MANAWATU EVENING STANDARD AND POHANGINA GAZETTE. Circulation, 2,800 Copies Daily TUESDAY, SEPT. 10, 1902. ARMY REFORM.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7400, 16 September 1902, Page 2

MANAWATU EVENING STANDARD AND POHANGINA GAZETTE. Circulation, 2,800 Copies Daily TUESDAY, SEPT. 10, 1902. ARMY REFORM.

The mcjmpetency of a number of the British officers during the South African war has been the means of urging Army Reform in England and not before it was wanted. The cotnroiUeo on the education of military officers declares in regard to the system, or lack of system, wh.'ch prevails in connection with tho training of young men for commission?, that the c:idets of Sandhurst have no inducement to work, and instructors have no inducement to teach. One of tha main practical recommendations included in tho roporfc is that in which it is auggcslcdthe cadets should periodically go into enuuuipmcnl lor the purpose of acquiring at least a rudimentary idea of the soldier's mode of life while on campaign. It is of interest to note that this recommendation is endorsed by no less competent an authority than Viscount Kitchener, who, in the course of a public address delivered three weeks ago, as we have been informed by cable, strongly advocated the establishment of oletnentary ruilitar}schools. The members of tho committee think that cavalry cadets, in particular, ought to have in all about six weeks under canvas during each year, and that they should be taught to 1-jok after their horses. In other words, just as a carpenter is expected to know something about wood and a shoo maker abort leather, bo it is now strongly recommended by a twentieth century British committee on military education that a British officer should be trained to know a little— ?vcn if ever so little—about soldiering ! The British nation is now in the transition stage between tho era in w};i:h army commissions are regarded as thn perquisites of aristocratic- families and ihe now and better ordb' of things in which,'in military as in o her enterprises, brains and industry must tell in favour of man, no matter ie whet station in life he miy have hern born. The committee on tho education of officers complains that for the entrance and competitive examinations far too many subjects are proscribed, and mere smatterings in these are actually required. Tho reform proposed for this depar;£uent is that examinations Rb.ou.ld in the main bs confined to English, mathematics, French or German, nnd Latin or experimental science, and that thoroughness in each of these should bo insisted on. This no doubt, would do something towards checking the aristocratic blockheads who crowd into tlio Army, securing admission into the colleges by paying expensive coaches who "know the rop-s," and are therefore in a position to impart exactly those particular smatterings out of a wide range of subjects which are likely to be demanded by the examiners. In the lists of an efficient examination a pass ought to indicate the possession Of brims and the application of skill and industry by the successful candidate ; but in this miserable system of examination which ha? prevailed under the direction of tho Civil Service Commissioners- v. . pass generally shows the cunning .of tho experienced coach in " spotting" probable questions and cramming the pupil with tho answers to these to the exclusion of all other mental pabulum.