The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. MONDAY, JUNE 14, 1920. SIR WILLIAM BIRDWOOD.

Southland Times, Issue 18848, 14 June 1920, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. MONDAY, JUNE 14, 1920. SIR WILLIAM BIRDWOOD.

To-day Southland will receive and welcome an officer of the Imperial Army who is by association and admiration part of the fighting forces of the dominion. Looking back upon the glorious history of Gallipoli the reader is struck by the extraordinary fitness of the sobriquet given to General Birdwood; The Soul of Anzac. For New Zealand people, with the memories of those terrible days still fresh no grander title could bo given to any man and no finer man could exist than the one who earned it. The expedition to open the Dardanelles was in many ways a daredevil experiment an extraordinarily dangerous feat attempted by men who were untried in the fiery testing of war, who were an unknown quantity to the generals directing the operation. Had the landing at Anzac been a failure at the outset, the fact that these “irregular” troops from the colonics were being employed would have been offered as a sufficient explanation of the fact; but after 'they had established themselves and had to settle down to the grim task of “hanging on,” of operations with all the odds against them the position was different. Their prowess was acknowledged, their quality admitted. In the initial stages of the expedition, however, the mentality of the colonial troops must have caused the army authorities no little concern, and it says much for the perspicacity of someone, or of the good luck that intervenes now and then on behalf of a righteous cause, that such a man as General Birdwood was selected to take command of them. He was a Kitchener man, and to the world men with the brand of “K” upon

them were regarded as martinets, sticklers for discipline, and the army code. In that the world was evidently wrong. ' Lord Kitchener was a man about whom there were almost as many Wrong notions as there were right. The Empire was right in hailing him as one of its greatest brains, as one of its biggest men, and it was wrong in thinking him a soulless machine. Such men as Sir William Birdwood prove the greatness of the man, quite apart from his enormous capacity, and reveal, too, his genius for detecting greatness in others. It is possible that, there were other officers in the Imperial Army who, given the opportunity, would have adapted themselves to the character and characteristics of the colonials and have inspired in them as much love and confidence, but the Anzac who was there will probably tell you that no •'•mv could be expected to contain two Birdwoods. That is also the popular cstimuie oi the position in Australia and New Zealand, and in these matters the popular vote has a remarkable habit of accuracy. The story of Anzac is a story of dogged effort under conditions that were soul-search-ing and in such a position the character of the leader must be the sheet anchor, the foundation of success. Writers on the war, men of observation who were in the heart of the conflict tell us that one of the uncanny things of the great citizen army that was created by the call to Empire service was the ability of the troops in mass to “size up” the worth of the officers placed over them. There was no set standard in the King’s regulations, no rules of conduct written to guide them, but the men with an unerring eye separated the gold from the dross and grasping the real significance of values held to the gold through thick and thin, through good days and ill. The Soul of Anzac owes his array of decorations, his signs of Royal favour to his skill in warfare; he owes his position amongst the diggers to something loftier than military genius, he owes it to the greatness of his character. In these new countries we rather pride ourselves on being able to judge men by what they are, not by what they wear and Sir William Birdwood, when he finds himself taken to the hearts of the diggers and of the diggers’ kith and kin, should know that it is because of something deeper than his achievement as a soldier. It is pleasing to know that this soldier is visiting this part of the world in an entirely unofficial capacity. He may talk to us in the words of a soldier, giving us the benefit of his military knowledge, but he has come out to Australia and New Zealand for no other purpose than that of meeting again the men and the relatives of (he men for whom he formed such an admiration in times of great trial. No greater compliment could be paid to any country than this personal interest and we, can only add that whether Sir William Birdwood is satisfied with New Zealand or not, New Zealand is satisfied with him, and is ready, if the time should come again, to give further proof of its satisfaction.