“THE SOUL OF ANZAC.”

Hokitika Guardian, 24 September 1925, Page 4

“THE SOUL OF ANZAC.”

INDIA’S NEW CHIEF

(A "Friend” in "Daily Mail” °l J'dj 21st.) To-morrow l' ield-Mashal Sir \\ illiain Birdwood. Bart., G.C.8., will leave Kmdand to take tip his new duties as Comiiiander-iii-Chief of tlm Army ol India, which in reality is the greatest military post in the British Empire. Sir William Birdwood is not quite sixty years of age. and at the luncheon given'him the other day by the members of the Royal Colonial Institute, oyer which the Duke of Connaught presided lie rather astonished hi.- hearers |>y telling them that he had served forty years in India. He does not look more than forty now. tor he has an alert, slim, compact figure n keen eye. and a brisk movement who a much younger men might envy. IBs vents sit lndillv Oil him, and Ins long sothe tropics has left him with In':!i„ undimmed and with an iron will unmpaired. . ‘■Birdie." as he is aflocliotiuteh known throughout the Army. owes much of ids good health for his passion for swimming. Whenever he is Hear i'i river or the sea. he is plungin', into his favourite element soon after dawn, lie is the coolest and the ovon-tfiniMTiMl sold.or I ha\e

known, and is the absolute opposite ~f tbe traditional choleric warrior Irom India, who is reputed in flavour Ins cnrrv with carbolic in the hot weather. SUCCESS WITH AUSTRALIANS. lie comes of a family of soldiers and administrators long and honourably associated with the Indian Empire, but he owes nothing to "inllucnee," end bus won his way to the highest lank by sheer ability and bard work. He has'fought from end to end of the North-West Frontier of India in lint a dozen stiff campaigns; tint Ins real chance came in the South Airman M ar. He was Dmidonald’s galloper at t be

battle of Cotenso, amt w.e <’,e lirst officers to enter Ladysmith when tb(‘ siege was raised. At NTmigt i.u ■> was severely wounded. ' When Lord' Kitchener .encountered him he promptly made him 'j- . i 1 tarv Secretary, and he served Ins grea predecessor both in South Ahom ami during almost the whole <> ns 1 ! maud in India. It was thus, and in the important posts he alterwaids fdled up to the outbreak ol the Great •< ■ that he gained a knowledge ol Hie military protdems of India whicu, is now almost unique. Birdwood heeame a national hgn ' when he was appointed to the cunmam of til*' Australian and New /calami frinv Corps in the Great War. and he found his new troops m Egypt rathe, disorganised. It was an anxmus time, tor ‘ Birdie" had never been to Australia. white the "Diggers were melined to look askance at a t Bn sh generals. N» man ever worked as hi.<iwoed did in those early days in Egypt. He set himself to will the confidence of his men. spent his whole tune from dawn to dark among them, and '< L' .s„on. if he did not know every man in Ids force, there was no man who did not know him. Just as his Indian soldiers had worshipped him. SO the Australians learned t,, adore him. By the time the Corps landed at An/ae lie was a magic influence. among all ranks, and when Sir lan Hamilton called him " Ihe soul of Anzae." lie hit upon the phrase which was amply justified. Birdwood seemed instinctively to realise that he must adopt unusual methods in the field to convinee the Ansi raliatis that he was leader alter their own heart, nnil mi fie exposed himsTf 1a 1 manv hours daily to personal danger in the firing line SERENE IN' BATTLE. Technically it was entirely wrong to find a. corps e guniatider ill the Iron: trench teaching the men the art ot sniping, but Birdwood knew wed "bat fie was doing, and lie attained an almost legendary posit his ivoop-. for them he was the personiIjeati'ei of bravery and serenity m battle. Again, lie seemed positively to ,!,>!(,'lit in standing ell the end ot the little jetty at Anzae after bathing, and in slowly drying himself under heavy shell-lire with it big towel, while Ins stall' hurriedly sought the nearest dugonte. If rat Sir ('banes .Monro took the l ull responsibility for .ordering the evacuation ot Gallipoli, it was Liidwood who planned and superintended every detail of that most iliflh nil o|n-r----atiou. When he look his Corps l« Fiance he found himself assigned t > t b,e not salubrious neighbourhood ol Armoutiores, but what the Australians and New Zealanders did in France belongs te‘ history. qq. William bad been hit at Gallipoli. and be met with another wound on the Western Front, but it did not prevent him from taking command ol the Fifth Army in I'dRL wh.-n he had the good, fortune to relieve Lille and drive the Germans across I'landers. The last time I saw him ill the war was just after he had rescued l.ille. ; ||e was installed in a stalely mansion, j The late Lord Curz.on arrived towards evening, and it. is an example of Birdwood's tranquil detachment of mind ('.at. though the gun- were booming outside the city and be was to make tin* passage cf the I .vs at dawn, we three dismissed lor a long time -of all snbjer is |— the future of i lie Levant. When the dawn came Ihe German., were "legging it" as hard as tlg-t could, anil were five mile beyond the river. Of Hio Field-Marshal's later career, of Ids wonderful reception when he afterwards visited Australia, of his recent command of the Northern Artitv ill India, and of the honours which have been showered" upon him in his own country and by hall a dozen other nations there i- no need to write in del ail. Sir William Binlttood takes a very hopeful view of the future of India, and is understood to believe that Idperiod of command "ill not be marked by grave event-: but should trouble arise he will assuredly Lire it w'itli the same calmness and restraint which be lias shown in all the irises ol his raiver.