3 OCTOBER 1998, Page 37

LETTERS Kitchener's qualities

Sir: I readily acknowledge Andrew Roberts's point that Queen Victoria opposed Kitchener's appointment as C-in-C India (Letters, 26 September), but her rea- sons may not have been as negative as might be inferred. She seems genuinely to have believed his talents lay elsewhere — at the War Office, where his 'remarkable qualities as an organiser' would be of greater value (letter of 29 September 1900 from Arthur Bigge, her assistant private secretary, to Lord Lansdowne, secretary of state for war). As the Boer War was exposing whole- sale inadequacies in the higher organisation of defence, this recommendation cannot be undervalued.

Kitchener was alarmed, apparently, when he heard that he might be sent to the War Office — as would any sensible soldier be. Allan Mallinson

The Cavalry and Guards Club, 127 Piccadilly, London W1