LORD KITCHENER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 330, 4 March 1910, Page 6

LORD KITCHENER.

THE SOUTH AFRICAN CAMPAIGN.PERSONAL AND OTHER NOTES. By R. W. Reid. Daily Mail War Correspondent in South Africa. (Special to the Daily News.) I was attached to the Natal Held Force, first under General Penn-Symons —who was mortally wounded at Talanft Hill—then under General Sir George White, "'the lion of Ladysmith,' afterwards joining' the great army of General Sir ' lledvers Buller; so that the war was well advanced before I met Lord Kitchener. We were besieged in Ladysmith —we, meaning Sir George White's gallant little loree of 12.000 men —when the news' filtered through the Boer lines that Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener had arrived in South Africa and were already inarching northwards to the relief of Kiiaberloy. The general impression then prevailed that the siege of Ladysmitli would be quickly ended, and that the war would be brought to a speedy and glorious termination. Lord Roberts we all greatly admired by reason of his brilliant career as a soldier, for his personal bravery and ills' humanity, which every engagement he fought so strikingly revealed. Concerning Lord Kitchener opinions differed; not because one star difl'ereth from another in glory, but for the reason that Lord Kitchener as a soldier was looked upon as the antipodes of Lord Roberta. Mr. G. W. Steevens, the principal correspondent of the Daily Mail, was s'till alive and in Ladysmith, though typhoid had already marked him for its victim. He had been in the Soudan with Lord Kit-

chener, had witnessed. the concerts at Atbara and aisewhere, and had told the story most vividly and realistically in his remarkable book, "With Kitchener to Khartoum." The book and its writer were appealed to anew, and the convictions, at all events of those among whom 1 moved, were confirmed. Lord Kitchener, we believed, was remors'eless and heard-hearted; in him no spark of humane feeling lived; he was devoid of pity and of sentiment, determined to lie ever successful, and willing to slaughter alike his army and the enemy to achieve victory. Mr. Steevens' readers of his book may recall, described the then Sirdar's brain as working mechaniciilly, coldly, "like machinery packed in ice."— a phrase, by the way, which continues' to be assiduously employed by newspaper writers of a kind to the present date. 1 came across it again in a Sydney newspaper a fortnight ago. THE REAL KITCHENER. The besieged in Ladysmith, soldiers and civilians, were half sorry it had been necessary to bring the grim victor of the Soudan to South Africa. Wc hoped that his vengeance would not fall too heavily upon the unfortunate Boers. It was a wise provision, we thought, to link the two great soldiers together —the thoughtful, kindly Lord Roberts with tii- -1 fierce and repellent Lord Kitchener. Of course, we were all wrong in our estimate of Lord Kitchener, of Iris prowess nnd his character. Kipling in a i'ligle of verses concerning Lord Roberts', to whom he is fond of applying the nickrtmne "Bobs," writes something about "An* 'e do not advertise. Do V Br-b«T' Lord Roberta does not advertise: neither does Lord Kitchener, The !:\!t":- circumstance doubtless accounts for mnnv of the misconceptions current with respect to his methods as

well as to his manners. Ostentation, idle talk, inefficiency in all its forms, nre detested hv Lord Kitchener. And surprising it is how such ohnracteristh's disappear in n field force 'of which he is head. IrmuiiievnUlc :-onh'l he given in support of those statements. On the march, and white camping for weeks on die veldt, there was nlwavs an incident or two in ci'-c-'ation which showed "now th? keen-eyed Lord. Kitchener had found f«i-r. some aci of semimalingeving. or had put one or other individii.il hi his propyl- place. These stories were told ;;n<t retold wit!-, inlinite gusto. Bv Mns' time General P.uller was marching northwards, had cleverly outwitted Louis Botha—now the Prime Minister ol the Transvaal—at. Lang's Xck, and was shepherding the "Boers in the direction of Barbei'ton. Not until I transferred myself from the Natal Field force to Pretoria did I haVe the pleasure and privilege of meeting and speaking to both Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener But the incidents to which I allude had by this' time caused many of us to change our opinions with regard to Lord Kitchener. The fact had begun to grow upon us all that the Ohief of Staff was influenced alone by a nigh and honorable sense of duty. War. he realises, is a stern reality, a necessary evil perhaps, but something to be »nded as quickly and as) effectively as possible—- conditions which generally imply the least loss of life and greatest renown to British arms. SOME OF HIS METHODS. In Pretoria we invariably knew little about Lord Kitchener's movements. Enquiry at headquarters frequently failed to discover whether lie was in the capital or at the Cape. He walked about the little Dutch city accompanied by one or more officers as a rule, recognised by few. When Lord Roberts moved about everybody knew. He iis'ually rode out with his guard, a small but imposing cavalcade. Mounted

