STRIKING DISCLOSURES

Hokitika Guardian, 6 April 1929, Page 8

STRIKING DISCLOSURES

IN LORD HAL DAMN’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

Lord Haldane in Lliis romarkabk aiitouiograpliv, wliieli is ouo of tiic von host i.i’ its kind, is not greatly concerned to defend Ids political past 01 apologise. Ho leaves, as lie says, tin facts to speak for themselves, and now the facts are fully known, the old criticisms of his policy lose much ol their force. He stands forth as a great and capable servant of his country, who nuuie mistakes, no doubt, but who left iichind him at the War Office the kindly nickname of ‘‘Uncle Richard” and the reputation of being the best War Alinister the British nation had ever possessed. The creation of General Staffs in the Army and Navy was mainly due to his energy and initiative. Nothing can lie more pitiful or extraordinary than the disclosures which he makes as to the Navy’s plans for war in the crisis of 1911. with Germany. The hook has a deep political and military interest, besides its personal appeal. It is full of striking characterisations of the prominent men and women of his time, and also of pregnant and inspiring reflections on life, though lie repeats often that he was not “a religious man.” The groatgrand nephew of Lord Eldon. lie came to London in 1877 as an almost unknow young Scat. He made his way rapidly at the Ear by sheer ability and was speedily earning £20,000 a year.

In his early days in London he recounts how:

I even took lessons in dancing in the company of a grave and distinguished member of the medical profession, Airs Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, who had become eminent in public affairs, and, who, like myself, was desirous of making up for the deficiencies of a somewhat restricted upbringing.

From other sources it is known that his dancing was not a success, and he says himself “this inclination was of brief duration.” GREATNESS OF LORO ROSERERRY Some of his estimates of his contemporaries may he quoted here; Lord Roseberry: He was one of the most formidable and impressive men in England, with a power of personal dominance which Morley did nut possess. Lord Morley: I have always believed that iiis real desire was to be Prime Minister. But for such a position he was totally uiisuitcd by his nature, physical as well as mental. . . . He had not much physical courage. Cecil Rhodes: He impressed me, not as an idealist of the kind to which 1 had been accustomed to look up most, but as a splendidly energetic man of affairs, with a wide outlook and .great capacity for getting things througfli. Lord Grey: He was less formidable in his speeches than Asquith, and he was lacking in the range of knowledge that came to the latter from an intellectual curiosity that was absent in Grey.

Lord Oxford and Asquith: From the beginning no meant to he Prime Minister. sooner or later For this position nature had endowed him to a great extent, hut not completely. Air John Burns: Even in 1905 Burns, who had great oratorical gifts blit not much knowledge, was beginning to lie out of date witli Labour.

Sir li. Campbell-Bannerman: Ho was "filial and peculiar and respected for I lie* courage with which he had resisted the policy of the Government in South Africa. But lie was not. identified in the public mind with ant Iresh ideas, for indeed he had none.

Air Churchill: Was as long-winded as he was persistent. . .1 do not think that Churchill’s own typo of mind was host for planning out the solution that was necessary for the (naval) preidem which at that moment (1011) was confronting us. Lord Kitchener: Was a mail with great power of personality. . . He knew nothing of the modern science oT military organisation which had been evolved in Kuropo. Consequently he was difficult to move.

Lord Haldane says of Campbell-Ban-nerman. who appointed him Secretary for War:

.Myself he did not like at first, and this was hardly to he wondered at. Knowing what the War .Office was. lie is said to have observed: “We shall see now how Schopcn1010111’ gets on ill the Kailyard.”

KING HOWARD AND A HAT Behind Lord Haldane was a very powerful influence:

That I should occupy this post (of War Minister), il not Chancellor, i was Hie wish of King Edward himself, and I have reason to think that ho suggested it to C(nmp iclly-i3(an lierman). Of King Edward lie says: I went about much with him in a very informal way (during his visits to Germany and Austria). . . He was very particular about clothes, and thought rather baldly oi my costume one day afterwards in Lingin nd at a party in the open air, when I arrived in a soft felt hat, not very new, it is true, but one which I liked very much. “See him,'’ ho said in loud tones to the ladies around him. “See him arrive in the hat he inherit’ ed from Goethe.” When ne died ] felt the sense of personal grief. . . 1 find this in one of my letters: “This morning the Queen Dowager sent for me. Site received me alone in the room where tie lay as yet uncoffiiicd. and I took a last farewell of my old and clear AI aster. His expression was just the usual one—hut little changed—as I have seen him lying hack in lile, with his eyes closed.” navy without a map. Perhaps Haldane's must startling experience came in the Agadir crisis with uermany : W ..cn complete mobilisation arrangements were essential for the event ui our being called on to act, we received o sliocK. . . ft turned out that the Admiralty were not ot one mind with us (the War Office). . . i hey wanted to take detachments of the Expedition, ary Force and to land them seriatim at points on tile Baltic coast on the northern shores of Prussia. . . Sir W. oiehoison asked whether they had at the Admiralty a map of the German Wrategieal railways. Sir Arthur Wil,on replied that it was not their business to have such maps. If Lord Haldane’s memory did not play him a trick this was an astounding disclosure. But the Cabinet Inquiry of 191)9 into the War Plans (to which the auto iography does not allude) revealed failures in the Admiralty organisation almost as serious. \Vi l l l Lord Morley, Lord Haldane s re. liuions were of the friendliest, and he induced Morley to pay a visit to the racing set at Lady Howe’s country house:

Morley made himself highly popular. The next afternoon as we were all sitting out in the garden one ol the ladies mischievously put a copy of the “Jockey” above Morlcy’s head while another took a snapshot with

a camera. THANKED BY HAIG. The autobiography answers by anticipation the charges which Morley afterwards made aginst Lord Haldane and Lord Grey in connection with the origin of the Great A\ar:

Why lie should have reproached me, I never quite knew 1 used to ask him whether there were no circumstances in which it was the -duty of a great nation to light. He did not dispute that there might he such circumstances.

If we had run away, says Lord Haldane—

I knew . . . that our turn would come later, and that we should he in the greatest peril, our Navy, notwithstanding, and that we might go down without a friend in the world, under a tremendous combination against us.

Perhaps the- tribute avhlich Lofrd Haldane most appreciated was that from Lord Haig, who came fresh from one victory march through London in 1919, as lie sat solitary in I)i s study, to thank him for his .“.successful efforts in organising the military forces for a war on the Continent.”

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