The Men Who Save the Empire.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 December 1922, Page 4

The Men Who Save the Empire.

lIARINGTOX A TYPE. • By (!. Ward Price). CO N ST A XT. IXO P L K. in a, real crisis England generally finds a man to serve lier. It is not, as a rule, the eloquent speeches of her politicians that got her out of a mess abroad, nor even the formal Notes ol the Foreign Office, hut rather the action of some plain, blunt man on the spot upon whom is suddenly thrust full responsibility, and who knows—hut cares not at all—that if lie tails file full blame will he his, while if he wins through, the credit will go to the firm and intelligent instructions he presumably received from the Government. Wjiy this method succeeds is because at the eleventh hour it gives, free play to the fundamental insiinots of the ltritis.il national character instead of to the more sophisticated arts of her politicians. Let us as a nation he thankful for that character. Its foundation is eommonsensc ; its buttresses are straightforwardness and a certain affability, a disarming modesty unusual in international relations. Britons who stay at home cannot appreciate this much ; you need to see our national temperament mixed up with that of other peoples in a critical situation to realise that this and nothing else is the rock upon which the British Empire has been built. Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Tlnringt on has heen the man to play this role in the biggest mess wo have ever got into in the Near East. He fulfilled it admirably and he did it alone. 1 notice that official utterances link with his name those of the Allied High Commissioners, as if they had taken the responsibility of the grave decisions made and llarington wolo only their mouthpiece. I was at Mudania throughout the critical stage of the Conference, and I know that it was not so. General Harrington bore the burden virtually unaided, hardly helped even by instructions from the Cabinet at home, for there was so much delay in drafting and transmitting these that he frequently had to take his own line before official guidance reached him. He represented Britain very worthily in that emergency. Worried, or course hut never flustered or irritable; looking single-minded at his goal, which was to save Britain’s essential interests and dignity and at the same time keep the peace. FACING THE CtMSTS. I do not believe it ever crossed his little room sometimes, on to the rickety wooden balcony over the sea. to smoke a cigarette in the intervals of the Conference, that he was the most important man in the British

Empire at that moment—though I know lie realised fully that it needed but one hasty decision on his part to start a war which would cost many millions sterling and countless lives a war that might well he the end of European civilisation. In the contact one was privileged to have with General Hnrington at Mudania. I was reminded of the memory that has eomee down to us of General Gordon of Khartum. Both these men were good soldiers—and something more. Their eyes could look out on the world otherwise than from under a brass hat. They had no professional desire for war as an opportunity of distinction and advancement. Both too, belong to that fine typo of Englishman—commoner in the British Army than is generally supposed—. who is intensely virile and at the same time a frank believer in higher things.

Hnrington has the long, lean frame which foreigners always maintain is characteristic of our race, lie is a highly strung man, quick and nervous in his gestures, and this alertness is especially apparent in his unusually bright and penetrating eyes. When they .were signing that t neve n lion at Mudania I took a sudden glance at the table to see what struck one’s attention first. The two oil lamps, burning paler as the grey dawn cleared the sky, still east strong light upon the heads of the littie circle and it was mot the abstracted Oriental face of Ismet nor the heavy Teutonic jowl of Hamid Hey that held one's gane, nor yet General Churpy’s weligroomed head nor the*grey mask of General Mombelli, hut it was Harington’s eyes, quick and restless as a terrier’s. Hashing round the table, symptomatic of the eager brain behind them.

When he came up sometimes "to the flagship’s quarter-deck from one ol these continual .conferences u'ith the Allied generals or the Greeks, or again in the intervals of his negotiations with Ismet ashore, one heard from General Hnrington how the chances of peace ebbed and flowed. War often hung upon a word, while the Lewis-gunners at 'Clianak had their lingers almost literally upon the trigger, and in the Iron Duke, half a mile away from the conference table, shells were all day being hoisted from the magazines and fused. SOLDI EH AND DIPLOMA! The peculiar difficulty of llarington's position at -Mudania was that lie i had two simultaneous roles to play, j He was both soldier alul diplomat,'and j either of these functions was capable | of injuring the other. At the same i time he had also to conform to com- | plicated intcr-Allied decisions which came slowly trickling through the wireless, often in two contradictory versions—French and English—from two thousand miles away. “We can’t get in touch with C'uizon for two hours. Do nothing till you hear from us again,” was the purport of one message from the Foreign Office on Monday, October 9. that momentous day when wo had reached the limit of our concessions, and Harington, who had made an appointment with Ismet for 8 p.nt. was waiting to go ashore and confront him with a Convention which, if he refused to sign it, meant immediate war. And, if he was hampered thus as a diplomat, what an impossible position lie had as a soldier! He was Com-mander-in-Chief of an Allied Army as to two-thirds of which—the French and Italian contingents—lie was definitely and finally informed on Tuesday morning, October 10, when we might have been at war by nightfall, that he could not l-ely, even for the purpose ol defending Constantinople on the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus. His own army was split up between separate zones, twelve hours by sea •apart, from each other. It was faced by ail adversary already stronger m numliors and growing more so hourly. His headquarters were in the capital of Hie enemy’s territory, surrounded by an armed and hostile population, lie knew that he could get no more reinforcements for a long time, for the First Division was to he sent out only when fighting started, and would have taken a month to get here. And it j was not alone the safety of his army, but also that of a highly precious and. in these narrow waters, highly vul- | licrable fleet, that he had to keep m j mind. j On everything uttered, whether by I nominal friend or possible foe, lie had j to look with suspicion. Small wonder that within the last few months Gen- | eral Hnrington, still under 00, should have collie to look a little fine-drawn. ; But that did not prevent him, in a brief interlude of one critical afterneon at Mudania. from sitting bv the ringside of a boxing competition ; which the Navy, with its serene aloof- | ness from everything outside its own j superbly ordered routine, had organ- • ised, and laughing gaily at a comic bout.

That is the British character agate. How it stands by us in these tight corners!