GENERAL SIR JOHN DILL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 July 1940, Page 3

GENERAL SIR JOHN DILL

FORMERLY KNOWN AS ‘■THE BRITISH DEVIL.” , CHIEF OF IMPERIAL GENERAL STAFF. General Sir John Dill, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, is an officer who enjoys the completest confidence of the fighting soldiers, writes the London “Daily Herald’s” war correspondent. During his command of the First Army Corps in France—all through those long winter months when the B.E.F. fought against inaction —he achieved something in which it is given to comparatively few general officers to succeed. He gained the affection of the men under his command. He had already their respect, for his record is brilliant. But Dill was never the man to rely on the past to keep him in touch with the present. I doubt, from my experience in the last war, if any British general in the last 25 years has been about so much among his men, familiarising them with his presence and appearance, and so creating for himself an affection and a confidence which could escape no observer. Naturally he had no intention oi arousing such sentiments. It may possibly be distasteful to him to have them advertised in print. But they existed strongly in France before he was called to assist General Ironside as Vice-Chief of the Imperial General Staff in April, and they follow him to the position he now occupies—the most responsible one to a soldier. Let me give one bare example. During Lord Gort’s absence. General Dill took over command of the B.E.F. If I heard it once, I heard it a hundred times—“ Who’s acting C.-in-C.'? Dill? Well, that’s all right.” He is an Ulsterman, 50 years old (a year younger than General Ironside), and an infantryman. His family is of Dutch descent, originating from a soldier who came over with William of Orange. He is tall. lean, moustached, and thoroughly “buttoned-up”—the army catch-phrase for perfect preparedness—both in appearance and in effect. He has triumphantly overcome one of the greatest drawbacks to the traditional soldier's career which is intelligence allied with a vivid imagination. The public knew him best, before his present appointment, as the man who successfully commanded our forces in Palestine during the difficult years of 1936-37. The Arab rebel chief, Fauzi Kawkajji, offered £5OO for his capture dead or alive, referring to him as “The British devil Dill." It was Dill who brought about the downfall of Fauzi. Sprung from a family famous in the annals of Ulster —where sobriety matures best on a foundation of devil-rnay-careishness—he joined the Leinster Regiment, after leaving Sandhurst and served with it in the South African war. His work on the staff during the

Great War made his reputation. Ho became commandant of the Staff College—a position previously held by General Ironside. At the outbreak of this war he was General Officer Commanding-in-Chief at Aidershot. Now his burden is one which no man would envy, and few could carry. But Dill can carry it. and Dill will.