Dec. 1899.] Lord Kitchener as a General.
His experience was wide and various. It was not only in the conduct of war, but also in civil administration that he had made for himself a name. Though he never courted popularity and had no influence of any kind, his sheer ability carried him forward. That unerring judge of men who trained Sir Alfred Milner, Lord Cromer, selected Kitchener as Sirdar in 1892. The new Egyptian commander made of the army under his charge a miracle of efficiency at an insignificant cost. Quietly, methodically, he organised and prepared for the reconquest which, he knew, must come in time, when the conscience of the British nation awoke. He made no mistakes; he took the utmost pains to find out what the enemy was doing, conscious that victory in war largely depends upon perfect information. The Egyptian Intelligence Department was as efficient as the Egyptian Army. And when at last the long-desired hour struck and the British and Egyptian troops marched southward into the desert "to avenge Gordon," everything was ready, everything went like clockwork. Firket, the Atbara, and Omdurman followed in regular and mechanical succession. The man "who had made himself a machine" did his work surpassingly well. All that the nation heard about its new general delighted it. The very gossip which was meant to discredit him only increased his reputation. His dislike for triflers and idlers, his aversion from all kinds of favouritism, his determination to insist upon strict discipline, competence, and knowledge in those whom he employed, might estrange from him the darlings of fortune, but were a recommendation to the people of England. He was outwardly cold and stern, like many deep natures, but no general is unpopular with his troops if he always succeeds. With Lord Kitchener the men felt instinctively that every thing would be foreseen, all precautions taken, and nothing overlooked. They knew that everyone would do his duty, or if not that the Sirdar would want to know the reason why.
THE REAL KRUGER.
Two Portraits taken on April 24, 1900.
[Copyright of the "Review of Reviews."
[Dec. 1899.
Lord Kitchener, then, took with him to Africa the prestige of a great name, the reputation of continual success, and the habit of handling large masses of troops. No living English general, not even Lord Roberts, had ever had under him in war so many troops as Lord Kitchener led into the field in 1898, when he marched to Omdurman 8,200 British and 17,600 Egyptian soldiers, with sixty-four field guns and Maxims. Last, but not least, Lord Kitchener had seen little of the mischievous kind of fooling which at Aldershot, under the specious guise of Field Days, served rather to render our generals inexpert and our soldiers careless of the methods of war, than to familiarise them with something approaching the real conditions of battle. His training had been that of actual war, his power of organisation was undoubted, and even his bitterest detractors had to confess that he was a successful leader. But what, perhaps, most recommended him to his country was his seriousness of purpose and his concentration of aim. His very face bore in every line the look of iron resolution, of a spirit which fears nothing and calculates everything. And that, perhaps, was why the swift genius of Mr. Steevens christened him "the machine." For he rose superior to the accidents of fortune and the tragedies of life; nothing seemed to shake his coolness or weaken his purpose. Here was a general who would never show the not ignoble weakness which wrecks so many would-be leaders—the unwillingness to incur losses, the inward rebellion against sending brave, devoted men to death. Yet that his nature was not without a strain of sentiment was proved by that strange commemoration service, held on the scene of Gordon's death, in sight of the still reeking battlefield of Omdurman, which set the seal upon the purpose of ten long years, and to some extent obliterated the shame felt by his countrymen for the death of that noble man. The interest which attached to Kitchener's personality was enhanced by the fact that he was something of a riddle to his countrymen, who suspected that under the outer veil of iciness which marked him, as it marked Moltke, lay concealed the warmer qualities of the heart.
