LADY ST. HELIER
Lord Kitchener a mystery to the outside world.
Fond of old friends.
To the outside world Lord Kitchener was something of a mystery; they knew little of him personally, he shunned publicity, he was not a seeker after popularity. Though he had few personal friends, he was endeared to that chosen few in a way unique and rare. He was shy and reserved about the deep things of life, but a charming companion in ordinary ways—very amusing and agreeable. He had a great sense of humor, and his rapid intuition gave him a wonderful insight into character, and he soon arrived at a just estimate of people, and of the motives of those with whom he came into contact. He did not make many new friends, and the people who knew him well, and with whom his holidays or hours of relaxation were passed, were confined to those he had known for many years. He always impressed one with a deep sense of decency in conversation and conduct; one felt in talking to him how impossible it would be to drift into the easy-going discussion of questions and problems of our modern life, and it seemed impossible to imagine his taking a silent acquiescence in the jokes and insinuations which are not considered now extraordinary or unpleasant.
Economy in expenditure in Egypt.
Kitchener's unsparing activity in South Africa.
Lord Kitchener's strength lay in the fact that his views broadened as he went on in life. As long as he was confined to Egypt and had to carry out his task with the minimum of force and expenditure, he was careful even to penuriousness, and his subordinates groaned under his exacting economy; but he was justified in his care by the wonderful development of the country devolving from his unsparing activity. When he went to South Africa with a great staff and unlimited funds, he took a new departure. He worked himself unceasingly, and exacted the same from those around him, but he recognized inevitable limitations and was most considerate.
Medical aid for Egyptian women organized.
Trained English nurses sent to Egypt.
Lives of babies saved.
Expected to return to Egypt.
Ceaseless activity characterized his work in Egypt, when he went there after failing to be appointed Viceroy of India, which most of his friends anticipated, and which he would have accepted. Perhaps Egypt was a disappointment after the wider sphere India presented, but nothing ever prevented him from doing what came to him to do and giving his best to it. When he returned there, the question of infant mortality and the unhygienic condition of Egyptian women during child-bearing, from the neglect and ignorance of the most elementary measures, came under his observation, and he was deeply interested in devising means of providing medical treatment for them, and of training native women in midwifery and all that would conduce to improving the conditions under which they lived. He enlisted the sympathy and interest of the wives of officials, and of Englishwomen in Egypt, and carried out a scheme which in itself was a wonderful example of what his interest and driving power could accomplish. These women whose help he enlisted could tell endless stories of the task he set them to do and his tacit refusal to listen to any difficulties that arose in carrying it out. A number of trained English nurses were despatched to Egypt and sent to different localities, where they gave training to a large number of native women in midwifery and kindred subjects. The scheme was a great success, and the benefit it has been to thousands of native women is indescribable, as regards both their general treatment and the care of themselves and their children at birth. Little was known about the subject in England, and much less about all that was done to mitigate the evil; but it was a wonderful piece of administration, though perhaps not one that appealed specially to him; and when some one, knowing what had been achieved, congratulated him on his success and the boon it was to the women in Egypt, his characteristic reply was: "I am told I have saved the lives of ten thousand babies. I suppose that is something to have done." At that time, only a fortnight before the prospect of war seemed possible, he was talking with the keenest interest of his return to Egypt and of what he had still to do there.
The dinner at Lord French's.
There are incidents in life which leave lasting impressions, and one of a large dinner at Lord French's about the same time, at which Lord K., Lord Haldane, and others were present, comes to my mind; probably no one there but those three men had an idea of the threatening cloud which broke in so short a time over England, and the important part two of them would take in it. Lord K., as the world knows, was on the point of returning to Egypt; in fact, he had started when he was recalled, almost on board the steamer at Dover.
The country expects Lord Kitchener to head the War Office.
