Established 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Friday, June 27, 1902. WHAT IS TO BECOME OF KITCHENER?

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVI, Issue 148, 27 June 1902, Page 2

Established 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Friday, June 27, 1902. WHAT IS TO BECOME OF KITCHENER?

Loud Kitchener returns to England this week, and has received a most enthusiastic "send off" at Johannesburg. His reception in London is bound to be equally cordial, for the English papers, who are not slow to recognise real merit, have by this time come to the conclusion that it is to the well-devised and patiently-executed plans of the man who broke the power of the Mahdi at Omdurman that the Empire mainly owes that "peace with honor" over which we have recently and so fervently rejoiced. Pleasantesf feature of all is the esteem with which the successful geueral is evidently held by the leading Boer commanders. Men like De Wet, Botha, and De la Rey have paid a tribute of unstinted praise to Lord Kitchener for his ability as a military commander and his tact and discretion as a diplomatist. Now we learn that despatches (from the late Boer Government, we presume) have been conveyed to Brussels by no less a personage than the brother of exPresident Steyn, and that these de spatches eulogise Lord Kitchener's diplomacy and generosity. Henceforth, it is stated by the official representative of the men who were but so recently fighting against British soldiers, the burghers will be among the most loyal of the King's subjects. These tributes to Lord Kitchener's merit as a general and as a negotiator will confirm and enhance an already high reputation. The particular post to which Lord Kitchener will be assigned when once he returns to active work has not yet been stated. It has been rumoured that he is shortly to go to India as Commander-in-Chief in that great country, and that he will institute and carry out a big scheme of military reform. On the other hand opinion in favour of his succeeding Lord Roberts at the War office is rapidly gaining strength at Home, and findn reflection in many leading English journals. It is felt that Lord Roberts is now old enough to have earned permanent relief from arduous official work, and it would be foolish to ignore the fact that great disappointment is felt with his management of affairs at the War Office, indeed, it has been openly asserted by the Saturday Review and other papers in which military affairs receive special attention that affairs at the War Office have gone from bad to wor^e since Lord Roberts succeeded Lord Wolseley.;- Be this as it may, the appointment of Lord Kitchener as Commander-in-Chief of the British Army would, it is felt, be a guarantee of future reform and increased efficiency. He has proved himself perfectly impervious to aristocratic " wire-pulling " and does not scruple to "fire out" incompetent officers who may have friends in very high quarters. He has proved himself a splendid organiser, he is fresh from the conduct of a long and peculiarly arduous campaign, he is still comparatively young, and lie is physically and mentally a very strong man, and both the cation and the army would have implicit confidence in him.