THE REAL IAN HAMILTON.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 129, 7 January 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE REAL IAN HAMILTON.

By F. A. McKENZIE. the Famous War Correspondent.

The name oi Sir lan Hamilton always :'i ca ii-, to nie lue nieinor.es oi a buudwst temple on tne snores ot tho letiow Sea, and oi u dinner mainly consisting <>f cu'bie seawwu it was shortly alter tne buttle oi the Vani, in tile iuisso-Japane.se War. 1 was icst.ng ior a day or two in a teia p.c outsiuu Antung, when one u> my native ' boys came bowing into my room witii news tnai a party oi white men had arr.vcd in town, •■number one piilgiii men"' —-a otiier words, men ot great importance.

Hurry.ng down through the crowded Chinese streets, with uit.r grotesque signs in biack and gold, to a oarn-iiKu house by tuo river siue, I found !sii lan Hamilton, the Br.tish Military Attache. With him were two or three young Guardsmen who formed his stall:'. They had been kept waiting at J'okyo until the rust hgnt was over; now the Japanese had permitted tnein to come to the lront. RICE, TINNED MEAT, AND SfcJAWEED. When 1 arrived they were doing their best to enjoy their evening meal. a Japanese military rat.on consisting of rice, tinned spiced meat —supposed by niO"t ot us to be tinned hoise or mule —and edible seaweed. They were cheerful though hungry, even when the meal was finished. In that first hour I received a vivid impression of the man, nn impression wheh 1 was soon to learn was largely wrong. The tall, thm, upright figure, the vivid eyes, and the line-cut face, made ono think more of a great artist or of a poet than of a soldier. "Here is a man who sees visions and dreams dreams," one might well have said. J sought in van for the bulldog manner, the incisivencss, the d splay of driving force that one almost unconsciously expects in a famous soldier. A "parfait, gentil knight," maybe. But a leader of forlorn hopes, the commander of a desperate expedition—-could this be he.? 1 was not the first man to be deceived by the manner of Sir Inn Hamilton. Tho most common, the most superficial, and the falsest criticism of him is that he was born a poet and is a soldier by accident. GENTLE MANNER COVERS IRON WILL. Within a few days alter but- first meeting some little thing happened, the kind of thing that is always happening in war time, and 1 found that this gentle, conciliatory manner covered a will of iron and a hand of eteel. There was no bullying and no blustering, but somehow what Sir lan Hamilton wanted was done. A soldier who commanded a company under him summed up this quality of his in an expresive phrase, "He is able to get everything done without hustling and without bad language." 1 found that the tall thin body was made of whip-cord. On the hottest days or in the longest fights, none so fresh or debonnaire an lie. His very Miavity and courtesy were the cloak of inflexible resolution and the highest moral courage. Sir lan Hamilton is first a soldier — but he is a soldier with the gift of letters. He has taken active part in probably as many campaigns as any man living. He is the idol of more than one London literary club. He was Robertas' right hand, and the trusted colleague of Sir George White, and is to-day one of the very few men supposed to enjoy the entire confidence of Kitchener.

At the attack on Majuba. Hill, in the first Boer War, Hamilton was severely wounded. Some Boers came up to him. They thought ho was dying, and one Boer lent iiim a bandana handkerchief to bind up his wound. Yearn afterwards, in 1911, Sir lan Hamilton discovered the name of the Boer and sent back a new handkerchief in a silver casket with a letter saying that though the coat and kilt he wore at Majuba were still preserved, the original handkerchief, having been blood-stained, had rotted away to nothingness. There was a time when Sir lan Hamilton was called the unluekiest man in the Army. He has had accidents innumerable, and his wounds are many. One wound shattered an arm; hi.s eyesight was nearly destroyed by shell splinters; at Ladysmith shells burst throe times in his quarters, once blowing to pieces the chair he had occupied immediately before he was nearly drowned at C'hemulpho; he was disappointed in the Tirah campaign by a had accident. Nowadays men call him fortune's favourite. A man who escapes after so many near shave,- must ciirely have a very real guardian angel. KAISER TRIED TO SNTH HIM. One uieniorv comes back of the moral courage of tne General. It is from Berlin. Soldiers were wont in the days before this war to relate how on one occasion when Sir lan Hamilton served as Military Attache at the Gorman Grand Manoeuvres, the Ka : ser asked him his opinion of a certain showy attack, in which ma-oes of men were thrown against an entrenched strong. ly held position, in clone formation. Hamffrfin Trry -«<*nt4y replied that if th s were real war, not. many men would bo lei';. The Kaiser attempted to crush him with a snub. Hamilton vc ry courteously refused to be snubbed, with the result that the Kaiser grow angry. In the end, when he had enolid down, the Kaiser sent the General one of the highest Ocrman military orders. Pearson's \\ ocklv.