INTERVIEW WITH LORD KITCHENER

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2352, 7 January 1915, Page 9

INTERVIEW WITH LORD KITCHENER

IRVIN COBB AT THE WAR OFFICE

SOME IMPRESSIONS & OPINIONS

' Mr. Irvin Cobb is one of the most famous war correspondents of the present day- He succeeded in interviewing Lord Kitchener, and enjoys the distinction of being the only mail to accomplish such a notable feat. His account of the interview was published in the Philadelphia "Saturday Evening Post," of December 5, and the statements he attributed to Lord Kitchener were so important that the British Pres3 Bureau immediately took notice of them. The Press Bureau donied that Lord Kitchener had granted a special interview, and accused Mr. Cobb of drawing on his imagination. To this Mr. Cobb re-plie-das follows: —"By arrangement of a third person of prominence in England I did see-Lord Kitchener on October 21 for about forty minutes. I used no pencil and paper during the conversation, following the custom of interviewers. I afterwards reproduced the conversation with Lord Kitchener as exactly as I could. I did not deliberately or wilfully misrepresent Mm, and I am quite positive that I caught his meaning, as nearly as possible the text of what he said, and I am suro that I quoted him correctly. I have had some experience as an. .interviewer, and I have a fairly good memory." Tile full text of Mr. Cobb's interview is published below.

• In the 6tory- that follows, the writer of it is found _ playing a rather more conspicuous part than usually falls to the narrator of an interview, his apology is that lie went to interview Earl Kitchener of Khartoum and was himself interviewed by Earl Kitchener. . I have since been told that this is the common -experience of those who meet Lord Kitchener : they go to hear what he lias to say, and come away that they have done so muchof the talking ana that his Lordship has done so much of the listening. I am prepared to believe this is true. At any rate, I am convinced that 1 can draw a better likeness of him by quoting the questions he asked me, and the comments from which followed by replies to those than I possibly eould draw by putting down on paper only the opinions he expressed. :fhis,'-'then, is my excuse for using the personal pronoun, I, with consider-able-frequency, in this article. At all events,-1 count myself to have been the only man of my trade who has interviewed Earl Kitchener since the present war bega.ii. At least, so far as I know, I have Deen the only one. ■ „ ' .Over the telephone the secretary or the distinguished gentleman who made • the appointment told me, before I was well out of bed, that if I-palled at the War Office that day at 10.30 I should find that all the preliminaries Had been negotiated. Said- the secretary: will not be necessary for. you to present a note,' or even a card. If you send your, name in, that will be quite i sufficient." . i It was not yet 8 o'clock wnen tnis i message came to me in my. room at the Savoy. It would be an. hour or more before the shopkeepers in the Strand opened their doors and took down their shutters. Presumably the interview bad been arranged that morning and not the evening before; and I took this for proof of the story which is 'told about London that Earl Kitchener sleeps at the War Office and keeps earlier tours and .longer.. hours than any day labourer'in the United Kingdom. / As I went along through the smoky late October haze ail awkward squad of recruits, in white sweaters and golf caps, , wore learning to drill in the paved courtyard of Old Whitehall. They earned dummy guns. They were a part of the new volunteer army Kitchener is, making ready for service against the need of .next year. - At one of t the ,;soors v - ofthe., .War.. Office a smalTt'f^&np.^f' \irosi6a" few men were waiting to ■ get news of their men folk, at .the front—if there was any news to ..get. " Those sights are "common, in London 'now. I entered; at another door, where policemen and a functionary in a long red coat and a cockaded ; high hat stood guard. Had this been Berlin instead of London, I am pretty sure I should have been required to Btate my business end show m.v credentials to any number of suspiciously, alert individuals. . , . I remember that at Louvain I was taken into a private room and searched for firearms by a zealous member of the German Secret Service Staff before. I was admitted to the presence-of an acting adjutant of a--general's staff—; and that adjutant knew I was coming to see him that day too, and knew I was an American correspondent. The Simplicity of the British War Secretary's Surroundings. Had it been in Washington, even, I am inelined to think there might have been more or less unreeling of redtapery; but here, nothing happened, except that I told one of the policemen I was calling on Lord Kitchener; and he summoned the red-coated man, and the ■ red-coated man,' touching his hatbrim in salute, directed me to go up a wide flight of stairs at th(> far end of the big entrance hall, ana, when I reached the second* floor, to turn to .the left and knock at the first door L saw.; _ Having done these things, I found myself in a long anteroom opening on an_ inner court of the thousand-roomed building. Only two persons were waiting there—an elderly gentleman in the field uniform of a colonel of infantry and a lady in black, and an attendant or two bustled about, coming in and going out. * .A clerkly, semi-bald gentleman in a frock coat—his Lordships' civilian secretary, I tako it—came, out to soe me first. He turned me over to a Colonel Somebody, whose name I did not catch; but, anyhow, he was attached to the War Secretary's staff.-- The colonel gave me a chair in an outer office, and we talked commonplaces for a minute or 'two. . . ■ . -,' I liad time to take note of a magnificently, carved mantel —a very old mantel I think it must have been—beforo the civilian secretary said, in the grave, ritualistic voice that most of the civilian secretaries in England use: "His Lordship will see Mr. Cobb." He beckoned me to a big oak door In a recess at the >back of the .room flanking the maitelpiece. An attendant opened the door for me, and. I stepped into a . room that must have been sixty feet deep and correspondingly broad. It was almost big enough for a ballroom. Its walls were lined, as I recall, with bookshelves, and' it had a noble fireplace at each end; and in the middle of the floor stood a table, larger than a billiard table, with leather armchairs about it. You nay see such a table and such chairs in the directors' room of any big city bank or big trust company in America At the far end of-the room, alongside one of the fireplaces, was a high desk; and from behind the shelter of this desk a man got up who wore.a khaki uniform coat that buttoned to his 'throat, thereby distinguishing it from the service coats of British officers, they nearly always being made with lapels to show the collar and the cravat. Kitchener, the Cateohlst. From the dull-metal buttons to the arm-seani, across tlio left breast of the coat, ran narrow twin linoj of ribbon decorations.

