THE KITCHENER WAY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 164, 17 December 1914, Page 6

THE KITCHENER WAY.

j FEARED AT THE WAR OFFICE. 'RELATIONS WITH THE MINISTERS. As a Cabinet Minister, Earl Kitchener (writes a London correspondent of a New York newspaper) is a constant source of wonderment to his colleagues. He arrives at the council punctually to the. minute, and before the general business is opened, he says: "Gentlemen, •1 have some communications to make; perhaps we had better dispose of them first." Then he proceeds to make his communications, with certain explanatory remarks for the benefit of those who do not profess to understand militsry technicalities. Th» Prime Minister finds it necessary, as a rule, to supple- » n,cut the War Secretary's communica--1 tions, and to put them in n form less I,like the general giving orders to his Stall' than is conveyed by Earl Kitchener's manner of speecti. When the military business is finished, Earl Kitchener rises, and, asking to be excused, leaves the Chamber. He is randy there more than 15 or 20 minutes, though the Council may sit for an hour and a half or two hours. lie took cilice on the understanding that his , responsibilities should be; confined to the conduct of the war. At the War Ollice. Earl Kitchener is very much respected and feared, but he is not popular. He arrives punctually at nine in the morning, and except for a Cabinet Council, a special consultation with the Prime Minister or the King, he does not leave it; until 7.30 for dinner. He returns at '■' and works on till 12 or 1 in the morning. lie expects his stall' to keep the same hours. They do not kick at that, but they do' feel that a little encouragement at times would be welcome. From Earl Kitchener, they get none, but any shortcoming is severely criticised. Earl Kitchener expects every man to do his duty—and the doing of it must be its own reward. The. time is one that demands a man of the inhuman iron type, and since he has been at the War Office everyone in that large building is worked very hard. There was a good deal of speculation as to how Earl Kitchener at the Wai Ollice would hit it off with Mr Winston Churchill at the Admiralty. Ml Churchill in his 'River War,'—the' Khartoum campaign, when he was out as a war correspondent—severely criticised Eearl Kitchener's conduct of that business in every aspect. There had been an impact of two over-bear.ng, self-cen-tred personalities, and the result had been unpleasant. At the time, Mr Churchill, still in the. twenties, had no doubt thai) he could have conducted the operations far more successful! v than the then Colonel Kitchener. Kitchener, <■■! his side, has expressed the opinion lb-it Churchill was an unlicked cub, and cut him off from ollicial facilities No wonder that tho contact of Kitchener and Churchill in the Cabinet, controlling allied services, was watched with curiosity. Hut nothing happened. They discuss their business together, and Churchill is quite as able in'the management of his department as Kitchener is in his.

Thorn was one moment when there looked as if there would be trouble. Karl Kitchener wished to consult Mr Churchill on some urgent matter, and sent for him. The First Lord of the Admiralty came across to the War Office, but on leaving he gave the Minister for War to understand that on the next occasion the consultation would be at the Admiralty, and so on alternately at each office. The usual procedure in .such cases is for tnAwMnister desiring