AN INCOMPLETE COMMISSION

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 14, 16 January 1918, Page 7

AN INCOMPLETE COMMISSION

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —Comments upon this constitution' of the Defence Expenditure Commission seem to have passed by one most vital defect, and that is the fact that there is not a soldier in the personnel of the Commission. Brigadier-General Anderson's title no doubt induces the belief among the public that an officer of so high a rank necessarily will impart to the tribunal the experience indispensable in a Commission which must sift the Dominion's army expenditure and decide intricate and sometimes technical military questions. The Government has not sufficiently appreciated the fact that General Anderson is a commercial gentleman, a financial expert whose reputation in his own sphere is very high, but who is not a soldier, and who therefore cannot bring to bear upon the enquiry the needful special vision of the Boldier. The same remark in an even more emphatio form applies to the other two gentlemen appointed to act upon the Commission. Considered as business men of wide and deep experience, they probably could not .be bettered in the setting up of the Commission, but one great essential is lacking, and unless it is supplied by the appointment of one or two military officers of experience the Commission cannot possibly be expected to grapplo fairly with the innumerable military professional questions which must arise in the course of the enquiry. How can the three members of the Commission possibly claim to be competent judges of the military necessity or otherwise for details'of expenditure in, say, the staffing; and equipment and upkeep of the training camps, of details in transportation of troops, of tha supply of arms and ammunition, of a thousand other items which necessarily will call for their scrutiny, without expert advice to guide them? There is the possibility of injustice, if unintentional injustice, being done in the criticism of really necessary work, and the consequent exposure of the Commis sion's findings to the charge of insufficient experience and ill-advised action. The clear remedy is to appoint at least two military officers of ripe ex perience—an experience which should include staff departmental service—to seats on the Commission, largely in on advisory capacity. Of necessity ihene officers should be non-active—that, is, they should not be in the employ of the Defence Department; they must occupy a perfectly independent position. There Must be a number of retired officers in our midst eminently well qualified to act as members of the Commission, and it is the obvious duty of the Government to make a selection which will strengthen an important tribunal indubitably incomplete at present.—l am, etc.. ONE OF THE CSOWD. 15th January.