The strips of ribbon were of all the primary colours, and other colours besides, and were so numerous that it was of no uso to try to count them. I know, becauso I tried. As he stepped out into the middle of the room it struok me that he was somewhat heavier than 1 had been led to believe from the pictures I had seen of him, and a triflo stooped in the shoulders. I got the impression of a tall, bulky man—not fleshy, but solid, wcll-fleshed muscles and a big-boned f rams. He shook hands with me hard

and quick ; and as we eat down, he at his desk and I in a chair beforo the grate fire, ten feet away from him, he said, on the instant: "1-ord Northcliffp. t-ellri me you have lately been with the Germans—with the German 'Army in the field. ■ That is very interesting. Toll me,' please— i 6 the German commissary good?" ! Going over tho meeting subsequently, I was inclined-to-believe that this opening question keynoted the attitude of mind of Lord Kitchener. First of all, ho wanted to know how the enemy he fought was fed; it was the .supreme thing for him to know. Other things could wait.

I told him that, 60 far a 6 my inexpert eyes might judge, tho German commissary was very good. , "But how good?" he insisted. "How complete? Is it adequate at all times? In your experience, has it ever failed them?"

"Well," I 6aid, striving to be'exact and yet not waste words, "like most of tho German military equipment it seems to me to be somewhat cumbersome but highly efficient. Certainly it. is perfect in detail and in organisation. There is always an abundance of food for the troops in the field; and always there is a determined effort to get the food up to the men on the fighting lines and to have it hot when it reaches them— and to have plenty of it for them. It is not particularly appetising in its appearance, buti it i 6 wholesome and abundant, and I know a man can live on it and be well nourished. 1 know, because I lived on it myself for- upward of a week."'

."There is meat in the ordinary Nation, then?" he asked. , "Yes," I said—:"veal generally; sometimes beef; bacon and sausage frequently. I should say the German soldier averages one filling of meat a day, at least."

