KITCHENER AND AFTER:

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 199, 11 August 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

KITCHENER AND AFTER:

BY THE REV. R. J. CAMPBELL.

THE "SMILE, DAMN YOU, SMILE" .SPIRIT MUST END.—KITCHENER, THE MAN OP DEEL 1 I.ELIGIOUS FEELING.—HIS COMMENT ON POISON GAS.—OUR CALAMITY WILL REACT ON GERMANY.—"WE MUST HAVE A NATION WORTH SAVING."

The week has been one of shocks and terrors, ot nerve-racking tragedies and grim surprise.-. First came the version of the North Sea battle which ren/c----sented it as a German victory, a bliinds not easy to defend and of vh :•!■ oi,i foes have taken the fullest ad tnutiigc. No s- oner had we par:i;:!'-V recovered from the state of gi)!: :n- ---!•• which we were thus thrown ti.i.n the almost un d'evable catastrophe of L id Kitchener s death descended i.j.'Ji us. No one was in the least prepared for it. We never dreamed that our War Chief was in any danger; we thought he was safe in Whitehall with the amateur critics still snarling and biting at his heels. I wonder what they feel about it no'." He has gone, and with him gees, despite everything that the fault-tinders might say, our sense of invio'ato security and 'ultimate triumph. We have got to put our back into things now to save the State. A BLACK WEEK. For the moment it seemed as if the devil and all his angels were not only lighting on the side of Germany, but carrying things absolutely the'ir own way! It is such a long time since we heard anything to cheer us that we might be excused for depression, and now we are piunged in utter dismay. But I felt quite different the next morning, and do so still. The more we hear about that North Sto fight the less Germany has to crow about, and before sho has done with us she will be sorry she took Kitchener's life. The British are a queer people, an l one of their undoubted characteristics is that the loss of a great leade ■ nearly always raises the moral level of the community. Let a man be taken away who seems indispensable, and forthwith everybody left become? a bigger man because of it and behaves with greater resolution ani capacity than before. What would send another nation into despair does the exact opposite with us: it becomes a tonic to our sluggish faculties and rouses in .is unsuspected dep'.hs of power and will, THE RAY OE HOPE. That. I am persuaded, is what is happen ng now and will soon show itself m a hundred different ways. We were relying too much upon Lord Kitchener, without having the grace to imitate what was best in him, while holding ourselves free to abuse him as basely and ungratefully as we pleased. it takes a great deal to produce in the people of this country a really lofty mood of devoton to an ideal in such a way that wo are not ashamed of coni'ess'ng it. Perhaps that mood has come at last; it was more than time. Lord Kitchener's (..oath was not an unrelieved disaster. There is even a stern fitness in it. Here is a man whoso whole life practically was spent in the service of his country in one form or another, who never trifled or pandered with duty, was utterly simple and unpretentious in his ways, neither thrown off his balance by success nor discouraged by failure —for he did fail in some things, as who would not in such a titanic contest as the present r—but whom nobody could ever accuse ol taking his responsibilities otherwise than seriously.

I had a good look at him. The first impression of a powerful personality s likely to he last'iig, and the impression of Lord Kitchener received at that moment is exactly so described. He radiated power, great power. Ho seemed to n't the room as lie stood looking down upon me out vt those clear steady e. es of his. But will anybody be surprised to read that along with the power I had s strong feeling ot his personal goodness?—l am sure that is the right word for it. Most of all l was struck with the peculiar sweetness of his smile, which lighted up Irs stern face like sunshine falling over rocks. A friend, well-known in the high official world, told me some months ago of an episode which would probably give a new view of Kitchener to a consider. able number of people. He sard he was closeted with the great man just when the first exc : tem?nt about the use of poison gas by the Germans was making itself felt in this country. The question was everywhere being asked what we wore to do about it. The Archbishop of Canterbury and others had deprecated retaliation in kind. My informant says that Kitchen >r sat silent as was Ins wont-the "o wero several .ers present while the discussion went on. Then present I }' he raised his head and -e----marked in his usual ters*; emphatic fashion: •THEY ARE DOING THE MOST THEY CAN FOR THEIR COUNTRY AND AYE MUST 1)0 THE MOST WE CAN FOR OURS.' And then, to trie, astonishment of the observers, a tear ran down either cheek. The emotion was over in a moment but it was a revelation of the immense cl ops of feeling tamath his solid exterior. The effect of his death, I am certain, will not be at all what the Germans calculate upon. Their understanding of the psychology of other nations is always faulty, ours most of all. They do not understand us in the least, nd their childish faith in their power to fr'ghten us is mere'y contemptible. They can exasperate, but lhey cannot frighten us, as they mig':t haw found out by now. Zeppelin raids, subniarn.o atrocities, and the bombardment of open towns produce tiie exactly opposite result on the British mind from what thoj expect. And I firmly believe that their success in this instar.ee, will react upon themselves with terrific force. AX AMERICAN PARALLEL. In tiiis connection it is worth recall ng what happened when Abraham t.ii: <-olii was assassinated during the progress of the Civil War. It had been thought to be i master stroke for ( i-e South: on the contrary it damned : t. The cause of the South was doomed bv ho shot that killed Lincoln.

