"ONE ERROR, ONE REJECTION."

Taranaki Daily News, 10 May 1916, Page 7

"ONE ERROR, ONE REJECTION."

GENERAL, ROBERTSON'S RULE. YOUNG GENERALS FOR BRITISH FRONT. Mending and cleaning up liavo hee;i the orders of the day for three months, and improvements are noticeable. At the War Office (writes the Sydney Sun's London correspondent, under date February 21) General Robertson has done wonders. He is a plain, strong, unprejudiced man admitted into 0n.3 of tlw most exclusive preserves in England. H.j -.eminds one somewhat, in a distant way, of a Cromwell stepping with i'l.iplo and wholesome methods into a hothouse of traditions and privileges. A particularly large consignment of "veneraibles" was shipped back from the west front last week. The generals going forward are youngsters, all with great anxiety about their careers, and each with the fear of Robertson in him. The ruif made by the Chief of Staff )=. very distinct. "One error, one reic-c tion," it says; "big promotion or recall." We have now a brigadier-gen-eral of thirty-one years, and London resounds with the names of youngsters whom Robertson has found after eighteen months in France, and who are close to genius. I am well Informed that the Army has not made up its mind whether it likes the changes. It is undecided, as yet, whether more annoyance and inconvenience are caused by generals tjcing put up or put away. Soldiers 'suffer much in silence, and their experience of b'-jgair.iers in France is that all British generals aic alike, and all are exacting upon the Tommy. But you may be confident that the great-hearted and earnest young officers and privates who are going to win this war are grateful to Robertson. He is determined to have all his changes completed before Hie spring campaign, and has already got the worst of the recalling over. There has been wonderfully little kicking, for the Englishman has a ,gcnius for carrying through reform without violence. Indeed, so quietly liave these and other changes b*vn made since the awakening came in Great Britain a few months ago thut very few people knew what Mr. Bonar Law meant yesterday when he toid the American newspapers, in reply to a question whether,he was satisfie.l with the, conduct of the war, that "at all events the direction of the war has greatly improved." There may still be some of the weaknesses which struck the observer with such peculiar force at the Dardanelles and in handling of policy in London five mouths ago, b.it in the main requirements for reform- - in reorganisation and revitalising of tlr: the general staff, in the adaptation of sound business principles to warfare; and in concentration of authority and responsibility in the hands of a few strong men—much has been done. There seems to be a stronger grip on those essentials which mean victory.