"How about their petrol ? Is there any shortage of the' supply of-available petrol in the field-? t You, of 'course, know What I mean by petrol. In America. you call'it gasoline." ■ "To my knowledge there is no shortago of their gasoline. Lately, I, understand, they,are using largo quantities of a benzine product that is slightly heavier than gasoline and possibly., not so, volatile. Apparently, however, it answers the purpose. Whether the use of this product means-_that the magazines of regular, gasoline are running low, I cannot say.

He nodded, as though what I said helped -to confirm a 'belief that was al-i ready'- in'"his own mind;:''' '. I

"Now," he went on, "would you mind telling me of jour impression of the spirit; of ..the ; German -'soldiers? Never mind about their officers and generals. Generals win battles, but soldiers win'wars. I. want to-know something of tho feelings of the men in the ranks. _ Have they enthusiasm?" ' I hesitated then, conning my mind for the shadings of the words I needed to' express myself. At that he lifted a long index finger and said: ■ '"l think I know something—at least in a vague way—of the circumstances under which you came to be with the German forces in Franco and Belgium. I mean not to ask you anything that one gentleman might not properly ask of another gentleman, but if; in my desir.e to sens my own side, I should ask you to tell me something you do' not feel you can, in honour, tell, I hope you will be perfectly candid and say as much. I assure you I shall hot take offence. \ Do you regard my last question as having been an improper one?" "Not at all," I said. "I was only trying to find: the right words. J do not think the German soldiers have enthusiasm ill the sense that Americans Vould have it, or Englishmen either. I do not know the exact term to express the spirit they do have. There must be a word in German to express it, but I know little or no German. Certainly I can think of no word in my owii language that truly describes it. I should call it sublimated resolution; though, to my notion, that does not entirely convey my own interpretation of the thing. It is more than determination; it is less than inspiration, and it is not quite eagerness."

Cerman Solf-Confidence Unshaken. "Would doggedness- cover it?" he prompted l . ■ "Or is that too weak a word? In any'event, is it backed by confidence?"

"By absolute confidence, I said. "If the German soldiers are anything in this world, they are confident of the strength and the ultimate success of their armies. Personally, Ido not believe their officers have to drive them into battle. That may have happened in isolated instances; I do not believe it could have happened often or generally. I have; seen them going into battle, and they went with the willingness with which they seem' to go at every other duty that faces - them.

'-'But has-not' their confidence been shaken by the most recent events in the western theatre of war, and especially by what haß been happening in France during the last month? What do the men think of tho failure of the German plan of campaign toward Paris?" - -

I told him I did not believe German confidence had been shaken in' the least; and it was so universal a sentiment among the German people, and so supreme and mastering a sentiment, that nothing short of an absolute undoing and overthrowing of their forces would shake it. '

•And I told him, further, what all along has struck mo as an absolute verity as regards the mental attitude of the Gorman common soldier; and that was this: Taking him in his ordinary relations of life, the German private soldier is a reasonably intelligent creaturo; even though ho bo of peasant stock, he is apt to bo' a reader of newspapers at least; ho'has idoas, and sane ideas, on political and economic questions; he thinks .well and reasons not illogically; but when a gun is put into his hands and a knapsack is strapped on his back, and an order is shouted into his ear, ho ceasse absolutely to think. Ho knows someone else is doing the thinking for him. He questions nothing; he doubts nothing; he accepts what conies, be it good 01 evil, without bringing his mental processes to hear on it. For tho time he has no mental processes; they are suspended. Hiß head is a knob on which ho hangs a helmet —nothing more. I told Lord Kitchener this—or substantially this. "Yes, yes," he said; "but I do not ■understand why the knowledge of the truth of the situation as it exists to-day has not spread through the armies and affected the men. They must guess, as

we here on the other side know, that their leaders have made some terrible mistakes. All generals make mistakes, just as all mon inako them; but the mistakes they have made , are such great, such tremendously great, mistakes!"