An impress:,-filling occurred in Xew York when the appalling news was hrst flashed through the streets. .Maddened, panic-stricken crowds, ripe for nny m'schicf, poured along the publicthoroughfares and finally congregated a s.oetlr'ng, surging mass (if term." and hate—opposite the principal buildings of the civic administration.

Is it altogether to be deplored thai he should pass away in the very midst of his activities for the nation ■= good, and in the very act and mannei of that passing summon the nation to a higher view of what is demands;! of it?

Suddenly, while tho roar of rage an i dismay was at its height, a solitary i.giire appeared on one of the baleon'e-, ::hove. ft was James Garfield, Beck cning for sMence, he waited a f.#w liniments, and then pointing upwards, uttered in a voice which rang like a thun der peal to the farthest limits of the throng, one single sentence from the ninety-seventh Psalm: "Clouds and darkness are round about Him; righteousness and judgment are.the habitation of H s throne."

As ho Lived .or England so he dies for England, and it is well. Be t ours to prove that our manhood s equal to the new demand this calamity makes upon us. There are those capable of taking Lord Kitchener's place in the doing of his particular work: and as ior tho rost of us, the rank and file, wje hetdo the enemy now. Every last unit of force in British character will show itself now if it never did before.

The effect was instantaneous and profound. There was no more yell'ng, in more cursing, no more dread. Quiet'y and solemnly every man went hack t.) his home and his duty, a better and a greater patriot for the know'edg? that the God still lived in whose cause Lincoln had striven and died.

"Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." Hear, () Knglund, hear! We must have a nation worth saving. It is not enong'i that our cause be just as man judges. We must have a people clean, and strong, ami gr< at of soul like him whose corpse is now being u.sved in. wild Atlantic waves, who was to us while lie lived both a . v. a. '.i end a;, example. A Motto for Britain. Let us vow together tltat as long c.s we have strength to give or l.ieath to draw we. shall devote both to the full completion of the task for which Lord Kitchener and thousands more of our best and hiiivcrt have been cement to give their lives. . . . We shall not say, "Peace, peace ,i:(!i there is no peace." The vile and wicked thing that slew Kitchener, and is destroying the l'air-c-.t manhood of our it.cc, must be driven utterly from the earth or it were better for us all to die. Heath v.eic easy, but the enslavement of mankind by German militarism intolerable. And we are of one heart and will to make an end ot it. H. J. CAMI'UKLL.

SECRET OF Kh'CHEXEB'S POWER.

The great <-n!ii er who has ilius been torn from his post dervod a good deal of his power over men from qualities which just now are not being given iheir full value in the nation as a whole. We are too iiippant; he was an/tlrng but liippant. Til" "smi'e, damn you, smile" stylo of exhortation does not represent the tight k'nd of spirit in which to tackle a situation so terrible ns that in which we find ourselves to-day. and found no support in Kitchener's example. Anecdotes of soldiers and sailors go:ng swariiig to their death, or making inane remarks or singing ribald songs am d the roar oi battle are not in the least edifyng. One is glad to welcome every evidence that they are not n true description of the feelings of the British lighting man ill face nf ihe great and solemn change towards wiveli we are all hastening.

And what perverse instinct is it that moves tin l average man or woman ;n ihi.s country to pretend that ho or she does not feel dcop'y about the deepest things? It seems to bo considered good form in most grades of society to doproeat■■ mora] earnestness and turn appeals to conscience into a joke. The very people who behave in tliis way know that in their hearts they view the matter othorwVe, and their deeds show 't when they are called upon to make «acrific.\ We should be all the bcttei for acknowledging it as our dead war chef did. He \\;is :i devout man, a man of prav.'r, and cared not who knew it.

WHKN i MKT KITCHKXER

1 only met him once, ft was in South Africa during the I 5 \\ ;<r. I was sitting talking to Lord Roberts in h>s plain little room at h?ad-qur.rtors— for here was another simple man of God whose profe.ss r on was soldiering—when the door behind me opened and someone came in with a slow, lieavv trend I did not turn my head to look til! Lord Roberts exclaimed, "Oh, come along, Kitchener, and spxmk to my guest."' I jumped to my feet at once, for already that name had a magic in it. As he came fc:f/ard with extended hand