GENERAL HAIG.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1612, 19 September 1916, Page 4

GENERAL HAIG.

HIS PERSONALITY SKETCHED,

The war has t a ugh I journalists (o dread writing of men on secondhand‘knowledge. So many men upon whom ink has been lavished have proved costly and terrible failures that the press in future will he more sparing in its compliments. Striking and but fictional characters have been woven round men, and the public has discovered too late that it has been duped. Hened |Sei caution with which General Haig has been written of by the responsible newspapers, and the suspicion with which the public lias regarded him (states the Sun’s London correspondent). Since the great offensive began so well during the first fortnight in July, this reserve has been disappearing, and though the personality of the Commander-in-Cbief is still an unknown quantity, people are speaking of him with some of the confidence with which (bo French speak of General Joffre. We are all beginning to believe

that be may have something mure than those qualities of stubborn tenacity, caution and foresight which characterised his leadership of the First Army Corps of the Birtish Expeditionary Force, and later of the First Aran-.

He h:is got further into the German lines lh;m any other commander on (he Western front, and there is a prospect to-day of something one has not dared to hope foi —a complete break in the German front, leading’ to retirement to the Meuse-Xamur-Brussels line. He has shown an adaj)lahilily, the lack of which perhaps has been the most marked fault in the British armies under oilier commanders. And he has shown also that he does not wince from losses, hut instead, makes proper and efficient preparation for them. Too many of oar commanders have winced from losses, and through failing to look the inevitable in tlie face have been unready for them when they have come. Two personal impressions of Haig may he given. He reviewed (he tirsl Australian Division, ami impressed our men as a thor... ;h soldier. There seemed to he something in his hearing and deportment which inspired their confidence, and 1 know they were l contented, after their personal contact with him, hy the thought that they were fighting under a strong leader. Haig is said to he pre-eminently a calm and steady thinker. When, at the first battle of Ypres ho pul cooks, batmen, mess sergeants, and orderlies, and all into the line as his last desperate resort- —when, indeed, the whole strength of his army was locked in the most critical of combats —Haig rose* from his table, satisfied that all possible had been done; and what lie said, as he walked to the window, was, “Well, it’s a funny .world, isn’t it r

Haig’s general headquarters impressed mens a busy, simple, workaday place; beautiful in surroundings, peneeful in outlook and in its atmosphere, but ruthlessly efficient and practical. Of course, nothing will make up for lack of inspiration and dash in a military commander, and it has as yet been claimed in few quarters indeed that General Haig has any genius. But (Ids offensive is the real test, and it is going so well just , now that it looks as if we may ere long be hailing the British Commander-in-Chief as beyond compare our' greatest general. True, the Germans were at work upon (he “expansive’’ artillery form of attack before lie tried it on the Somme, but Haig’s officers had worked it out independently of the Germans.