The two questions which moved the soul of the English people to its deepest depth were, undoubtedly, what part the country was going to take when it was realized that war was inevitable, and, after that, who was to preside at the War Office. There might have been hesitation on the one point; on the other there was none, and the silent, deep determination with which the people waited to be told that Lord Kitchener was to be Secretary of State for War can only be realized by those who went through those anxious days. There was never a doubt or hesitation in the mind of the country that Lord K. was the only person who could satisfy its requirements, and the acclamation with which the news flashed through the country when he was appointed Secretary of State for War was overwhelming, while those who were thrown into contact with him give a marvelous account of the cool, rapid, and soldier-like way in which he accepted the great position. He quickly installed himself at the War Office, even to sleeping there, so that he was ever at the call of his office, and lived there till Lady Wantage placed her house in Carlton Gardens, close by, at his disposal. Later on the King offered him St. James's Palace, and those neighbors who rose early enough saw him daily start off on his morning walk to his office, where he remained all day.
Lord Kitchener's arduous two years.
The last two crowded years of Lord Kitchener's life, full of their anxieties and responsibilities, had not changed him; but though he had aged, and the constant strain had told on him, he had altered outwardly but little. The office life was irksome, and the want of exercise to a man of his active habits very trying, for he hardly ever left London except for an occasional week-end at Broome. His intended visit to Russia was not known, and, like so many of his visits to France and the army at the front, were only made public after his return. Those who saw him that last week and knew of his going, tell how he longed for the change and how eagerly he looked forward to his holiday.
The great task completed.
The farewell visit to the King and to the Grand Fleet.
The last few months, with the controversies over conscription, had harassed him. He was not a keen believer in the conscript principle; he was more than justified in his preference for a voluntary army by the response he had received on his appeal to the manhood of England. There was a wonderful completion of the task he had undertaken in those last few days. He had raised his millions, and the country had accepted the inevitable imposition of compulsion, and with it that chapter of his life was finished. He had met the House of Commons, and, uncertain as the result of that conference was, like all he did, it was one of his greatest successes. He had no indecision when it was proposed to him that he should meet the Commons, and, as was always the case, the result was never in doubt. What passed has never been divulged, but he left an impression on the two hundred members who were present which was perhaps one of the best tributes ever paid him. After his farewell to the King, his last visit to Broome and to Sir John Jellicoe and the Grand Fleet, he set sail for the shore he never reached, and the end had come. It was perhaps the most perfect end of such a life—a life full of high endeavor and completion. The service he had rendered his country by raising her armies and foreseeing the probable duration of the war could not have been performed by any other living man. If, as his critics say, he depended too much on his own individual endeavors, he was not to be blamed when we read day by day of the glorious deeds of the armies he had created.
The country staggered under the blow of his death, and one can never forget the silent grief and dismay of that dreadful day with its horrible tragedy. The grief was universal and personal, and the tributes to his work and memory were spoken from the heart by the great leaders of both parties. No more touching and pathetic tribute was ever said than the speech made by Lord Derby in the House of Lords on the resolution in reference to his death. There is not one word to be altered from beginning to end, but the concluding words must go to every heart and find an echo:
The whole machinery of the new armies in running order.
Lord Kitchener said good-by to the nation at a moment when he left the whole of the machinery of the great armies that he had created in running order, and when it only required skilled engineers to keep going his work. It was really as if Providence in its wisdom had given him the rest he never would have given to himself.
With the memory of a great naval battle fresh in our minds we must all realize how rich a harvest of death the sea has reaped. We in these islands from time immemorial had paid a heavy toll to the sea for our insular security, but, speaking as the friend of a friend, I can say that the sea never executed a heavier toll than when Lord Kitchener, coffined in a British man-of-war, passed to the Great Beyond.
Copyright, Harper's Magazine, October, 1916.
How and why America joined with the Allies against Germany in April, 1917, is told in the three articles following. The summaries contained therein are official, and the war message of President Wilson condenses the reasons which impelled the United States, after long delay, to throw the force of its strength and resources against the German Empire.