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Specifically fortunate in his present job are two attributes. He knows something about the Japanese because he spent his childhood in Japan, where his father built many miles of railway and where Henry learned to speak, read and write Japanese. And he was first in time and remains first in sentiment an artillery man—a specialty for which the Supreme Command may be thankful if Singapore, a regular gun-porcupine of an island, falls under close siege.
He has, on the other hand, some non-Raffles qualities, which may not help him much. His precision verges on brusqueness: he's the sort, his men say, who keeps a dog and barks himself. He represents the gent-sport kind of soldier of which the East has too many. He was the best swimmer of his generation at Woolwich, is a fine golfer, a keen shot, a good skier (passed his "second class" tests at 40), an enthusiastic horseman (once whip of the Staff College drag), an experienced salmon-fisherman (in peacetime went all the way to Norway and Iceland to indulge in this pastime). He has had no jungle experience, although the War Office hopes his brief experience on the Indian North West Frontier in 1930-31 will help him. Some fear that his expert withdrawing capacity, as exemplified at Dunkirk, may be just the wrong thing for the Far East, where the Allies have already done too much withdrawing.
*Australians hoped, with a somewhat bitter hope, that it would be General Sir Thomas Blarney, or some other Australian (see p. 30).