The Defence Office. Should it be Blown Sky = high ?

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 67, 12 October 1901, Page 8

The Defence Office. Should it be Blown Sky = high ?

MR TANNER MIT R if «i little indiscreet in his assumption that the Defence office should be elevated skywaids \oices the sentiments of a vei) laige ciowd indeed when lie chaigcs that amateui institution with incompetence Pel haps if you have nevei had anything to do with this Department, evidently instituted as a soit of lcstmg place foi mihtai y del ehcts you will agiee that it is a highly ornamental and extiemely complete outfit ♦ » * But, on the othei hand, if you aic m the unfoitunate position of being a civilian who has once been a boldiei and who humbly asks foi what is youi own you will agiee that theie is something especiall) lotten in it-> constitution If you have any busuicss with othei Depait incuts theie is usually a specified poison to whom you wiite 01 whom you appio.uh foi a settlement of it You follow this well-established custom with the Defence Office but you must not flattei youiself that theie is to be an) hnaliU to )oui business * * # The lact ot the mattei is th.it the Defence Office does not quite know r who s who 01 what s what It hoick in it-, giit smecuies Tt has aw aided them, and the men who have woithily held positions undei it foi veais past aic hampeied in their opciations and so duven to chsti action by smecui e-holdeis and lcd-tape inihtausni that they ai c in the position of the gentleman in the song who dunno weie c aie I\ow although theie aie many men who pel haps aie desei\mg of coi - sideiation at the hands of the (»o\einment the said Government mig.it have been moie diseieet m ciamming so many of them into a depaitment which seems to be quite ovei-ciowd-ed The painful lack ot system indexing with any kind ot business is so appaient so iuil\ acknowledged that cDinmciit is almost unnuessaiv weie it not that so many people suftei bv the laxity 11 a civil mspeitoi with a knowledge of business weie tinned on to weed out unueccessaiy oflueis fiom that Depaitment, he would find that they would compose quite a nice little coips Tf this coiintiv nei ded an ilahoiatc system ot militaiv piolection then doublhss woik iniyhl be found foi

As it is, a small section of the les-sei-paid officeis of the Depaitmcnt ,ue quite unable to cope, with the woik on account of the absolute uselessness of some of the moie highlypaid ofhcials who nieiely mtcifcic without helping We do not advocate a Guy Fawkes plot to blow the office up because that suggestion, by the member for Avon would entail expenditure m le-building but any plot foi the lemoval of militaiy exciesccnces and the business-like dealing with its afTans, would be gladly welcomed as much by the geneial public as by the unfoi tunate men who have business to do with that Depaitmcnt that the said Dcpaitment is eithei too apathet t 01 incompetent to peifonn