The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-11-08
Kitchener Goes East.

If the British display an unaccountable ten
dency allow politics to interfere with their bus
mess it must be granted that they possess an
equal ability in escaping from the impasses into
which they cheerfuy blunder. At the COM
mencement of the they made Lord Kitchener
secretary of war-a political ofice-instead of
putting him at the head of war staff. Kitchener
is no politician Immensely able in his line
he mas never shown any particular faculty for
stepping aside from the path along which he has
walked to well deserved eminence. He had reached
that eminence by displaying all the qualities that
make successful autocrat-the kind of autocrat
that great military commander must be. Has
such man ever made successful politician in
democratic country?
One has but to recall the political career of
the Duke of Wellington to answer this question.
Kitchener secretary of war failure. Yet
the English people have never ceased to believe
in him. He could not and would not play poll
tics. He wanted his Office to be considered as
non-political for the time being, but the news
papers and the dyed-in-the-wool politicians would
not let him alone They demanded that his head
should fall for precisely the same reasons that
any other political head falls-because he did not
do what they wanted. Then there were tangible
evidences of failure. In the first place there was
the feud, becoming more and more apparent, be-
tween Kitchener and Sir John French. No one
knows who was responsible for it, who the
villain of the piece, whether it dated, as some
said, from the South African war or only from
the time that French made commander-n-
chief OF the British forces in France No one
wants to know, for it is an unpleasant incident.
1t is hard to think of two great as descending
to anything very small personal in a time of
crisis, and easier to believe that the political
friends" of the two great chiefs at theSbot-
tom of the trouble But the fact remains that it
gave rise to an impossible situation.
Kitchener as secretary of war had not the
right to replace French with some commander
who would work in harmony with himself. Only
the whole cabinet could do that Nor is there
any reason to suppose that Kitchener con-
tempated such a step being taken. There was
no possible cause for friction until at the battle
of Neuve Chapelle the British offensive resulted
in failure owing to the lack of the proper kind
of shells. As far can be ascertained Lord
Kitchener was responsible for that shortage. Those
who pretend to know, like Will Irwin, allege that
when French was begging that IS per cent of all
shells sent forward should be high explosive shells
he was only given IL per cent. Yet few days
before that battle Asquith had stated at a public
meeting that the ammunition situation was emf
nently satsfa ctory. And shortly after the battle
Lloyd george was made minister OF munitions.
After the battle of Neuve Chapelle Gen. Smith
Dorrien one of the two whose remarkable
military ability had saved the British army in its
retreat from Mons, resigned. Some venture the
suggestion that his retirement due to some
bunder committed at the battle of Neuve Chapelle
Others say that he refused to serve any longer
while Lord Kitchener remained at the head of
affairs. 1t is known that, later, when Kitchener
visited Gen. Joffre in France he did not meet Sir
John French. Probably we shall never know the
true history Of all this. But it is only too clear
that Whatever that history might be condition