TO FIELD-MARSHAL SIR DOUGLAS HAIG.
June 19th, 1917.
Sir, though in dealing with the strong and straight
Of sentiment one cannot be too thrifty,
Still, after reading your despatch—the date
Chimes with your birthday, ætat six-and-fifty—
A humble rhymer, though denied by fate
Possession of the high poetic "giftie,"
May yet express the hope it won't displease you
To see yourself as one plain person sees you.
Some call you cold, because you are not prone
To bursts of eloquence or flights of feeling;
You do not emulate the fretful tone
Of those who turn from boastfulness to squealing;
Your temperament, I am obliged to own,
Is not expansive, Celtic, self-revealing;
But some of us admire you none the less
For your laconic simple truthfulness.
No doubt you would provide far better "copy"
To the industrious drivers of the quill
If you were more emotional and sloppy,
More richly dowered with journalistic skill;
To make despatches blossom like the poppy
You never have essayed and never will;
In short, you couldn't earn a pound a week
As a reporter on The Daily Shriek.
Frugal in speech, yet more than once impelled
To utter words of confidence and cheer,
Whereat some dismal publicists rebelled
As premature, ill-founded, insincere—
Words none the less triumphantly upheld
By Victory's verdict, resonantly clear,
Words that inspired misgiving in the foe
Because you do not prophesy—you know;
Steadfast and calm, unmoved by blame or praise,
By local checks or Fortune's strange caprices,
You dedicate laborious nights and days
To shattering the Hun machine to pieces;
And howsoe'er at times the battle sways
The Army's trust in your command increases;
Patient in preparation, swift in deed,
We find in you the leader that we need.
"The temperature in Berlin yesterday was 131 degrees Centigrade, which is the highest temperature since 1848."—Daily Dispatch.
Equal to about 268 degrees Fahr. and quite hot enough to keep the Imperial Potsdam boiling.
"A correspondent who knows a great deal about the coat trade says there is going to be great difficulty in obtaining coal during the coming winter."—Torquay Times.
This will confirm the belief that the shortage of fuel is not unassociated with the vested interests.
"We, on the other hand, are just as much entitled, under any sane code of morals, to bombard Kerman towns as to shoot German soldiers on the field."—The Globe.
We think, however, that the inhabitants of these Persian towns might reasonably object to such vicarious reprisals.