All along I had been studying the man who sat facing me, and one by one my conceptions of him, built on what I had read of him, were crumbling down. A hundred times I had read that he was a cold, emotionless, taciturn, inhuman, calculating machine —sphinxlike was the adjective 1 had heard most commonly applied to him. People,. and particularly writing people, had called him the incarnation of passionless, pitiless, infallible efficiency, carried to its highest possible point; they had called him harsh, heartless, and enormously efficient, analysing him as all acid and assaying him as all iron. They 6aid he had the coldest eye that ever looked out of a socket, the grimmest voice that ever made a subordinate shiver in his little bootees.

Far be it from me to quarrel with so many skilful diagnosticians of the outward' aspccts of a man, so many deft dissectors of the hidden fabrics of that man's mentality—only I must offer a' dissenting minority report of my own. To begin with, the eyes that looked at mo 60 steadily were not tho coldest eyes I have ever seen; they were fllintblue and steady, and keen enough ttf'cut wire with, if you please, but to me they semed warmed aud quickened by the impulses behind them—certainly they harmonised well with the face in which they were set. It was a square; rather heavy face, with very thick but not shaggy brows; a grenadier' moustache, which accentuated, without hiding, the big mouth, which was cut straight across; and a clear, red,: highly pigmented skin, the red being a heritage, I imagine, of the years its owner spent sun-baking himself in Africa and India, and, before that, in Palestine. ' You have 'seen men with eyes they seemed to have acquired through a mistake or a freak of Natures-big men, say, with soft, effeminate, woman's eyes. Lord Kitchener's eyes were exactly the sort of eyes Lord Kitchener 6hould have. The one incongruous touch was provided by the thick-rimmed glasses that bestraddled the straight, broad nose. with their bows hiding themselves in the abundant greyish-brown hairhair that clothed the big, round 6kull densely and sprayed out a bit over the ears. A barber undoubtedly would have prescribed a hair-cut on the spot for his Lordship. >. Nor, if I. am to say so, did he in the least suggest the muted Sphinx— that poor, stone-faced creature which for so long has been overworked in furnish comparisons for ' all the notable, victums of conversational lockjaw in the world. The Sphinx may have been inscrutable, and then again the' Sphinx may have been merely stupid. As to Lord Kitchener, I should hazard the guess, after one short meeting with him, that if he has nothing to say he refrains most steadfastly from sayingit; that if he has something to say ho says it with the force and the emphasis' and tho natural grace of one who thinks iu a straight line and talks the same way. I will venture that he is interested in i. great number of subjects, and thoroughly acquainted with a great number of subjects-not in the least-.related to military affairs—things the general British public does not suspect iiim of knowing, or caring about, either. I could, not see him as the half-fabu-lous, wholly -unimaginative ■ thinking machine that in the popular fancy he is. People love to invest their current idols with mysterious and miraculous qualities. I saw him as : a, most human human. Most of all, he did not seem to me the typical soldier. Rather he seemed to me : the typical man of affairs. He suggested ' the "great lawyer, the great surgeon, .the great business man, who is thoroughly up in his pro--fession;, who.-, wastes no. .time and -■ yet gives to a subject all the time, it deserves. With a frock coat on his back insead of a uniform ho might have sat —just as he was—voice, . manner, and mode of speech—for an idealised likeness of the head of a great insurance company or the president of a big railroad., Other Things Lord Kitohener Wanted to Know. When he is talking to you he looks straight at you, and his hands rest at ease in his lap. In the forty minutes spent with him he employed just one pronounced gesture'and made just ono joke and indulged in just one small smile. Lot us get back to our interview'. "Do you think," he asked, "that Germany now has under arms, practically all the able-bodied 'men who are available, for aotive service?" ' "II do not know," I said, "but I think not." "What is the common German atti'tude regarding the countries at war with Germany?" "For France the average German — not only the soldier but the man in the street—professes pity; for Russia he professes contempt; and for England hate. From many educated Germans I have heard practically the same statement in practically the same words— that France stands for decadence. and UJipreparedness; Russia, for ignorance and reaction; England,' for arrogance and perfidy." He made a sparring, quick' half-flip, of his open hand, as though to wave aside tho political aspects of tho World Grudge.. ' . "Not that," said Lord Kitchener. "What I mean is: How do the Germans regard*our soldiers—the soldiers of the Allies?" "They admit," I said, "that the Russian common soldier is a stubborn fighter, but 6ay his officers are incompetent and untrustworthy. They concede the excellence of the French light field artillery, but say the French soldier lacks in physical endurance and in the patience' and hardihood to endure punishment. They say the English soldiers are hard fighters—the hardest fighters they have to meet; and particularly do they speak well of the fighting qualities of the Scotch. They say, though,/ there are not enough British troops in the field to prove any considerable factor in. the final result of the western campaign.'.' Lord Kitchener permitted himself the luxury of a small smile. x "That," he said, "is a defect —if it be a defect—rwhich we are taking steps to remedy. And so they admire the Scotchman as a soldier, even if he is their enemy? Well, there is no better fighting man alive that the Scotchman— anywhere." He seemed pleased—the shadow of. hi 6 smile still lingered under his big moustache ; but at the coming of the next question it vanished. "How about Belgium? In what way do the Germans justify their treatment of Belgium?" I said to him that, according to my best belief, the German attitude regarding Belgium bad altered since the uiiddle of September—which is to say, about six weeks before the date of my visit to Lord Kitchener.' Originally the Germans professed rogreat that military necessity had required the violation or the treaty with Belgium, and the invasion of Belgian territory. Now tho assertion was being commonly made that, by the discovery ox secret papers in tho archives of tne Belgian Govornment following the capture of Brussels, the Germans had learned that Belgium was potentially and actually an ally of I ranee and iingland, both before hostilities started and afterwards. • _. , "In othor words,' commented Lord Kitchener, "the Germans prepared their alibi after the act was commit-: ted—which weakens the alibi without: excusing' the act. It is a poor defence that must be changed in the middle of the trial."

