Volume 152 — TO FIELD-MARSHAL SIR DOUGLAS HAIG.
Reading edition
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.