The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-06-27

British Headquarters, France, June 27-No military leader is more averse to publicity or works more silently than Sir Douglas Haig, the British comnander-in-chief in France. To those who are importunate for the of fensive his answer is patience and yet again patience while the new muni- ton factories begin to produce and he continues. his building. His generals say that he never tells them his plans: only what they are to do.
 Probably not one man out of ten of the million or more under his com mand would recognize him if they saw him. Not given to reviews or any kind of display, this quiet and studious Scotsman was the choice of the pro gressive, practical, driving element of the army as the one fit by equipment, training and experience to succeed Sir John French. At ffty-f1ve he is nine years younger than Sir John and ten years younger than Joffre or von Hin denburg.
 There is a story that he entered the army as the result of a boyish wager. ton before he went to the military school at Sandhurst. His choice of arm was the cavalry which has had so little to do so far in this war. But no sooner had he received his conmis- sion, later in life, than most officers because of the time he had spent at Oxford, than he set out with the thor oughness of the student to master ev- cry branch of his profession.
 'It was in Berlin in the nineties that I met a Captain Haig who was studying German and the German ar my,' said an Englisihman. 'I was struck by his industry-not a brilliant | man perhaps, but a sound and we'll | balanced one. A little hesitant of speech; what he. did say went to the heart of things
 He studied the French army, too, and Nhe history of all campaigns with the systematic thoroughness that he applied to everything. It was the same with his pastimes his profes l sion. Whether he had talent for it or not he made himself first class golf player though the form which he developed did not excite the envy of professionals.
 At the. British Army Staff College, where officers learn organization, he was a marked man before he acted as Chief-of-S to General French in South Africa in the operations that made French's reputation. He was a, soldiers soldier who had won solid professional esteem though the public had hardly heard of this reserved, un- demonstrative worker. Of the men of command rank in the British Army in August, 1914, he and Sir William Robertson-another stu dious man who had arisen from the ranks and, is now Chief of Staff in Londoh-were the two who were ap- praised by the generation of officers who had developed since South Afri- ca as having prepared themselves for the direction of large bodies of troops on the scale of continental warfare. They were not the magnetic, dashing leader type, but organizers
 1 in nd of 1a Army of the British Expeditionary Force Sir. Douglas had seventeen
 months experience, Mons, Ypres and ILoos, of the warfare of the Western front-which all agree is the tough est school any soldier has ever known There was no doubt who command
 ed the First Army. It was Haig. He
 was no figure head for the work of an
 able chief-of- f-staff. London gossip did
 not bandy his name about; he was not
 a personality to the public though he was to the army.
 When anyone asked at the front whe
 was the best man to take Sir Johns place the answer was almost invari- ably: ttHaig." He had not captured
 the arnys imagination, but it's reason
 The tribute was one to brains.
 The New Army was arriving in grea'
 numbers from it's English drill
 grounds when he took over command
 His country expects him to make it ar instrument which will execute a sue.
 cessful offensive on the Western from
 where the four months effort of the Germans at Verdun, the French effor
 in Champagne and the British effort al
 Neuve Chapel1e and Loos convince
 many military circles that the feat is
 impossible.
 His first operation, carried out with.
 out hitch and unknown to the Ger
 mans, was the taking over of the L. %<,
 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 upor by the Allied commanders as wiser
 than a premature British offensive ir
 the mire and bog of the fiat country | of Flanders and northern France. A wisp of a flag and two sentrie!
 designate the entrance to the chateaJ
 smaller than that occupied by many
 division generals which is the head
 quarters of the Chief 5 Anyone who expects to be ushered into
 offices with aides running in and ou
 of doors and telephone bells ringing
 will be disappointed. No place could be farther removed from the struggle
 of the trenches and yet in the arm! 5 zone.
 The only occupants of the chateal beside Sir Douglas are his private sec
 retary and his aides who are "crocks' which is the army word for officer t who have been wounded and are no f fit for the physical exposure of tn l trenches. In other words if young 3 ster wishes to become an aid he mus 2 have fought and then have the decis ) ion of a doctor that hes can not stanc 3 living in cellar-1ike "dugouts."
 The hour of any appointment is eX 3 act to the minute; and whoever ha l one at his chateau is expected to b. there on the minute, General Head s quarters time. There is little cere g mony. Life at that small chatea1 f has 8 real so1dierly simplicity. 4 r luncheon the soldier servant places tn 8 food on the sideboard and everyon