WHEN WAR LORDS QUARREL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 240, 3 October 1908, Page 3

WHEN WAR LORDS QUARREL.

I LITTLE TIFFS THAT LED TO DISASTER. Some people think it is very funny yk-11 great admiral and generals qua* • uimig themselves. i 1C ' , va ' Vs fur thc ""t'oiis whom the admirals and generals are supposed to serve, «ome of tlie greatest ■j aval and military disasters in history ■have been owing wholly and solely to the fact that the leaders of the defeated •fleet* or armies have been on sneli bad •terms that they have hampered one another, instead of working cordially together against the enemy. Two of the most famous generals of ancient times were liclisarius and iNarses. Apart from each other neither •01 tliem had a rival in the art of war. •11l the year 538 they were both sent by •the tmperor Justinian to drive the •Uothic invaders out of Italy, llad they ■helped each other tin. task would ha\e boon simple. Out they " were not on speaking terms," and the result of this •was that the great city of Milan, which •was besieged by the enemy, was not relieved in time. | William the Conqueror liad reason to i be thankful that King Harold's generals' were not united. Two of them, Edwin and Morkere, quarrelled with the others. •They reiused to patch up their differences and join whole-heartedly to expel the invader when he landed at l'evensoy in. 10(iU. Instead, they drew oil' in dudgeon from the Saxon army, taking with them thousands of their followers! ■Nobody wishes to deprive the Scots of the glory of iSannockburn. .Ml the same, it is just possible that Hubert Bruce •would not have , won his great victory had the English barons been united.

It was the same sort of jealousv among the French nobles which led the King of France to be defeated by the Black Prince at Poitiers; and our llenrv V., lighting five against one at Agincourt, might have lost instead of won if the generals opposed to him had not haled and distrusted each other. England lias lost several times both 1 on sea and land through "little differences " between her admirals and generals. William 111. was terribly hampered at the great battle uf Stcinkirk, in 1(11)2, because his generals. Dutch and English, could not "bit it off together." The worst naval defeat we ever suffered was oil lieachy Head in 10(11, when a French licet thrashed an English and Dutch very thoroughly. The light was lost mainly 'because there was no confidence between the leaders 011 the losing side. The British Admiral, liusscll, openly accused some of his chief captains of being traitors to the country before the first shot was fired, and they returned the compliment by informing him that lie was another. - In 1702 Admiral llenbow -was cruising with his squadron in the West Indies, and oil' Santa Martha gave chase to a French licet under Du Casse. But many of his captains, for no other reason than that they were 011 bad terms with him personally, absolutely declined to join in the light, and sheered off with their ships. • lien'bow was left to fight alone with the handful of ships that stood by him. He fought desperately, and even after his leg had been shot off by a chain shot, insisted 011 remaining 011 the quarter-deck until he was forced to give up the action and sail 1 away baffled. Benbnw died of his' wound, and several of the sulky cap-i tains were tried bv court-martial and shot. There might have been another and different result to the battle of Culloden, which shattered the hopes of " Bonnie Prince Charlie." had not dissensions and rivalries crept into tha Highland army. Two of the generals, Lord Elclui and Lord George Murray, were far more anxious to get up a duel ■with each other .than to fight \yith the Duke of Cumberland. The Duke of Wellington was at first greatly hampered in Spain by the conduct of General Pieton, the leader of his cavalry. The two disliked each other bitterly, and for this reason Pieton was always criticising and eves disobeying the orders of his leader. The "Iron Duke" himself might have come to grief in the Peninsular War. instead of covering himself with glory, had his opponents thought of nothing but how to beat him. He was opposed b,v three of Xapoloon's greatest marshals —JlfisscnavXev, and SouK. At one tim ( . they had a good chance of destroying him had they worked together; but Key and Soult were personal enemies of Massena, and. though he was in chief command, they refused to carry out his plans and wasted lime in futile wrangling*. Napoleon declared that he lost Waterloo through the generals under him 111) ting each other too much to fight well together. There was some truth in it. (Irouchy distrusted Soult. Soull was envious of Xev. and Key hated bolli of them. How could they be expected to do their best when (hev were, so to say. continually hurling defiance at each other?