to them," I added, '"the Germans lay emphasis on the fact that, with the exception of Antwerp, all the extensive Belgian fortresses stood along Bel-' gium's eastern frontier, next to Germany; and that the.y had no defences of any character on the side of their country nearest to France."

"For physical proof of their present claim that Belgium was really hostile

It was here Lord Kitchener made his joke. '

"Well," he said, quietly, "if Belgium built her forts on tne German frontier I rather think recent events have proved that was exactly where they should have been built. What is the German exotise for Louvain, and for Dinant, and for their treatment generally of the noni-combatants of Belgium?" I answered him as well as I could, and Lord Kitchener's comment on the answer I made will possibly illuminate the meaning I sought to convey more clearly, than if I -wearied the reader by putting down by own words: Soldiers or Executioners. "War," he said, "has its ethics, and those ethics, are often upsetting of, and destructive to, the ethics of peace; but if every soldier is to become the judge of the behaviour of the oivil population of a hostile country, and if he is to be, not only judge and jury, but the l'nflicter of punishment as well —if arbitrarily ha is permitted to say: Ihw man has violated the code of conduct I myself have set up on the spot, and, therefore, I shall grant no appeal and listen to no excuse and accept no extenuation, but shall shoot him forthwith and bum his house and his town and his church'—if this is the license that is to be granted to any man in uniform; if he holds absolute dominion over the lives and property of the non-combatants of a nation—why, then, to my. conceptions, n.e loses his proper and ordained functions as a soldier and becomes an executioner. If that standard of warfare is to prevail through all tho world we shall all cease to enlist soldiers. We -dialr, instead, enrol hired executioners and send them forth" against our enemy with.guns and hangmen's -nooses and ?,v ln t . lleir hands. Years ago, in Africa—in the Sudan to fight an enemy iTai 9 P j aC t. Ise ? 'J llß code - That , enemy believed he should kill when and where no pleased; believed that .every fiahtTilm "if" wa . s J} supreme power unto 1•' a £ J belng S0 > 116 m 'fAt S' L ] aE ? mst his fo6 or Ws ■X ./T rt /' whenever the chance was t« IrilT en ?, my b c eliey ed his iob or wiv i;,J e " a -i I6S , S . of how - ie billed or why; and, with iim the taking of a territory and the ravaging and the burning and tie sacking of. it, were all BnT n S U V nd in , term tfut that enemy, let me add, was' a savage so-called; and the Germans, as they themselves tell us, are the exclude highest civilisation tne world: has ever seen.'' • has not mentioned the alleged cases of atrocity with which, until IvnLll J c ? lumlls ' of newspapers everywhere had been crowded. - Nor during my movements in and out of the active areas of hostility,. have' I ever found any man above the - rank or colonel, in whatsoever .army ■ who has concerned himself with these things, except incidentally. It is the. stay-ak homes the women, the gossip-mongers . who regard stories of outrages as be ■ ing of paramount importarce. Com. manders of forces think of the mainissues, not of the brutalities that have marked, every war, and .which, no doubt, m overy war have been exaggerated in the telling. .This, I think, was true of Lord Kitchener. I judge he considered Germany, in its attitude towards Belgium, in the light of one nation's fashion of making war on another and a smaller nation, rather than with' regard to sporadic cruelties. - As I interpreted hia state of mind he