THE PRIZES OF WAR.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4307, 16 March 1901, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE PRIZES OF WAR.

Speculation is being indulged in as to what reward will be bestowed on Lord Roberts when the South African war has been closed. A newspaper puts forth the suggestion that he will receive besides the honour of a dukedom £IOO,OOO. Of ipourse, this is mere guesswork, for nobody knows what the reward will be. Certain it is that hitherto the prizes that have fanou to this brave old soldier have not been on a scale of great magnificence. He has been fighting in the British Army these fifty years, but Iris greatest prize was less than, half that awarded to bis chief of staff, Lord Kitchener, who only joined the Egyptian Army under Sir Evelyn Wood a-s a majoi' of cavalry in. 1882. For his heroic and brilliant mar ok from Cabuil to and the smashing defeat of Ayoub Khan, Lord Roberts was thanked by the Houses of Lords and Commons, was made a Field Marshal, raised to the Baronetcy, and presented with £12,000, It was only in 1802 that he was raised to tho Peerage. Sir Herbert Kitchener, for tho reeonquest of the Soudan, and the crowning victory of Omdurman, was thanked by Parliament, raised at once to the Peerage, and received the handsome reward of £25,000. The price bf victory was very high in the long i past days of our history. Marlborough made more money out of war than any other commander who ever fought for his country. In es- / tates and. money grants alone lie gob £540,000, and besides he received a pension of £4OOO per annum to bo paid to his heirs for ever. This pension was paid regularly till 1884, when it was commuted for a lump sum of £107,780. Bv that time the nation -had paid to the Marlborough family £780,000 in respect of this annuity. Tho Royal Manor of Woodstock was their reward for Blenheim, and Queen Anno afterwards built the famous mansion for him. Marlborough must have done exceedingly well oiit of the prize-money, for his" widow, who outlived him, left three millions sterling, a sum that represents mu oil more wealth than the figures -indicate to-day.

Nelson was not rewarded as he thought he deserved for some of is finest achievements; but from being an humble parson’s son ho won his way up tire tree of honours to the Peerage—he became a Viscount—and a pension in perpetuity of £SOOO was voted to bis heirs. Rodney’s pension was £2OOO, also in perpetuity. Wellington’s rewards were on a larger scale. Alter Talavera bo was given a three life annuity for the first Peninsula campaign. When bis second campaign closed with Cuidad Rodrigo, the pension was doubled, ho was raised to a Dukedom, and given £IOO,OOO to purchase an estate. Then came Waterloo, and the overthrow of Napoleon. Parliament bought the estate of Strathfieldsayo for him at a cost of over a quarter of a million sterling, and he shared prize-money to the extent of £60,000. The pension was afterwards commuted for a payment of £400,000. If Lord Roberts and his forces are permitted to share in the loot of < the South African capitals, the Commander-in-Chief should receive prize-money as much for ’ Bloemfontein alone as Wellington got for his Waterloo campaign.' But prize-money is rather out of date with us.

Lord Wolseley received £25,000 in recognition of his services as commander in the Ashanti w r ar of 1873-4, and he got £20,000 for the Egyptian campaign of 1882. He was at the same time raised to the Peerage, and after the Nile campaign of 188-4 lie received a Viscountcy.

Two other men who have won Peerages with the sword during the past reign, whose names must be recorded in every glory roll—Sir Colin Campbell, who fought in the Walchermi Expedition, at Demerara, and in China, who led the Highlanders in the Crimea and through the Indian, Mutiny, was made a Peer (Lord Clyde), and received a pension of £2000; Sir Robert Napier, who commanded in the Abyssinian war in 1868, received a pension of £2OOO, a Field Marshal’s baton, and a Peerage. Tlie reader may find some interest in comparing the value set by the Parliaments of the day on the service of the respective leaders, ’and in judging by which scale the work of the grand old man of the British army should now bo measured.