GENERAL PERSHING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1726, 16 June 1917, Page 1

GENERAL PERSHING.

BRILLIANT AND SUCCESSFUL OFFICER. COMMANDER OF AMERICA’S EXPEDITIONARY FORCE. In an article on Brigadier-General -I. J. Pershing, who is in command of the United Slates Expeditionary Force to France, a writer in a recent issue of the American Review of Reviews stated:— As long ago as 1887, General Miles, one of that group of Indian lighters and plainsmen whose valour gave distinction, if not glory, to our little army in the years succeeding the Civil War, thought it worth while to commend oflicially a young lieutenant of (he Sixth Chivalry, for ‘‘marching his troops* with pack train, over rough country, 140 miles in 4(i hours, bringing in every animal and man in good condition.” The young officer —he was a sec-ond-lieutenant, only ope year out of West Point —was John J. Pershing, a native of Missouri, who had come out the year before, just in time to join the operations that resulted in the rounding up of Geronimo, the famous Apache chief whose depredations and treachery had engaged the attention of Gencr-’ als Crook and Miles for a period of two years, and had severely strained the resources of the entire United Slates Army, as it was at that time organised. It will be recalled that the wily Indian,-who defied the United States Government so successfully for so long a period, had to be pursued into Mexico over some of the same ground now being traversed by (he American Expeditionary Force in search of Villa before he could be captured. A similarity at once suggests itself between the operations of 1916 in that forbidding land and those of .188;)87. In each instance the renegades were supplied with arms and munitions of American make, were thoroughly familiar with the mountainous country in which they took refuge, were ready to slop at no act of cold-blooded atrocity to accomplish their immediate purpose, and were animated by consuming hatred of their pursuers, tinged possibly by a strain of contempt. TWO “PUNITIVE" EXPEDITIONS We introduce this comparison merely by way of showing the eminent Illness of having tin* present, difficult undertaking of our army entrusted to the bands of one who knew intimately the ddlicullies, pitfalls, and dangers innumerable that surrounded the expedition of thirty years ago. Said the veteran scout, James 11. Cook, who went with the Eighth Cavalry into Mexico in 18So, speaking of the advance of Pershing’s columns into Mexico last, month: “The only thing that makes the expedition look - hopeful to me is my faith in the men who command it.” (Mr Cook was also referring here to Lieutenant Cabell, now Chief of Staff to General Pershing: he, 100, was on the Gerunimo expedition ). On 15th March. Ibid, General Pershing,a I the head of a cavalry column far more imposing than that* which he had commanded, as a lieutenant, twenty-nine years before, rode across the international boundary into Mexico and within fortytwo marching hours, despite the lack of water and the roughness of the country, covered 110 mill's, for so large a body of mounted men, this average advance of thirty-three miles a day compares not unfavourably with the record made by the same officer in 1887. The vim and dash that then won praise for (he young subaltern now command, in the seasoned general, the whole coutry’s admiration. APPRENTICESHIP AS INDIAN FIGHTER. General Pershing spent ten years in the South-west, and that period of service, even if he had had no further training as a soldier, gave him precisely the equipment and seasoning required for the work that has now been committed to him. That decade of soldiering included, in addition to the pacification of the Apaches, the adjustment of difficulties between the whites and hostile Zunis in Arizona, and participation in the last Indian campaign that our army has been called upon to make —that against the Sious in 1800-91. All in all, when Pershing was ordered east in 1896, he bad seen about every form of active service that was possible at that period for any officer of our army. Furthermore, he had learned the nature of that whole" region described so admirably in this number of the Review by Mr Adams, and, by coming to close quarters with our Indian problem in some of its most acute aspects, he had found out how to cope with the hostile movements of a savage enemy in his own habi-'

tat. All this experience was in later years to hear fruit in a distant part of the world, where our Government and our army unexpectedly came into new and strange responsibilities and duties.

The brief Santiago campaign in the Avar with Spain meant little to Pershing save that it gave him his chance as an officer in the Tenth Cavalry (coloured troops) to display a coolness and bravery under tire, which his colonel, a veteran of the Civil War, said he had never seen equalled. He was promoted for gallantry at the battle of El Caney.

Like Lawton and others of our army officers who had served an apprenticeship at Indian lighting in the South-west, Pershing was sent' to the Philippines to help reduce (ho insurgent, native population to a state of order. The magnitude of this task has never been appreciated in the United States. The military censorship, rigorously applied for severakyears, stood in the Avay of any accurate knowledge in this country of Avhat was being done by our officers in the Philippines. Much of this work, it is now known, was most onerous and exacting. To several officers whose names were rarely mentioned in American newspapers Avere entrusted duties such as have earned for British commanders in like circumstances enduring fame. SUBDUING THE / M()ROS.

One of the most difficult of all the tasks required of our army in (he Philippines was the subjugation of the hostile Moros in the island of Mindanao. The performance of this unpleasant duty fell to Captain Pershing. The raids of the warlike Moi'o tribes on the coast towns if the island were checked by Pershing’s brilliant victory in the light at Bayun, but the Sultan of Bacolod remained obdurate, and the various strongholds of this tribe had to be demolished before obedience could be secured. After forty of these forts had been destroyed,, with a. loss of only two American lives, the subjection of Mindanao was completed and Pershing- became the military governor. A MOHAMMEDAN TRIBUTE.

Strange as it may seem, the American commander’s resolute performance of his duty, his strict fulfilment of every pledge, and his carrying out of every threat, won for him the affection of these fade people whom for three hundred years the Spaniards had failed fo conquer or to rule. They formally elected Captain Pershing a Datto of the tribe, conferring on him the power of life and death, so that ho is to-day perhaps the only American army officer entitled to serve as a Mohammedan judge. PROMOTED BY ROOSEVELT. From time to time Pershing was called upon to put down minor uprisings among the Moros, the last occasion of this kind being only three years ago. In each instance, however, the loss of American lives has been slight,, and Pershing’s mastery of the situation has been recognised by all familiar will l !he facts. In 1000 Prc.-aicui Roo.-cvcll promoted Pershing from Caplam •" *,, ru-iga(licr-Ocner.'j^c»---.Je;:;<’ ! U.IH' 1 . '.i i; hough | bn- i - d to be a record P.mp" in !he bl.-lo vof anu\ proiimii in-, a may well be regarded as ha-ring been not only merited but actually earned by General Pershing's brilliant and complete success in the accomplishment, of most difficult and iirduous workin the routine of his profession. At the age of lifty-six, after thirty years of service in the army (most of those years actually iu the held), it may he said that no American officer is heller entitled to high command and none more worthy of the nation's contfdenee us regards (he special duty to which he has been assigned, than John J. Pershing.