THE COMMISSARIAT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 290, 11 August 1855, Page 3

THE COMMISSARIAT.

(From the " Times.")

Some of our readers may possibly have fancied that in denouncing the pedantic system of routine observed iv the administration of our military departments we- were rather unreasonable ; that regularity, after all, must be a necessary element in public busiuess, that strict method could hardly do much mischief anywhere, and that official formalities of some kind were absolutely requisite, unless every office was to become a centre of confusion. Now, if these ideas hare ever been entertained, we think we need do little more to correct them than simply repeat two pieces of evidence delivered before the Committee of Inquiry now sitting. His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge deposed that on one occasion, while the army was in Bulgaria, being anxious to see that his men were properly supplied with food, he desired an officer to get rations for them from the head-quarter Commissariat. "The first day he sent," continued his Royal Highness, " although the men ivere in want of their daily rations, instead of sending these rations at once, the Commissariat sent a printed form to the officer for him to fill up. Hence, there was considerable delay, and then, not satisfied with that, the officer was supposed to have put clown one or two more horses than he was entitled to. Instead of sending the rations for the men and pointing out the inaccuracy in the return of horses, they would send no rations at all, because the form ivas wrong. Upon that the officer came to me, and I desired him to go with his animals to get the rations and put matters to rights, and he did then get them that day, although very late. As it turned out, the Commissariat officer was wrong, and there was no mistake in the return at all." General Bentinck's evidence is, if possible, even more striking. "On one occasion," said the gallant officer, " a voucher was sent back to me (i.e., from the Commissariat), because it was signed half an inch too low. I then took the liberty of saying that if this ever occurred again I would have that commissary turned out of the service. The difficulty never did occur afterwards.' 1 Be it observed that these " difficulties " were attributable almost wholly to the system and traditions of' c the department," insomuch .that the Duke of Cambridge makes an especial distinction in favour of the personal deserts of the Commissariat officers attached to his division, and stated that when any " difficulty of the department" occurred they zealously carried out his instructions in endeavouriug to surmount it. The same was probably the case in other divisions of the army also, but the system was too strong, and so elaborately had our practice been methodized as to be found useless far the realities of service. But at least, it may be said, suc^ a system must needs secure economy and c«»'tainty, if it does nothing else. Our departments, if slow, must be suru. Nothing can 1« wasted, lost sight of, or diverted from its prefer destination. On this head, to, we can produce a very pertinent illustration, colled from the evidence of the Duke of Cam^idge before the committee and the debates.^ Monday evening in the House of Common"; Of course, it will be very well recollect*" cna^ when, about this time twelvemontH our expeditionary army svas on its way to Hie East, a scheme was conceived of supplying the troops with malt liquor. This was not an ordinary practice, but it was very reasonably argued that what conduced to the health and strength of the soldier at home would do so abroad ; that, if rum was not the most wholesome beverage in London or Dublin, it was not likely to be so in Turkey, where the heat would be much greater and the service more exhausting, and that if our troops were to be supplied with liquor imported from home they might as well have some of the best. If our recollections do not mislead us, certain eminent brewing firms offered to facilitate the exertions of Government in this matter by delivering sound beer or porter at Constantinople or Varna with very reduced profit to themselves; but, at all events, malt liquor was to go out, and people here comforted themselves with the reflection that our soldiers, sweltering under an eastern sun, would get their draughts of the national beverage almost as regularly as at home. Well, the porter was sent; but to what purpose? Thanks to Colonel Boldero, we can do something towards tracking the erratic and costly course of four of these precious cargoes, and the reader,' we hope, will be edified with the narrative.

Cargo No. 1 was sent to Malta, hut arrived too latc^for the troops had proceeded to Varna, and to Varna therefore it followed them. So far Colonel Boldero and the Secretary of the Treasury are agreed as to the facts ; and as the Guards,according to the Duke of Cambridge's evidence, did get porter at Scutari and Varna, we may presume perhaps that this or some similar consignment was duly consumed, though Colonel Boldero alleges that Government had to pay no less than £1,935 demurrage upon it. Cargo No. 2, however, as the Colonel affirms, having been despatched from this country in March last, was lying untouched at Constantinople at the beginning of last December, the vessel having been engaged at the rate of about £480 a month. Cargo No. 3, having been loaded in June, was discharged on the 14lh of December, at Scutari, and cargo No. 4 was also discharged at Scutari, demurrage having been incurred on both. It does not appear that any portion of these consignments reached the Crimea, but we infer from the Duke of Cambridge's evidence that there did exist the means of supplying at least a portion of the army whileiirßulgaria with this valuable ration, for his Royal Highness states that the Guards did not get their porter because, as the whole army could not be served with it, it was not thought advisable to make exceptions, in favour of a particular regiment. Perhaps there was good intention at the bottom of such a resolution, though, if our stalwart Guardsmen do really, as was alledged, suffer more than others from the loss of this liquor, the men of the line might have acted like dive's Sepoy at Arcot, and magnanimously surrendered their share of sustenance to those who were even less able than themselves to do withont it. But what is to be said of the management displayed in this matter —of the system which, though absolutely crippled with the weight of its own formalities, cannot yet insure the accomplishment of so simple a matter as the proper delivery and distribution of a few casks of porter at certain places in the Black Sea? The operation, one would have fancied, was about as simple a piece of business as needs be. Parliament was ready with the funds, brewers with the article, and shipmasters with the vessels ; whereas, as far as we understand, not only were the troops in Bulgaria and the Crimea left without a drop of the beverage provided for them, while shiploads of it were lying at Constantinople, but the country has to pay heavy charges for the loss of time, and trouble incurred by such proceeding. If the demurrage on one cargo alone amounted to near j£2,000, what was it upon the whole? Could anything in the world be more discreditable to a business people than such management as this ? Porter is sent out for the troops, but the troops never get it, because it does not arrive in sufficient quantities for general distribution, and, in the meantime, the ordinary charges of the venture are multiplied by additional costs arising out of the delay ! It is little wonder that, while the estimates are so large, the army is ill-provisioned and the country dissatisfied, for not only do we fail in carrying out our arrangements, but we contrive somehow, with a singular perverseness of ingenuity, to make the failure more expensive than success.