The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-06-27
SIR DOUGLAS HAIG, BRITISH
 C0MMANDER-IN -CHIEF, IS THE
 SILENT MAN OF ENGLISH ARMY
Never Tells General Plans Merely What They Are to Do-Averse to- Publicity ty-Has Studied French and Germany Army Methods With Remarkable Stu diousness.

chise1ed regular features also suggest the scholar.
 "Oxford and Sandhurst and India"
 said one of his admirers 'and hard
 work at a desk when he was not ta-
 king exercise in the open air best de-
 scribe him."
 In one of the rooms of the ground floor the walls are hung with maps including a series which have been crowded on a roller. Any portion of the front in all it's details may be re- ferred to in moment In the center | of the room a desk; and against the wall table with more maps and draw ings and some of those strange photo graphs from aerOplanes of graylsh lines of trench systems in a dusky field | of shell and Inine-craters which make one think of the dead world of the
 moon. Out of doors a field of daisies
 birds singing, a typical sunny day in | Northern France.
 | From this retreat a vast army is be- | ing trained and it's organization com l pieted and directed in the day by day | tug-of-war for F'The Chief" There is
 something inpersonaI about it and yet
 personal; for he is absolutely the chief
 There is no suggestion of any commits
 sion system in the command Of the l British Army these days.
 | The man and his method are quite
 as the room. With a battlefront which
  | ter month the routine of his work has become almost as set as his habitat1on and not unlike that of the autOcrat Of
 some great business organization. The | regular staff officers are in a town not I far away. Subordinate chiefs of the
 different army branches, be it Opera tions, Intelligence, Ordnance or Sup ply, come to him in succession at hours
 set during the morning to make their I reports and receive their instructions. They do most of the talking; and they have learned how not to do more than
 necessary. He listens, decides.
 If a longer conference than usual is desired it. may come at luncheon or later in the afternoon when he returns
 from his ride which he takes regular 1y every day. Then more work un- til dinner and some after dinner. If
 he goes down to the lines or perhaps to confer with General Joffre in the one car which alone of all the cars
 carrying staff officers and generals along the roads flies the British flag
 the routine for that day Is broken. | Like General Joffre he sleeps long hours. \ A rested mind is a clear mind for great responsibilities. Like von lHindenburg he never reads fiction.
 When reading has not to do with his lprofession it is of serious books and month1ies and quarterlieS. Even du- ring the battle of Ypres when it was touch and go with disaster he slept as soundly as Joffre during the battle of the Marne. At a crisis of the retrea
 from Mons he remarked as quietly as
 if he were giving a direction to an aide: we shall have to hold on here for a while if we all die for it.'' There is never any fustion about these mod
 ern scientific soldier organizers Again ; during the retreat when a certain general became somewhat demoralized Sir Douglas took him by the arm and 1Ty<aI 5 I1 e-i l 1ence till he was over his fit of nerves l on that terrible August day. Those l who work with him know that his sign . of anger is a prolonged silence of a telling kind. He has a temper but = does not let it get past his lips, they 3 say. He has, too, a keen sense o1 l humor, with a Scotch flavor.
 l The impression he leaves on a call CT is that of a, leader without illusions l a soldier who sees with soldiers log
 ic; who is not afraid to be patient. D ''1n your Civil War; he said, "it s was a case of raising armies of un- = trained men to fight armies of un- ] trained men while with us the small !. nucleus of regular officers who surviv.
 ed the retreat had to train even larger t forces to meet a military machine = which had had forty years of prepa. !. ration. Not only man to man, but ir n organization must make ourselves = superior to our powerful enemy. The t training of batta1ions and the manu e factture of guns in England and theil t transfer to France represented only t the first stage of real preparation fol e our task. Here they must be organ s ized into divisions, corps and arnie:
 under the actual conditions of warfare = before they could become worthily eff = fective as a whole in any decisive eff e fort against a foe whose staff training g r reinforced by experience in the field S must remain excellent, however ex e housted he becomes. Every day he e grows weaker and we grow stronger n Owing to the indomitable spirit of ou1 r officers and men in learning we are n accomplishing what seemed the impos y sibIe to many soldiers at the outset o-
 the war. Our cause gives us strength s for we are fighting for civiliza ton u Those who have looked to us for vic y tory will have their patience reward = ed.''
 ,. A lieutenant in the trenches know. O as much of when the blow will bt t struck as a corps commander of a staff g department head. A quiet order from d that quiet room and then the struggle e which by the token of the command y CTS strong chin and inpertur babiIity
 he will carry through with unbendinE u resolution and Scotch ''canniness.Y - Being a good Scot he goes ever! '' Sunday morning to a, little woode1 S Presbyterian chapel which has beer tt terected on the outskirts of Headquar e ters town where he sits in the com = pany of Scottish officers and soldier ;t during a good Scotch sermon and J. long one, too.