NOT AFRAID OF KITCHENER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1426, 20 July 1915, Page 4

NOT AFRAID OF KITCHENER.

When the full history of the European struggle comes to be written it will be found that the nation owes a great debt to Sir Percy Girouard. In company with Lord Moulton and Mr George Booth, the “push and go man,” Sir Percy has, of recent months, devoted his magnificent powers of organisation to the production of armaments. The brilliant FrenchCanadian has now been granted a major-generalship in the army, and thus yet another of Kitchener’s young men has been given a responsible post. Like Sir Archibald Hunter and Sir Leslie Bundle, Sir Percy Girouard learnt much of his soldiering under “K. of K.” He has been described as “the one man in the Egyptian army who was unaffectedly unafraid of the Sirdar.” Lord Kitchener thought none the less of his brilliant staff officer for his sell-confidence, and In the Soudan he made him his right hand man. In the latter country and South Africa Sir Percy’s skill as an engineer qualified him for the post of director of railways. “K, of K.’s” former campaign work invariably demanded the rapid building of miles of railroad, and Sir Percy Girouard cultivated the knack of flinging new railways across miles of virgin territory with record speed. Sir Percy Girouard entered the army in 1888, was in the Dongola expedition of 1896, and the Nile Expedition a year later. His skill as an organiser prompted the authorities to place him in the position of railway traffic marager at Woolwich Arsenal in 1900, and for three years, from 1909, he was Governor and Commander-iu-Chief in British East Africa. Sir Percy has been summed up as a blend of French apdacity and imagination, American ingenuity, and British doggedness. At Woolwich on one occasion he strolled faom the officers’ mess in an immaculate dress suit and paid a surprise visit to the engineers under his control. He discovered one grimy mechanic, with a face full of woe, endeavouring to start a refractory engine. “Fetch me some overalls,” snapped Sir Percy, and five minutes later, with his dress suit covered with the greasy blue linen garments, he had disappeared amidst the mass of cogwheels, pulleys, and cylinders of the engine. He was out of sight for some time, but when he reappeared the machine was in order.