Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-07-21
BRITISH CHIEF
WORKS SILENTLY
Sir Douglas Haag, Directing
Offensive, Is Adverse to
Publicity

British Headquarters, France. July
l13. Correspondence of the Asso-
ciated Press). -. No military leader is
more averse to publicity or works
more silently than Sire Douglas Haig,
the British chief in
France. To those who are Emporium
ate for the offensive his answer is pa
tience and yet again patience while the
munition factories begin to produce
and he continued 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 Mt by equipment,
training and experience to succeed Sir
John French. At Fifty-ive he is nine
years younger than Sir John and ten
years younger than Joffre or Won Hin
denburg.
There is a story that he entered the
army as the result of boyish wager.
He went through Oxford with distinc-
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 commits
sion, later in life, than most officers!
! because of the time that he had SPENT
at Oxford, than he set out with thtsl
thoroughness of the student to masters
every branch of his profession.
Studied in Germany
1T was in Berlin in the nineties that
I met a Captain Haig who was study 4
ing German and the German army
said an Englishman. II was struck
hNr n &c frl ~
perhaps, but a sound and we'll ball
anced one. A little hesitant of speech;
what he did say went to the heart OF
things"
He studied the French army, too.
and the history of all campaigns with
the systematic thoroughness that he
applied to everything. 1t was the same
with his pastimes as his profession.
whether he had talent for It or not he
made himself a first class golf player
though the form which he developed
did not excite the envy of profession
ais.
At the British Army Staff College,
where officers learn organization. he
was a marked man before he acted as
chief of staff 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-
/ demonstrable worker.
OF the men of command rank in the
British Army in August, 1914, he and
Sir William Robertson-another stud
, ious man who had risen from the
ranks, is now chief of staff in Lon
don-were the two who were apprais-
ed by the generation of officers who
/ had developed since South Africa as
I having prepared themselves for the di-
rection of large bodies of troops on the
scale OF continental warfare. They
were not the magnetic, dashing leader
/ type, but organizers.
Going out in command Of the First
Army of the British Expeditionary
Force Sir Douglas had seventeen
warfare of the western front-which
all agree is the toughest school any
soldier has ever known.
----- Tribute to Brains
There was no doubt who command
ed the First Army. 1t was Haig. He
was no figure head for the work of an
/ able chief Of stan. London gossip did
not handy his name about; he was not
a personality to the public though he
was to the army.
! When anyone asked at the front
who was the best man to take Sir
| Johns place the answer was almost in
variably: "Haig." He had not cap
tured the arrny's imagination, but its
reason. The tribute was one to brains.
The new army was arriving in great
numbers from its English drill
grounds when he took over command
| His country expects him to make it an
instrument which will execute a sue
cessful offensive on the Western front
where the four months effort OF the
[ Germans az Verdun. the French effort
in Champagne and the British effort at
. Chanpll6
many military circles that the feat is
impossible.
/ His first operation. carried out with
out a hitch and unknown to the Ger
mans, 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 premature British offensive in
the mire and bog of the fat country
/ of Flanders and Northern France.
wisp Of a flag and two sentries de-
signate the entrance TO the chateau
smaller than that occupied by many
division generals which is the head
quarters of the commander-in-chief |
Anyone who expects TO be ushered into |
officers with aids running in and out
Of doors and telephone bells ringing
Will De disappointed. NO place could |
be farther removed from the strug- |
gle of the trenches and yet in the |
army zone.
Aids Are Crooks
The only occupants of the chateau |
beside Sir Douglas are his private Sec
retary and his aids who are crooks"
which is the army word for officers
who have been wounded and are not
fit for the physical exposure of the
trenches. In other words II a young
ster wishes to become an aid he must |
have fought and then have the deci- |
sion of a doctor that he cannot stand |
living in cellar-like "dugouts."
The hour Of any appointment is ex-
act to the minute; and whoever has |
one at his chateau is expected to be |
there on the minute, General Head |
quarters time. There is little cere- !
mony. Life at that small chateau has
real soldierly simplicity. At lunch |
con the soldier servant places the food |
on the sideboard and everyone takes |
his plate and helps himself Few
guests come. Sir Douglas keeps his
time TO himself for his work and his
own choice of recreation.