CUTTING RED TAPE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 150, 26 June 1915, Page 18

CUTTING RED TAPE.

When he was Minister Plenipotentiary in Egypt Lord Kitchener slashed official red tape very badly There had been an offer to co-operate in the making of a road which would link up a, suburb of Cairo. Those who made the offer got hung up by red tape and wrote and told his Lordship so. Lord Kitchener (writes Mr. Weigali in his Egyptian memories), having satisfied himself that the proposals were satisfactory, told the financial authorities simply that he wished to motor out to the suburb on a certain date, and that the road must then be finished. "But," they objected, "labour is expensive and difficult to obtain." "Turn the prisoners on to the work," said he. "That isn't possible," they replied; "we have not got a sufficient number of warders to keep them in hand along a straggling line of that kind." "Warders !" exclaimed Lord Kitchener. "What the devil is the Army of Occupation doing with itself? Let them act as warders. Please see that the work begins to-morrow." Ministers and officials got into the habit of looking to Lord Kitchener for the last word on any subject— -the final opinion. It was a habit which sprang up naturally when he became the governor of Egypt j and it became strong.