My Second Year of the War | Page 5

the best judges of excellence in that
profession, and through eighteen months of organizing and fighting
these two men had earned the universal praise of their comrades in
arms. Robertson went to London and Haig remained in France.
England looked to them for victory.
Birth was kind to Sir Douglas. He came of an old Scotch family with
fine traditions. Oxford followed almost as a matter of course for him
and afterward he went into the army. From that day there is something
in common between his career and Sir William's, simple professional
zeal and industry. They set out to master their chosen calling. Long
before the public had ever heard of either one their ability was known
to their fellow soldiers. No two officers were more averse to any form
of public advertisement, which was contrary to their instincts no less
than to the ethics of soldiering. In South Africa, which was the practical
school where the commanders of the British Army of to-day first
learned how to command, their efficient staff work singled them out as
coming men. Both had vision. They studied the continental systems of
war and when the great war came they had the records which were the
undeniable recommendation that singled them out from their fellows.
Sir John French and Sir Ian Hamilton belonged to the generation ahead
of them, the difference being that between the '50s and the '60s.
It was the test of command of a corps and afterward of an army in
Flanders and Northern France which made Sir Douglas
Commander-in-Chief, a test of more than the academic ability which
directs chessmen on the board: that of the physical capacity to endure

the strain of month after month of campaigning, to keep a calm
perspective, never to let the mastery of the force under you get out of
hand and never to be burdened with any details except those which are
vital.
The subordinate who went in an uncertain mood to see either Sir
Douglas or Sir William left with a sense of stalwart conviction. Both
had the gift of simplifying any situation, however complex. When a
certain general became unstrung during the retreat from Mons, Sir
Douglas seemed to consider that his first duty was to assist this man to
recover composure, and he slipped his arm through the general's and
walked him up and down until composure had returned. Again, on the
retreat from Mons Sir Douglas said, "We must stay here for the present,
if we all die for it," stating this military necessity as coolly as if it
merely meant waiting another quarter-hour for the arrival of a guest to
dinner.
No less than General Joffre, Sir Douglas lived by rule. He, too, insisted
on sleeping well at night and rising fresh for his day's work. During the
period of preparation for the offensive his routine began with a stroll in
the garden before breakfast. Then the heads of the different branches of
his staff in headquarters town came in turn to make their reports and
receive instructions. At luncheon very likely he might not talk of war.
A man of his education and experience does not lack topics to take his
mind off his duties. Every day at half-past two he went for a ride and
with him an escort of his own regiment of Lancers. The rest of the
afternoon was given over to conferences with subordinates whom he
had summoned. On Sunday morning he always went into headquarters
town and in a small, temporary wooden chapel listened to a sermon
from a Scotch dominie who did not spare its length in awe of the
eminent member of his congregation. Otherwise, he left the chateau
only when he went to see with his own eyes some section of the front
or of the developing organization.
Of course, the room in the chateau which was his office was hung with
maps as the offices of all the great leaders are, according to report. It
seems the most obvious decoration. Whether it was the latest

photograph from an aeroplane or the most recent diagram of plans of
attack, it came to him if his subordinates thought it worth while. All
rivers of information flowed to the little chateau. He and the Chief of
Staff alone might be said to know all that was going on. Talking with
him in the office, which had been the study of a French country
gentleman, one gained an idea of the things which interested him; of
the processes by which he was building up his organization. He was the
clearing house of all ideas and through them he was setting the criterion
of efficiency. He spoke of the cause for which he was fighting as if this
were the great thing of all