The Ypres Times.
119
LORD PLUMER AND THE SALIENT.
A Photograph taken at H.Q., Cassel),
The news of the recent visit of Field-Marshal Lord Plumer of Messines to his former
Chief-of-Staff of the Second Army, Lieut.-Gen. Sir Charles Harington, now in command
at Constantinople, recalls old days in the Ypres sector, when the elder and the younger
warriors were well-nigh inseparable. Lecturing on the history of the Salient a year after
the Armistice, Colonel Beckles Willson gave a great London audience, which included
H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, the following glimpse of Lord Plumer
The soldierthe great soldierwhose name is more continuously
associated with the Salient than any other, was Herbert Plumer. Everybody
at all times, in the most difficult periods of the hardest stunts,' of the biggest
pushes, felt a serene confidence in the General who was affectionately known as.
Old Plum.' They knew there would be no slacking, no detail overlooked or
neglected that high up in the baroque Casino at Cassel sat a grizzled old warrior
with the face and expression of a mastiff, who never lost his nerve, never was
puzzled or surprised, issued his orders and expected them to be carried out to-
the letterheard all the reports, read all the Intelligence précis, knew exactly
what the Boche was doing and, in short, had a grip of the situation. Plumer,
though little trumpeted or advertised, was given about the hardest job of any-
general in the war."
No wonder, as the newspapers reported, this tribute was received by the audience
with loud cheering. The men under his command are not likely to forget.