would' not indict a country of an army on hearsay evidence, or even prima facie evidence, for certain , horrible aots said to liaio been "committed against individuals; 'but would indiot it for inaugurating a system of ..warfare Tinder which,.according to bis best belief; the possibilities .and tho oppor* tunities for committing'such acts were appreciably enhanced. I believe this is generally the soldier' 3 point of view throughout .Europe to-day. I had been wondering, 'as I sat there, of whom Lord Kitchener, so vividly reminded me. Now the ansv er to tho riddle came to me all of a sudden, and it jolted • me. Less than three weeks before, at field headquarters in, the French town of Laon, I had dined on two days at the same table with OverGeneral von Heeringen, Commander-in-Chief of the German . centre, who' has been called the Grey Ghost of MetePhysically the two men—Kitchener and-von Heeringen—had nothing in common;.generally. I conceived them to be unlike. . Except that both of them held' the rank or field-marshal, I could put my finger on'no point of similarity, either in personality or in record, which tlioso men shared between them. It is true they both served in the war of 1870-71; but at the outset this parallel fell flat, too, because one ; had been a junior officer on the German , side and the other a volunteer on the French side. •' One was a -Prussian in every outward aspect; the other was as British as it i 3 possible for a Briton to bo. A Pencil for a Baton, One had been ,at the head of the general staff of his country, and was now in the field in active servioe with a sword at his side. The other, having served his country in the field tor many years, now sat entrenched behind a roll-top desk, directing the machinery of the War Office, with a pencil a baton. Kitchener was in'his robust sixties, with a breast like a barrel; von Heeringen was' in his shrinking, dryingup seventies, fend his. broad shoulders had already begun to fold in on his ribs and his big black eyes to • retreat deeper into his skull. One was beakynosed, hatchet-headed, bearded; the other was broad-faced and shaggily nioustached. One had boen famed for ■his accessibility; the other-for his in-J accessibility. So, because' of these acutely dissimilar things, I marvelled to myself why. when I looked at Kitchener,' I should think of von Heeringen. In another minute, though, I know why. Both men radiated the same quality-of masterfulness ; both of them physically typified competency; -both of them looked on the worldi with the eyes of men who are born to have power and to hold dominion over' lesser men. Put either of these two in the rags of .a beggar or the motley of a clown, and at a glance you would know him for a leader. . . "The-Germans still think they will win," said Lord Kitchener next, speaking with the inflection that made the remark part plain statement and part question. "I wonder how long a tiirte they think it will 'take them to win ?"• ''They are still fully confident,". I said, "but they have changed their schedule—their time card. When I first landed on German soil, -early. in September, before s the campaign' against Paris had been checked, Germans of intelligence said it would take Germany six weeks to whip France, and six months to whip Russia, and a year to "'hip England. Since then they have begun to believe and to admit that it will.take a longer time to end tho war.". Here Lord Kitchener made. use of the one outright gesture he used. Ho brought his fist down hard on tho table in front of •irini, with a thump.. It wan a big, sinewy fist—put it in a glove and it would make you think of a buck's haunch—and the thump was audible and solid.

