The Irish standard., 1900-01-13
THE ANGLo-lR1sH GENERALS.

most successful marauders in the Brit
ish army during the passing century
have been natives OF Ireland. The Mi
ODE OF nations has been prolific in fur
niShing Great Britain with unworthy
sons TO spread death and desolation in
the name OF anglo Saxon civilization"
over the fairest portions OF the Old
World. Since the days OF Wellington,
lrlshmen have held some OF the high
est positions in the British army. To-
day an 1rishman, Field-Marshal Wis.,
count Wolseley, is the commander-in-
chief OF the British forces; another
lrlshman, Lord Roberts, OF Kandahar,
is commander OF the forces in ireland:
and the most brutal Irishman Of the
three, Sir Herbert Horact Kitchener, is
the slrdar of the Egyptian army. Upon
these three Anglo-Irishmen depends the
success or failure OF the South African
campaign. Sir Garnet Wolseley is in
England, while Roberts and Kitchener
have just arrived in the dark continent
to supersede Butler, the Englishman
defeated at the Tugela river by Gen.
Schalkenburger, OF the Boer army
Baden-Powell, Gatacre, French and
Methuen, the four Englisllmen in Cape
Colony, seem to be overmatcled by the
Orange Free Staters and will be left to
fight as best they can without any great
assistance from the two Irish command
crs who will first confne themselves to
operations in Natal.
We have already stated that Roberts
and Kitchener may disappoint the anx-
ious people of Great Britain, for the
reason that they have never fought
white men during their entire military
career In that opinion we are sup
ported by ]. J. Kelly, NJ. P, the famous
war correspondent. who says in the
Dublin Irish People,
These two men may be said to rep
resent the last resources OF English gen
eralsfip, and if they can do no more
than the Whites, the Buffers, and the
Metlluens, the situation OF the British
empire will become critical indeed.
There is this remarkable about both
these men, that each of them has but
what may be called solitary expert
ence Of war. All that General Roberts
knows about war he learned in India,
and his fame principally rests upon an
unopposed march to Kandahar, which
anyone OF enterprise might have carried
out as we'll as himself. His war expert
ences are practically mere conflicts with
border tribes-brave, alarmed, and
without any higher idea in war than the
success OF the days operations. Such
school may make good soldiers. Wheth-
cr it is Calculated to make competent
generals OF wider field is more than
open to doubt.
Kitchener, on the other hand, has
practically no war experience at all.
When l first met him in the Soudan he
was captain of engineers, and he had
reached that post, not through military
service, but through his employment as
civil administrator in the Island of Cy-
prus, where he was engaged in doing
for the people of that island much the
same work that the Land League did
for the Irish people.
Up to the moment of which speak,
Captain Kitchener had never seen shot
fired, and was as ignorant OF warfare as
when he left the military college. In
his appreciation of the situation in the
Soudan he showed more political than
military capacity, for had he utilized
the military position he occupied at
Wady- Haia. he could have iorestalled
the fall OF Berber, and prevented the
catastrophe OF Khartoum. He has
never been called upon to explain his
inaction as military commandant of
the forces at Wady-Halfa while the gar
rison OF Berber were being menaced
with attack, and he is not very likely to
volunteer any explanations on the sub
ject himself, as it would strain even his
ingenuity to explain why he left Berber
without support at time when there
was not one single Dervish within five
hundred miles of him, and when even
the despatch of hundred men to Ber-
Der might have saved that town from
assault and capture, and Gordon from
the spears OF the Mahdi's soldiers.
Kitchener sees his objective. He es-
Inmates the cost and the difficulties of
reaching it. and he sets himself delib-
erately to create the necessary resources
to enable him at one blow to annil1late
his enemies. In that respect he dis
plays the highest qualities OF general
ship, and the fact that he has had no
real war experience save the shooting
down of Dcrvishes, which was like
shooting hens in farmyard, is no proof
or guarantee that he may not develop
those higher qualities of leadership
which are born in men, and not ac-
quired in the school.
CHANGE IN PUBLIC SENTIMENT.