SIR DOUGLAS HAIG.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 February 1917, Page 4

SIR DOUGLAS HAIG.

(By " G.H.Q.” In the followirg article one who known the Commander-in-Chief a great number of years aud who has had unique personal contact with his unrivalled military capacity and generalship sets forth his great faith in the “man who can whack the Boche.” I am quite convinced that the most valuable military asset of this country to-day is Sir Douglas Haig, and at home it is high time that every man and woman knew of the faith in the man who can whack the Boche which inspires every Britiah soldier in France; it ia high time that the soldier’s faith spread to the soldier’s home. If auy untoward thing should happen to weaken his present authority by reason of influences one need but hint at, I should regard it as the greatest possible national calamity. I have known the Oommander-in-Uhief since the beginning of his great military career ; in no modern instance has rapid promotion been more thoroughly earned and deserved. He holds the highest command in Franoa to-day solely because be ia the man of outstanding military ability one who throughout his life has placed Army matters first and everything else second. Though always a keen sportsman be has invariably made sport subservient. From his earliest days in the Hussars he has studied and mastered every work of military value published in any country. It was in 1895 that he laid the comer stone of that knowledge which ultimately will ba tha undoing of the Boche. He was then a 'oiptain in the 7th Hussars and after a long term of service in India got six mouths’ furlough. Anyone else would have made of that furlough a well-earned holiday. No so Haig—he spent the six months in Germany, liviug with German regiments and studying Continental systems of mili' tary science. In the old Army it was a fashion to talk of the Haig luck. Iu reality it was the kind of luck that commands the help of .Providence ODly when a man has fully helped himself. That is the secret of the Haig fortune —a striking and commanding personality allied to a genius for concentration. He leaves nothing to chance.

I remember during the first terrible battle of Ypres bow he packed off his generals to bed at 8.30 o’ nights, like bo many recalcitrant children. “There's big work to be done and you cannot be fit at four in the morning without proper rest overnight,” he would say. And he saw that his greyhaired generals went to bed too. Month in and out, moreover, he himself practises early habits. There is little pomp ana circumstance about Gr.H.Q. to-day ; the key. note is simplicity and frugality. General Haig sets the pace. He is a non-smoker and takes only the most moderate amount of stimulant at the evening meal—nothing at any other time. There is no thought around him of aught but the war, and all the Staff are imbued with the Commander-in-Ohief’s singleness of purpose.

Advanced G.H.Q. is a simple country dwelling house tucked away unostentatiously a few miles behind the British lines and within easy reach of a little French village. Domiciled here with Sir Douglas Haig are jus i : hree Staff officers: the re-

mainder are billetted in the neighboring village. It is a wonderful organisation, this war-hive of Haig’s. For purposes of G.H.Q. the Army is divided into certain partitions. To each one an officer of the Staff is apportioned, and it is his duty to have at his finger tips just all there is to bo known about his particular army. Thus Sir Douglas Haig has at his side an intimate knowledge of the whole British front. Up betimes in the moroing, ho repairs to his private study immediately after breakfast. Here he interviews his various heads of departments. Sometimes he remains hard at work there till lunch time ; on other day?, interviews over, be gets away eftrly to ens division or another. Here, again, one may note his innate dislike for military circumstance. Thera is little dashing about to-day iu high-powered motor cars, and Sir Douglas never otters one himself unless it be to take him to a distant part of the front which only petrol will achieve in the time at disposal, Very probably horses will have been sent on to an appointed place, and, arriving there, the chief will proceed on horseback. In returning he will ride in to within three or four miles of G.B,Q , then dismount, and finish the return on foot. Seldom a day passes but he visits one of his corps commanders. I think the Oommander-ir-Ch ef i h .-profit jo < o.t to k.. 0-v by ■ ms s : ffij.r ; ee any one hu.i.ao brum cm carry. Often have I heard expressions of amazement from some one or other who iu passing has bean addressed by name by Sir Douglas Haig. *****

Never has the Britiah Array of all ranks bad such a sublime—l had almost said blind—faith and confidence in its Commander-in-Chief. It is the leaven of faith of the First Army which has permeated the whole. For days and nights which ran into weeks, during these awful days of the first battle of Ypres, when every batman and the last cook from the field kitchenß had been flung into the trenches, bis contact with all ranks was of ao 01089 and intimate a nature that his presence among them then has left an indelible impression. The full story of these awful days has yet to be told, but I think I am breaking’ no confidence in teliing today of General Haig’s fervent conviction. Every ounce of British resistance was being strained to breaking point, every means that military genius—backed only by shell-famished guns—could devise bad been requisitioned ; no human power could do more. “ God alone can save us,” were the words aften on his JipS, and no one to-day acknowledges more humbly that super-na - ural a-d was accorded than General Haig himself. It was tbo ho*p of Gad for a man who had helped himself, Officers at his side eav they will never forget those days along the Menin Boad, shelled incessantly day and night, with General Haig. One officer states that, while he can recall fearless horsemanship in the huntingfield and countless episodes during a long friendship of an iron self-control, it was on the Menin Boad be learned untolu things of bis general’s priceless nerve. As I well believe, it is the nerve of a super-man who, maybe, baa some intuitive, sub-conscious knowledge of things well done, founded upon a supreme aud abiding faith in a God above. Without doubt he is a God-feaiiug man. Not far from advanced General Headquarters there is a little French church, and every Sunday morning is held there a simple service of tlie Church of Scotland. Sir Douglas Haig never misses that simple Sunday service. He is a supremely just man. In regard to new commands ana appointments no man was ever less moved by pressure or influence from without. He judges an officer solely upon the value of his military record, and in many cases from his own personal experience. I cannot recall ever having discussed literature in the lighter sense with him, but I never knew any military book ever mentioned in his presence that he had not mastered, Intimates know of his one great antipathy, I might say his contempt, for politics. Unlike the majority of mankind, he welcomes now things, fresh ideas; novelties do not cause him to shrink. His share, for instance, in the great use of the tanks is scarcely appreciated ; the newness would have appalled most men, It is that quality of mind that makes him invaluable on the western front to day. In domestic life Sir Douglas Haig is a devoted father. The mutual affection that exists between him and his two children is idealistic. It is that human element in him that makes him so jealous of the lives of the soldisrs he commands. I think the power of seping through the uniform to. the father who wears it is always with him.

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