New Britain herald., 1916-07-21
CONSIDERED A MAN OF SILENCE
luiGt, BUSineSS-Like and Thorough
 Is British Commander

@No publicity or works more silently
 han Sir Douglas Haig, the British # #ommander-in-chi in France. 8 Probably not one man out of ten
 the million or more under his 8 ommand would recognize him if they 2aW h1m. Not given to reviews or 8 ny kind of display, this quiet and @ tudlous Scotsman was the choice of
 he progressive, practical, driving ele- 8nent of the army as the one fit by
 Equipment, training and experience to | ucceed Sir John French. At f1fty-fve
 is nine years younger than Str
 ohn and ten years younger than Jof- 8ec or von Hindenburg.
 Entered Army On Wager. "a There is a story that he entered d he army >as the result of a boyish syager. He went through Oxford with
 1istinction before he went to :he #nilitary school at Sandhurst. His 8hoice ofaarm was the cavalry wliich # as hadeso &1ittle to do so far in this &var. But no sooner had he re-
 keived his commission, later in life
 han most officers because of the time & hat he had spent at Oxford, than ne
 let out with the thoroughness of the
 sudent to master every branch of his
 Profession.
 'tTt*was in Berlin in the nineties that j met a Captain Haig who was study Ing German and the German army" Baid an Eng1ishman. T was struck
 by his tndustry-not a brilliant man, perhaps, but a sound and well bal hnced one. A little hesitant of
 peech; what he did say went to the
 heart of things"
 He studied the French army, too,
 nd.the history of all campaigns with he systematic thoroughness that he BppHed to everything. It was the
 same with his pastimes as his pro- &ession. Whether he had talent for #t or not he made himself 8 first class #golf player though the form which %he developed did' not excite the envy &bf professionals.
 % At the British Army Staff College,
 vh ere officers learn organization, he &vas a marked man before he acted
 hs chief of-staff to General French In
 Bouth Africa in the operations that &nade B'rench's reputation. He was a Soldiers soldier, who had won solid
 Professional esteem, though the pub Xie had hardly heard of this reserved, &lndemonstrative worker.
 Of the men of command rank in the
 British army in August, 1914, he nnd &ir William Robertson - another 8tudious man who had risen from the Banks and is now chief of staff in Lon S7on-were the two who were ap- braised by the generation of officers &vho had developed since South Af- #'ica as having prepared for the d. &rection of large bodies of troops on #he scale of continental warfare. They hre not the magnetic, dashing leader 8ype, but organizers.
 Educated in Tough School. Going out in command of the first Sarmy of the British expeditionary %orce, Sir Douglas had seventeen months experience, Mons, Ypres and <Loos, of the warfare of the western <front, which all agree is the toughest School any soldier has ever known. There was no doubt who command led the First army. It was Ha1g. He |was no fgurehead for the work of an TabIe chief-of-staff. London did not |pandy his name about; he was not to the public, though he Iwas to the army
 When anyone asked at the front |who was the, best man to take Sir IJohn's place, the answer was almost Invariably: "Haig." He had not cap hured the army's imagination, but -ts treason. The tribute was one to brains. The new army was arriving in great hum bers from it's English drill |grounds when he took over command. His country expects him to make it an instrument which will execute a successfu1 offensive on the western front where the four months effort of the Germans at Verdun, the French |effort in Champagne and the British |effort at Neuve Chapelle and Loos convince many military circles that the feat is impossible.
 His first operation, carried out without a hitch and unknown to the Germans, was the taking over Of the trenches occupied in the Arras sector by General Petain's army which was released for Verdun. This gave the British an intact front of about one hundred miles; and was decided upon
 by the Allied commanders as wiser than a premature British offensive in the rnire and bog of the fiat country Eof Flanders and Northern France. t A wisp of a flag and two sentries Edesignate entrance to chateau smaller lfhan that occupied by many division EgeneralS winch IS the headQuarterS or 1.-the commander-in-ch chief Anyone gwho expects to be ushered into offices with aides -unning in and cut of door, land telephone bells ringing will be disappointed. No place could be far 1her removed from the struggle of the Trenches and yet in the army zone. The only occupants of the chateau Beside Sir Douglas are his private
 secretary and his aides who are e'crocks'' which is the army word for pfficers who have been wounded and Are not fit for the physical exposure
 Df the trenches. Tn other words if a goungster wishes to become an aid