"They are right in one he said 6lowly, "it will take longer than a year to end this war. But they are

wrong in another regard: they are wrong when they think they are going to win—if, indeed, in their hearts they honestly think that. They, are not going to wu». "Their campaign in the West is a failure. It is a failure already, avid it will become more and more a failure as time passes. When an army of invasion ceases to invade, that army has lost its principal function and has failed in its principal object. When that army hides itself in trenches, and fights at long range, it is doing nothing oxoept waste itself; and especially is this true when that army, having 'readied its maximum of strength and efficienoy and aggressiveness months before, is now losing in all those essentials. ' "To lie in that unending chain of trenches which stretches across Northern France for hundreds of miles, like a long, grey snake—that is not waging a successful campaign. That is not even waging war, as I conceive war to be. For an army of defence? Perhaps; yes; though, under certain circumstances, it might be. a mistake for an army of defence so to dispose itself., For an army of invasion Well, events—the future^—will justify my belief. Of that I am as sure as I am sure that I am alive. "Dropping bombs on cities, whether those cities be defended or undefended, is not waging war. It is a costly, spectacular byplay, which counts for naught in the final result and really does not courit in the detail of momentary advantage. ■ "Paris might be captured, and still the war would go on. England might bo. invaded—though I believe the enemy has not yet worked out complete plans' for that undertaking—and still the war would go on. Germany might take and keep the other side of the Channel, as she has already taken • Antwerp, and still the war would go on. Belgium might be made a captive province for the time .being, and still the war would go on. ■ "This war is going on until Germany has been defeated. . There is no other possible contingency." "Lord Kitchener," I said, "in your opinion, how long will this war last " - Three More Years of Fighting, "Not less than three years," he said. "It will end only when Germany is thoroughly defeated, not. before—; defeated on land and sea. That the" j Allies will win is certain. That for us to win will require a minimum period of three years I think probable. It might last- longer—this war might. It might end sooner.- It. can end in only one way. . > | "That it will end in a month from now, or six months or a year, I do not think likely; so, to be on the safe side, I say three years—at least three years. ' . ' "If Germany gives Up sooner, so much. ..the better for Germany, and for us and for all the world. If three years are required for the, undertaking, or more than three years, the world will find that we, for our pari, are prepared to go on, and ready to go on, andv determined to go on, and certain to go on. In any . event this war can have but oiie outcome: —one ultimate conclusion." His big jaw muscles twitched. He said three' years! .... And at the time of speaking the war was a few days less than three months old. Three months—the seas already ompty of commerce and tho lands of half the world shaking to the tread of marching millions who produce nothing and devour everything." Three months—Germany already bleeding to death internally from two great, con-, stant haemorrhages in her sides, and all. .Franco in. the field, and England raising another million of'the primest manhood in the Empire; to be provender for cannon I Three months now—a year means half of Europe underground arid the other half on orutches. Two years means a continent turned into a oharnol hotiw and a hemisphere ruined for , a feneration tb cornel Three months now—and the supreme head of tho British, forces, had just 6aid there would be three years of it. and perhaps nioro than three jearß of it! I: came, away after that—my forty minutes was up.. As I came out I passed three elderly officers who entered together,_ as though for a conference with their chief. They were generals, I think—finely erect, earnest, competent British military types; but they were -not Kitcheners. I suppose there is only one Kitchener! I trust I am no emotional hero worshipper, and most certainly I am no soldier and know nothing of soldiering; but if I were a soldier and Kitchener were my commander, I believe it would be easy for me, being a soldier, to be a hero worshipper, also. He does not inspire confidenoe in yotf—he creates it in you.