Proposed Army Reforms in England.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 213, 30 July 1887, Page 2

Proposed Army Reforms in England.

Another report has aIBO been presented to the Imperial Parliament, viz., thatof thelnquiry Ordnance Commission ; andagain there is a manifest reluctance to sheet thejblame home to anyone, although it is admitted that there has been gross mismanagement and inefficiency. It is gratifying, however, that the allegations of corruption have be_-n conclusive^ disproved, and that, beyoi.J blunders and incompetence, there is no dishonesty. The principal cause of the general inefficiency is stated to be the divided responsibility which at present exists, no individual being actually answerable for any particular scheme or system, but many persons being implicated, among whom it is impossible to apportion the blame. To remedy thi^ state of things it is proposed to appoint as supreme head an eminent officer, who will be assisted by a small board of advice. Under such guidance it is believed that the service may be remodelled so that there will be comparatively little waste and the minimum of friction. Apropos of the administration of the War Office, Lord Wolsely delivered a lemai liable speech in May last. He presided at a lecture delivered by Colonel Lonsdale A. Hale, R.E., on Tactics as affected by Field Telegraphy, and in closing the discussion which followed the paper, Lord Wolsely said he was a believer in novelties, and he believed that the more they u ere adopted tho better the army would be, and therefore the better it would be for the nation. The necessity of gun«« could be shown, and advice might be given on all hands that proper organisation would need a corps of cyclists and other things, but he should like tho'-e who suggested those things to have to go before the Secretary of State for War with their views, then they would get the answers as to why those things were, not adopted. Why even the state of our fous at home and abroad, owing to neglect, were most discreditable to the nation and to everyone responsible. When the facts were laid before the authorities, it did not matter whether it was a question of guns, or repairs to forts, or the provision or new facilities of communication, or anything else, the same process went on. Fiist, there was a large expenditure of rens and ink on the part of some, and of patience on the part of others. One gentleman would write a minute upon any subject to a gentleman, his friend, in the next room, and after the repetition of this process the matter would at last got to the hands of the Secretary of State for War, who, advised by his financial friends, at once told the army advisers that there was no funds. If the army authorities asked for requisites for the army they were told that the}' must "economise" in some way to get them if machine guns were asked for, then the reply came that the fighting men must be reduced, or, under the same conditions carts and horses which were necessai y for any army would be supplied. If the counti y went on longer in this way — knocking oil cavalry and artillery whenever increased expenditure was required — tho army would soon be reduced to two men and a boy. There had been an earnest endeavour made on the part of the army authorities, as all connected with the army knew, to organise a force which might from necessity have to be sent abroad — two army corps and one cavalry division. So far as the men were concerned, he was justified in saying that the men could be got leady to be put on board the M hips before the ships could be got leady, and tho nation could thus be defended from an enemy by sti iking that enemy elsewhere. But it was. of no use talking of the necessity of providing novelties like telegraphs when the army had not even stores or transports. Mo&t important as it was to have such things as telegraphs, the army fait it was of no use asking for them when it was thus deficient in the first means of moving.