GREAT BRITAIN’S ARMY

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4299, 7 March 1901, Page 5

GREAT BRITAIN’S ARMY

WAR OFFICE ADMINISTRATION. SPEECH BY LORD WOLSELEY. LORD LANSDOWNE’S REPLY. LONDON, March 5. In the House cf Lords, the Duke of Bedford complained of the army system, which ho said deprived the Commander-in-Chief of real responsibility. Lore! Raglan, Parliamentary Undersecretary for War, defended the War Office. Viscount Wolsoley, ex-Commander-in-Chief, in a carefully-prepared speech, which lasted an hour, advocated professional control of the army and rehabilitation of tho office of Commander-in-Chief. The only exceptions among the nations to tho rule that soldiers should control the army were China, which was a had example, and Great Britain. He had for five years while he was Cem-raander-in-Chief honestly tried tho present system, and found it wanting. He could show that the ueted of efficiency in the army had been subordinate to the wish to produce a low Budget. The virtual command had been transferred to a civilian Secretary of State, and the Com-mancler-in-uhief could 1 suggest, recommend, and exhort, but nothing beyond. He had often been sick at heart on seeing the national risks deliberately accepted by the Government because it was afraid to ask for money. Had the annual demands of the Commander-in-Chief during the last fifteen years' been published, with the reasons for the demands, the tax-payers would have! been able to judge between expert and economist, and would have insisted on compliance with those demands, and the Empire would thus have escaped many terrible risks. The Marquis of Lansdownel, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and ex-Min-ister for War, replied, and his speech, despite the speaker’s suavity of manner and courtesy, equally with that of Lord Wolkeley, startled the) House. He said tho present system was hotter than one which Lord Hartington’s Commission had so emphatically condemned. The failures in South Africa were not due to the system, but to not giving thel system full effect. Lord Wolseley initiated proposals concerning different departments of the War Office, but only fitfully, when the spirit moved! him 1 . The auxiliary forces had been neglected. “Had Lord Wolseley more fully realised the immensely important duties assigned him by .Orders in-Council requiring him to prepare schemes for offensive and defensive operations and duties, whorefor be alone was responsible,” proceeded Lord Lansdowne, “he might have told us before the war that Ladysmith was not a very suitable military station, and might even have warned us to take more than one army corps to subjugate the Republics.” The Marquis said that when Lord Wolseley resigned he memorialised the Premier on the score of his inadequate powers as Commander-in-Chief, hut the memorial did net mention the fact that he was responsible for the direct control and mobilisation of the army, for utilising the volunteer forces, and for the Intelligence! Department. The debate was adjourned.