KITCHENER'S COMING SURPRISE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2549, 25 August 1915, Page 8

KITCHENER'S COMING SURPRISE

CARPERS TO BE CONFOUNDED

[By. A. G. Hales, in "John Bull."]

The hour is pregnant with great news. It wjII not be long before our land will ring from coast to coast with a splendid story of triumph and daring, and mini will bare their heads and thank God for giving us the grim granite man who sits like a sphinx at the head of our armies • and works night and day with, locked mouth, for his country's salvation. ■ I have searched the pages of .history, and searched in vain, for a case parallel to his. Dav in and day out a gigantic! Press organisation attacks liiin, seeking to nullify his almost superhuman, efforts. Tho spirit behind the attacks may bo ono of mistaken patriotism—l hope it is so. Let the gods judge. Bub tho hour of his vindication is near at hand; his triumph will be so immense, ■ so overwhelming, that we shall be abla to pity those who have sought his ruin; their humiliation will bo utter and complete. They have tried to "draw" tha great Field-Marshal and make him show his hand, though by so doing he would have to place his cards face upwards on tho table for the German War Council to see and understand. They,. ]eored at his soldierly qualities, as a hundred years ago a foe jeered at Wellington, calling the Iron Duke a "Sepoy, General," forgetting that nearly every; great military reputation tho world is cognisant of was made, or solidified, in tho East. Knowing what Ido know, I can write to-day more in pity than in anger concerning Lord Kitchener's enemies within the gate; they are going to drink of the cup of derision which the British people will fill to tie brim, and they will have to drain it to tho dregs, .whilst a wondering world shouts his nam© to the quivering '.Skies. Therd are no sands in Britain deep enough for them to hide their heads in when he makes his move and plays his hand. Tho thing I know I have known for some little time past—as tho Editor of this journal has known it for a longer, time. Let Britain possess her soul in patience—the world's greatest ' soldier has not been sleeping; ho did not need! people of untrained intelligence to teach him a soldier's duties; he may, not have secured the kind of shells to meet their views, but it will bo found ho has. ready to his baud all that wil) be required to satisfy the German soldiers and their leaders.

Walt and See. Even those seemingly incomprehett* sible statements made by the various politicians. who have talked far too mucU and done too little, will be set right.. I do not say the happenings of the immediate future will at once bring peace to Europe, but - a vast change will bar made as far as Britain is concerned; If a. solid and lasting peace comes W Europe within the next ten. years, 'I shall not deserve a place amongst the ; prophets. But there will be a big truce. This war was not the mere out-> come of Germany's forty years' pr&< paration for slaughter; it was tkof steady growth of thousands of years; the causes were in activo operation when the Huns wore skins of untanned hida and fought with stone hammers; the Germans precipitated tho crisis because thev were tho bloodiest-minded, ■ the greediest, and the vainest human animals on this planet. It will take years of lighting and rivers of blood to establish Europe on a basis of lasting peace;, many of the old landmarks and traditions will be swept away, never to reappear. Instead of nations as we now, know them, wo may live to see something akin to the confederated States of Europe, with one army and one navy to keep the peace' of the world, and one set of statutes to govern trade and comemrce,- .a practical,, not .• a' Utopian, brotherhood of the white races., with a Business Government ruling over all instead of lawyers and people privileged by the accident of birth. There is a vast chasm to be bridged be-< fore these things can enter the realm of practical affairs, and the first plank in that bridge will be laid down when our great confounds tho Kaiser's War Council with his masterstroke of strategy and makes himself immortal as the greatest soldier sinco the first Napoleon. Bo of good cheer; in Britain, for bright days are at hand, in spite of .the mad Kaiser's boasting.' Put your backs into your work, accord* ing to your individual sphero of action. Soldiers and sailors must fight as men. never fought before; workmen must work as men have never worked sinco tho dawn of time, ;md money magnates must "shell out" until gold runs as freely into the coffers of the State as our warirors' blood' is running ncarv Calais and the. Dardanelles. The people are pouring out their blood; the rich must pour out their gold; we must stop.this street begging; it is bringing us into contempt. We are not a nation of cadgers; there is stored: up wealth enough in. Britain to whip the world; tho milionaires should give in, millions, niid give without being asked, and count it a privilege to be able to do so. Never again should a. British soldier or sailor bo importuned for pence in our streets; it is , a shame and a disgrace to us. They will empty, their veins for us on land and sea; shall we cadge from them the pay with which they seek a good time —possibly, the last "good time" many of them will ever have ?> Each (if them .is ai splinter in a plank of tlio bridge our Field-Marshal has been making. , Be of Good Cheer. Our sun is just rising abovo the horizon. The real end is afar off, but tha day .is brightening; fact duty with a) sniilo, and try, and think, of our soldierleader as a lion crouching, chin on pa,ws, in tho desert, watching with unlinking'eyes, ready to spring when tha moment and the opportunity combine.; Jou will not wait.long; we arc going to drive the Kaiser and his host across the Rhine with those raw British lads who ft year ago had never handled a, rifle or touched a. bayonet. They said wo had no genius in our blood; we were only a nation of shopkeepers; they, came to the slaughter like a wolf pack, and like a wolf pack they will go back —some of them. What they will havo seen—what they will have done—is a story soon to bo told. I wish my pen, 1 were free to write it. But the secret must be kept. Despite all tho delaya and accidents of tho past few months, it will yet be found that Sir. Rottomley was not far wrong when h® predicted that before tho summer waa gone tho Kaiser would be suing fon psaco. '