The Press. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1900. THE NEW COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10777, 3 October 1900, Page 4

The Press. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1900. THE NEW COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.

Whatever else may be said about the Salisbury Government, it cannot be denied that they are showing magnificent generalship in regard to the present election. It was a masterpiece of strategy to make it a khaki election—to insist that the justice of the war and , the expediency of absorbing the Boer Republics should be the so)e issue before the electors. Tke British voter does not like to be confused with too many side questions. The war forms a broad picturesque effect which every man can sa-e and appreciate, and Liberal criticisms as to neglect of social and domestic reforms have little chance of attracting any general attention amid the clangour and the pomp of war. There was, howevy, decidedCy one weak point upon which they might have been attacked. We mean the obvious defects in the War Office administration, and the apparent inability oi Lord! Lansdowne and his advisers to devise any comprehensive system of reform likely to satisfy the public. Most opportunely it happens that the position of Com-mander-in-Chief, now held by Lord Wolseley, falls vacant. The Government, as we indicated some weeks ago would probably be the case, have now offered the appointment to Lord Roberts, who has accepted it. They have done this, we do not doubt, from a firm belief that he is the bsst man available, and that no more fitting appointment could be made in tihe interests of the nation. At the same time there is no question that in handing over the reorganisation of the army to the popular idol of the day—tie idol of the army as wdl as of the people—they have strengthened themselves enormously from a political point of view. They can now say to the British, public—"lt is true taiat the war has shown that the system of army organisation and control in the past has been defective; we admit it; but we have now given you the best guarantee that everything shall be put on a prepor basis in the future." If, as is hinted, Lord Kitchener is also to be associated in the

work of army reform, the reassurance and satisfaction of the public will bo complete. There is now little doubt, we tihink, that Lord Salisbury will come back with a record majority at 'his back.