25 DECEMBER 1915, Page 2

We record with the utmost satisfaction that Sir William Robertson

has been appointed Chief of the Imperial Staff in place of Sir Archibald Murray, " who is about to receive an important command." We congratulate Sir W. Robertson, but still more do we congratulate the Government. They will now have at their elbow the wisest, sanest, and most courageous of war-counsellors. If we add the most single-minded and also most plain-spoken, we shall not, we believe, be in error. Ambition may be a generous fault, but ambitious soldiers, especially at home, are apt to be restless—the worst of qualities in an adviser. Happily Sir William Robertson is not ambitious in this sense— perhaps not in any sense except that of serving his country. Unless we are utterly mistaken in regard to his intellectual equipment, the Government will find that they can depend upon Sir William Robertson to steady the strategy of the war, and to prevent the policy of little packets, forced upon us, we admit, by circumstances, from having disastrous consequences.