MILITARY MUDDLES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 119, 18 May 1909, Page 5

MILITARY MUDDLES.

(By Fiank Morton .>)

! The Government 'has some sort of defence policy; hut exactly what ithat policy is nobody knows—least ,of :all the Government. -Ministers are- apparently content to say n©i}hing, .except' on special .occasions; then they . say the thing that comes easiest or .is most likely to !be popular with ithe (.crowd in front.

Meantime, some very foolish, things are done. A year or two ago, the.'De- ; ifence Department Md a large mumber | <of Snider rifles, wMcli were :iheltl to be a little out of date for Uhe purposes •»f this advanced country. They were accordingly sold at a perfectly paltry ■price to some person ivlio undertook tfhat they should toe sent to Birmingliam. The other day it was discovered {that some of these rifles, still'bear-,' ingithe New Zealand brand,, were 'being used against the British. %y Indian, hill-rebels. It is a very .quaint position. These rifles,,let It h& 'borne in mind, were good rifles, and cost the I&pvernment a lot of money. They were quite good enough to Issue to country rifle clubs; but the ponderously wise Department has apparently decided that it is better for volunteers to hawe :no rifles at all than to have rifles not of the latest style and pattern. These Snider rifles might, in short, be made good use of. .'The thing is altogether absurd. And tii© fact is thai, some of the respectable gentleme^t officially connected with, the Defence Department are not worth j their keep. If Sir Joseph is really in the mood;-of retrenchment —and re- j trenchment is necessary enough,; now ; he has started the singularly startling habit of giving away Dreadnoughts /.wjithout reference to Parliament J the hnsy gentlemen* of FleetStreet are in the mood to fake a .■'jscaper-rif Sir Joseph really wants to retrench, he could scarcely do better than\,get to wort among the officers ofy : '-pft^-. Defence. Department. We ha^ejH&d far too much of the lawntentiis;" starch, and google-google type of tnilitary person. We want men williiig to work, and possessing sufficient knowledge and intelligence to 'work -with good effect. It is not at all ! necessary that such men should be j flaneurs or society ornaments. Kitchener (or it may have beeji Napoleon or Hannibal: I forget) once said, "To , the deuce with all these tufted j prancers!" Quite so. ' ,