchener laughed. "Go on," he said. "Do it your own way." Hβ know tie man and the qualities which gave him such faith in himself. His Inoxorable "Must." The following story affords an "Interesting comparison between K's way arid' that of other commanders. ■ If occurred in South Africa. Lord Itoberts, requiring some important work to be carried out, sent for a senior officer and gave him his instructions. "How eoon do you thiiik you can put it throughi , " inquired the kindly old chief, adding, -I I knew you'll do the best you can." "I'll try to do it in a fortnight, sir," was the reply. "Well, I know you'll v do your best," smiled Lord Roberts, ae he bade the other good-bye. The visitor had no sooner got outside than he ran up against Lord Kitchener. "Well?" rapped out K., abruptly. "Oh, I've just seen the tihief," explained the officer, referring to the business in hand. ''How soon will you get it done?" was the quick response. "Well, I told him I would try and do it in a fortnight." '•Now look here, Colonel," replied K., "unless this is put'through within a -. • week we shall have to consider your • return home." The work was done. : No man was ever so independent of his entourage. His office stationery consisted of a bundle of telegraph forme in his helmet and a pencil in his pocket. It was said of him that his Chief of the Staff in South Africa had nothing to do but to smoke his pipe, and that if an earthquake had swallowed up the whole ■, of his Staff he probably would not have noticed it. Yet none knew better than he how much of his success was due'to his wise choice of the tools he used, and in their choice he was adamant to all suggestions from without. Upon this implacable son of the deserfcs the jobbery aud backstair influences of civilised communities never made a moment's impression. But woman will often rush in where man fears to tread. • "That Awful Woman I" It happened in the days of his Sirdarship at Cairo that a lady of considerable, eocial influenco but little discretion rfr; solved in the interests of a young soldier to make a direct appeal to K. himself. She' besought a personal interview. The Sirdar excused himself. Nothing daunted, the lady presented herself at K's official quarters at a time which usually claimed hie attendance in the dauy routine of business. K. posted an officer- on guard with strict injunctions. Twice tho would-be intruder was induced by this look-out man to believe' the Sirdar had escaped her. Accordingly she timed her nest visit for a more promising hour. The watchman .. again stood in the breach. "How. dare you tell me he is not here I" she gasped. "You shall nob stop me." And before the surprised officer could muster sufficient resolution to bar the way_ the en cany had rushed the position ivith a wild rustic of silk petticoats and parasol at the charge. ■ ■ ■■■ ■ . . ■ Down the passage went the attack, and with unerring instinct'into a room at the end. Hore, k> and behold, was a tall man engaged' in some ablutions and garbed in a-aeshabille of shirt and nether garments who, with the genius of the great generalthat he was, atonce took cover behind a table and a ' couple of chairs. The avenger of ■ dor- ,; don afterwards acknowledged that but for tho furniture zareba he must have been lost. But help was at hand, and; by a eeries of masterly operations thesiege was raised. It was, perhaps, the ■ closest shave the great chief has even ■- had, and long after, when reference was made to this terrible adventure, K. would observe with uplifted hands and eyes, "That awful woman! "Kooch-Nohr. , ' ; The most -splendid monument- to •'' Kitchener's exceptional greatness, both as a statesman and soldier, will always be his present labours for the peoples of Egypt and the Sudan. Spoken of roverently as "El Lord" or ' KoocaNohr," ho is regarded by the masses * of the people almost as a semi-divinity, such as wero Seti and Barneses, by the Egyptians of old. For the races of, the Sudan he is a far greater one than tho old Mahdi. The immense driving, power of his strength of character and, tireless industry is forcing a succession,, of far-reaching reforms through hither-; to insuperable obstacles, the deserts and bringing well-being and happiness to vast and increasing populations. '