"'AIG'S 'OLY TERROR."

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 158, 24 March 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

"'AIG'S 'OLY TERROR."

ENTERTAINING STORIES OF GENERAL SJR DOUGLAS HAIG. ••Lucky Haig" they call the new Commander-in-Chief of the Army in trance and Flanders—the largest ever led by a British general. Still, it is not by luck alone that General Sir Douglas Haig has ''won through," but by sheer merit and hard "slogging." "The energy and vigour with which Sir Douglas Haig handled his command show him to be a leader of great ability and power" thus wrote the former Commander-in-Chief in one of his despatches. Since the beginning of hostilities Sir Douglas has proved himself the strong man of the war, as witness his stern lights at the Aisne, his defensive in the huge struggle for Ypres, his important victory at Xeurc Chapello. In war, as m love, he has proved himself a man of prompt actjoa. He had wedded the beautiful daughter o* the third Lord Vivian i fortnight after first setting eyes upon her, and had the almost unique distinction of being married from Buckingham Palace; he rose from captain to major-general in the astonishingly short space of e.:>ht years: he has now risen from general of an army corps to supreme command of the British Forces in the field—m a period of about eighteen months' Sir Douglas is a Scotsman- a j/rer.t leader from a race that jr«eds stuv.g ieadors. Born in June, IS6I, Sir Douglas entered the 7th Hussars at the nge of twenty-four. If the medical examiners of that day had had their way Haig would not be leading Britain's soldiers to-dy, for he was "turned down" for colour-blindness! "HAIG'S WAY." Refusing to submit to rejection, young Haig consulted many oculists, urged and argued with the military authorities, and at last appealed personlly to the Duke of Cambridge, who gave a special order for his admittance to the Staff College. "Haig's way," it wouldl seem, won ihrough even then! Soon the young officer, by his outstanding merit, became one of that chosen hand known as "Kitchener'-, men." and served with "K. of K." at Atbara, Khartoum, and in South Africa. "Haig never misses a chance, doe* l,e ?'' a Staff-officer said one day to Lord Kitchener. "No," was the dry response, "no*-. half a chance!'' High praise from "K of K." Always having a great personal interest in his men, often in South Africa Sir Douglas would walk round the camps, talk with his soliders, and carefully examine their food and accommo elation. During one of these unofficial inspections he heard a non-com.'s voice, raised in anger, issue from a tent.' •■Look you 'ere, my lad!" shouted the irate non-com. " It's lucky for yo-i that 1 ain't sure 'ow to spoil 'insubordination.' or I'd report you to Colonel 'Aig! And 'Aig's a 'oly terror when 'e likes, ! Aig is!" WHY THEY ADMIRE HIM. But "'oly tenor" or not. scarce a man in the British Army but would willingly lay down his life fo- Sir Douglas if need be. They revere him as a leader, they admire him as a man, for t'ney know his pluck. They" know how lie rode nlo"e into the desert to within a few hundrei paces of about 3000 maniac Dor mhos in order to reconnoitre; they know how he enters the firing-lines in France and chats with them, careless of his own danger: they remember those moments of horror otic day, a few months Hack, when two German shells fell, one , t'.or the other, plump on top of a haystack from which Sir Douglas was making observations, and they will not blush—those who were there—to tell you how they thanked God that neither snell exploded. "It was a fearful moment. Had either she!! burst, the general must have been blown to pieces," said an OV'MvitlH'sS.