GENERAL ALLENBY.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 November 1916, Page 6

GENERAL ALLENBY.

OUR BEST CAVALRY LEADER. It may seem a sweeping title, but it is in no sense exaggerated when applied to Major-General Sir Edmund Allenby, commanding our cavalry forces at the front. So far this war has been a. titanic struggle between infantry and artillery, the cavalry playing but a small part; but what work there has been to do has heen done with that splendid efficiency which led Lord French, in his early dispatches from the front, to bestow the highest praise upon General Allenby. King George has the highest admiration for this great cavalry leader, who visited his Majesty recently to post him on matters at the front. Cavalry men in genera), and the Inlniskillings in particular, swear by Allenby, for it is largely due to his methods introduced on Salisbury Plain that our cavalry are to-day recognised as the best in the world. It was with the L-miskiliings that General Allenby maele his mark. As a youngster he entered the famous dragoons and first saw active srvice in the Bcchuanaland Expedition of 'B4, and afterwards in the Zulu War of 'BS. "Hard service" is General Allenby's motto. Like Lord Kitchener, he holds the view that social'and society life should play no part'.in a soldier's career. General Allenby married twenty years ago, and his dislike of publicity is emphasised by an incident which occurred during the South African War, when he won his C.B. At the entry into Barberton, after desperately hard' fighting under Lord French, the General of the Brigade wished Allenby's division to lead the .triumphal procession into the town; but although it Had taken the honors in the. field, being first in every attack, Allenby demurred when it came to a parade of victory. He excused himself with "My men and horses are fatigued," and came quietly in the day after. His thought for his men and officers is one of General Allenby's marked characteristics.