troops rode well in front and in rear, the Field-Martial and staff between, 1 immediately preceded and followed bv a score or so of curiously-uniformed Indian horsemen. Within the co\ers of a large bundle of notebooks used durin«' the South African War arc nunier- , ous jottings relating to Lord Roberts, but only one I can lind which is concerned with Lord Kitchener. The entry refers to something which, to tliis day, I have been unable to uccide whether it be idle rumor or historic fact. It bus to do with Lord Kitchener travelline by rail in the eastern divisions of the Transvaal. ! The power, as well as the cohesion, of the Boer lorces was by this time broken, but small roaming parties had an inconvenient habit of lifting rails on the line and at times of attacking trains'. .When persons of importance travelled by rail two or more trains were used, so that the Boers, watching on some neighboring kopje, would be bambootfied and unable to decide which to derail and attack. Soldiers) always travelled with those trains, and, while a party of Boers might manage the guard 011 one train, they usually hesitated to encounter the guard of two, perhaps three, trains. Lord Kitchener, it was said, travelled by the firs't of two trains on the day in question, and his train was derailed and attacked by a band of Dutch-speaking warriors. The Boers were in gieater force than usual that day, and. so the story ram, the Field-Marsha] narrowly escaped capture. He and his staff, however, managed to reach thick scrub, and, unseen, were able to get back to the second train. I! made little effort to verify the story, and I breathed mot a word of it at headquarters. The item of,news, if it was news, would have been censored, and I had no wish to appear at headquarters desirous of obtaining unpleasant information about his Lordship for my own personal gratification. Certain correspondents' made enquiries at headquarters as to the truth of the story, ! and with, to them, rather disastrous I consequences. . j AMUSING INCIDENTS. J Looking back on tliem now, some of the incidents relating to Lord Kitchener appear amusing enough. But they were not amusing at the time, especially to the officers and others concerned. There ! way an officer belonging to the Yeoj manry who, not by reason of his abilities, but on account of influence, liad obtained a staff appointment. He had to do with horses, mules, and oxen which were employed for draught pur- ' poses. He received instructions one morning to brand a mob of mules and : to commence at a given number. He, I in turn, told his men to brand the lot, and all the one number. This interesting performance reached the ears of the Field-Marshal what did not reach them? and his comments thereon ■ were said to be extremely piquant. A ! week later the Yeomanry officer sailed ,'for England. When Lord Roberts left South Africa, handing the supreme command over to ! Lord Kitchener, the military hospitals, ! up and down the country, were invaded | by amateur lady nurses, mostly from | England. They had volunteered their services, which was, in theory, an excellent thing to do. In reality, however, the majority of those self-s'tyled nurses proved sad nuisances to the doctors and qualified nurses of the Roval Army Medical Corps. Handsome officers and good-looking privates received all their attention; less highly favored specimens of humanity were by them dimply ignores!. One story goes that a private lying at Sea Point, Cape Town, fairly captivated the nursing ladies who had attached themselves to that hospital. They carried him flowers, batiied lii 3 hands and face, and —nursed him. \ morning.- came when the private had buried hirascif from view below the bedclothes. On the coverlet was pinned a scrap of paper bearing the intimation: "I am too sick to bp nurs'ed to-day." To get rid of this not very ilevoted band of would-be nurses Lord Kitchener promptly applied -himself. The "pass" he gave one of the number, a titled lady with a husband in England, lias already been mentioned in a Wellington daily. She found -her way to Pretoria and was incensed at the rule which kept all civilians without "pauses" indoors j between the hours of eight in the evening and six in the morning. The FieldMarshal at first refused her tue privilege of a "pass," Lady though she was; but daily she pestered headquarters until he relented and permitted the kdy to have what she desired. The blue slip was forwarded to her and its contents' were duly published in the Orders of the Day. Then it was found that this "pass" read as follows: "Lady has permission to walk the streets of Pretoria at all hours of the night." And yet, the lady was not satisfied; indeed, she was very angry and immediately "cleared." Under Lord Roberts officers seemed to have little difficulty in obtaining leave o£ absence for brief periods from their regiments. Those spaces of freedom were spent in some of the larger towns—Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. The very day the command changed hands all officers absent on leave were ordered to rejoin their regiments. Those unable to immediately return were instructed to "report themselves" at headquarters—and run the risk of being interrogated by Lord Kitchener! That morning Lord Roberts left Pretoria every hotel was crowded with officers; next morning not an officer was visible all had »one back to 'duty. Officers could, of course, obtain leave of absence without reference to Lord Kitchener. But his Lord-

ship had an awkward habit of "dropping into"' hotels when he happened to visit, the principal towns and of examining the list of visitors. He and his "aide" suddenly inarched into the hall of the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town, in which many gallant officers and many fair ladies were assembled. When the "aide" called for the hotel register, officer after oilier* hurried upstairs, dolled the dress suit, donned khaki, and rattled off by cab to the railway station. The officers were no doubt on leave with the permission of their respective commandants; but they evinced a strong dislike to tiie possibility of being interviewed by the FieldMarshal.