THE BRITISH CHIEF OF STAFF

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 14, 11 October 1917, Page 6

THE BRITISH CHIEF OF STAFF

A GLIMPSE AND AN INTERVIEW

An inspiriting review, df the present war situation was recently given by Sir William Robertson, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, to ; a representative., of the New York-"Times" (and briefly I cabled at the time). "The correspondent gives a personal sketch of tho General, whom he describes as a stubborn, good-natured man, firm as a rock, true as steel, passing himself off as an average man, admirably personating the nation with its doggeclness,' good humour, quiet confidence, and common eense.

Asked for the opinion of an honest soldier on the present stage of the war, Sir William Eobertson replied that the question was one which no soldier could enavrer. The war was a struggle of nations, and from that standpoint no soldier could 6peak definitely. You had, he Eaid, to do with the psychology of peoples. Behind the armies in the field was the nerve oF the. nations they represented. This tremendous struggle was a test of -racial quality. Tho workmen and workwomen nero engaged in it. Every muscle in tiie vast body was being tstrained. Supposing that you could only drive the enemy before you, yard by yard, month by month, might you not, he asked, ,be destroying his civilian confidence, breaking his political will? And in that case the decision was a military decision; you had conquered his resistance.

When people asked about the destruction of the German defensive in the field, and hinted that it could not be destroyed, they forgot tho difference between 1911 nnd 1917. Three years ago wo had oUr backs •to them and were rc-treatiug, French and British together, close to Paris, with few guns and many casnalticß. To-day we -were away to the north, facing north. We were millions where biforo we had been thousands; tfe hiul driven the enemy before us; we had taken positions which ho regarded as matters of life and death, and our guns were hammering him now as ho had been hammered before. 11 was too early to say that the defensive in modern warfare was impregnable. Let us wait a few weeks. Someone had got to give way 'in this conflict. It' the nations of the Allies were steadfast, if tbo civilian hcwt was sound, submission must come sooner or later from tho Central Powers. Quality end character were going to win this war. Sir Willinm iiobertson went on to say that the Germans affected to' feel contempt for the Americans and their participation in the war, but this was duo to the urgent anxiety of tht Higher Command that tho will of their own people should not break in this struggle of national tenacities. When a nation liko tiie American, of a hundred million people, inventive, resourceful, courageous, ranged itself on the side of. democratic Powers which were absolutely determined to go on hammering autocratic militarism nntil tho world was ?afe for democracy, the end was certain. "You are confident of the end?" asked the correspondent. "Who could doubt it and live?" tho General replied, but oncemore he affirmed that, it was the fibre, the grit, the nerve of the civilian peoplo that would decide, not only this war, but the future of the world. Tho Germans had discipline in their blood. All those millions had been forged into a sword for a King. But there was a still more, formidable discipline, tho self-iin-posed discipline of a free people. What could be. more magnificent than the spectacle which America presented to mankind, a vast, free democracy imposing upon itself the restraints and rigours of discipline? This meant at this moment os much to the spirit of the struggle, as later its effects would mean to the final grin. Turning for a moment to personal matters, the correspondent a.sked Sir William how he managtd to keep fit in London, and the Gen&nil answered that he rode twice a day, had an occasional game of-golf, and more frequently played tennis; but, above all, he kept a clear table. It is a great secret of health, a clear table. He never allowed things to accumulate, and kept his mind free of all unneceesory details. His message to America, if he iuight send one, was: "Gentlemen of the United States, put .your backs into it!"