It was announced in last Saturday's papers that General Sir
William Birdwood was appointed Com- mander-in-Chief in India in succession to Lord Rawlinson and that he was simultaneously promoted Field-Marshal, two ranks that have. never. before been held together. General Birdwood's appointment was expected and generally approved. He became marked out for the highest military posts when he had successfully commanded the Australian troops who reached Egypt is 1914. They had different ideas of discipline and of a soldier's individuality from those of English regular troops, and they were " spoiling " to find faults in the English officer superimposed upon them. General Bird- wood passed this critical test with great success. None of the expected faults were found. Later in France he had command of the Fifth Army after its troubles in the spring of 1918. His new appointment finds him the senior general in the Indian Army though not yet sixty years old.
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