WITH HAIG AT THE FRONT

Hokitika Guardian, 7 May 1929, Page 8

WITH HAIG AT THE FRONT

ms disregard of danger

SERGT. SECRETT’S STORIES

Intimate stories as hitherto untold ol the daily lil'e of the late Earl Haig during the years that he commanded the British armies on the "Western Front are told in a hook written by sergeant T. Secrett, for 25 years the Earl’s personal servant, published recently.

“Twenty-five Years with Earl Haig” is the title of the book. The picture it represents is none the less vivid because penned by one who stood always at a respectful distance from his subject. Sergeant Secrett’s service with Lord Haig began in South Africa in the closing phases of the Boer War.

“J do not think in the history of war—war on a big scale” he writes, “there ever was a Commander so utterly oblivious to persona! danger as was the late Field-Marshal. In his defence of Ypros he lost ail sense of personal danger. His headquarters were at one time within half a mile of the actual lighting!”

On other occasions Haig sat at a table in same chateau crumbling about him under fierce bombardment. AVlien Kitchener remonstrated with him in the hearing of the sergeant, his reply was brief, “i am never conscious of taking a stupid risk.” he said, “but i sometimes find it absolutely necessary ui form my opinion at first-hand.” A remar sable story is told of one of Lord Haig’s visitors ,to G.H.Q.—Lord i.oii.-.dale, the man who was equally at home with the Commander and the least of Ins men. Sergeant Secrett describes his continual visits to the hospitals, his generosity to the wounded, the pains lie took to ease their minds by arranging their affairs at home, and particularly his solicitude i'j t - the lonely soldiers without correspendents at home. “LONELY GUM.” LETTERS. “Very shortly after his visit many of these, fellows negan to get letters front a lonely girl,’ or ‘your anonymous girl pal,’ or ‘a little girl who loves soidio/S,” he adds. “The letters came in bulging parcels, which showed great discrimination on the part of the ‘loneyl girl,’ because the tobacco and the cigars and cigarettes were exceedingly well-chosen. “The secret was never given away, hut I know many staff officers who had a. shrewd idea that a certain great gentleman and golden-hearted sportsman spent hours in his library writing letters which sent a thrill through tile heart of many a ‘lonely soldier'—lette:s which were weil packed. A different kind of visitor—and one whose visit ended abruptly—was “a certain great lady” who came from lionie and .“purposely made herself altra-coarse” in the mistaken belief mat she would show to the men among whom she was working what a “sport” »he was. “At lunch,”'he states, “she dropped several ‘rocks’ in the shape of very ‘advanced’ expressions. Sir Douglas (as lie then was) looked up startled, and J saw two junior officers at freezing point. The lady prattled on, and the more she talked the stronger became her expressions. After a while the Field-Marshal leaned over to her—she sat on his right—and said something in an undertone. The lad> raised her eyebrows and seemed to say something sharply back to him, when .Sir Douglas again said something which could not have been more than two or three words. . . . Then lie addressed a remark to .someone else, and the conversation became genera! again.” HAIG AND THE PRINCE. Once the General suggested to the Field-Marshal that, for safety’s sake, the Prince of Wales should be allot.ed a definite daily itinerary during ; his ! stay at headquarters. “Not a bit,” replied Lord Haig. “He knows my wishes, and he is old enough to have discretion. You must leave the rest to him. I certainly will do no more.” And his kindly sympathy with the lower ranks is shown by a story of a journey to England to attend a Council of War in London, when the Comma nder-in-Chief crossed the Channel in a leave-boat and was lost to those who were to receive him among the rank and file in the darkness of the deck. For hours he stood unrecognised among iiis men, listening patiently to their grumbling and joining their lastly choruses. “When the boat got to Southampton lie went down the gangway with the rest in the grey light of the early dawn, but a quick-eyed transport officer spotted him in a second. He sprang to attention and shouted the warning down the quay, ‘Guard turn nut! The Field MiVrshal’s salute.’ And a crowd of horrified Tommies then saw that their companion of the crossing, who had hoard all their bawdy jokes and fearful and weird criticisms of tlio High Command, was none the less than Haig himself. “He turned to them: Good-bye. boys! Mind you enjoy yourselves! he said, and they raised a dicer then and there.