BLUNDERS IN ARMY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21018, 6 May 1930, Page 11

BLUNDERS IN ARMY.

WO SERIOUS MISTAKES. - OVER 400 ANIMALS DESTROYED. In his report on British Army accounts the Auditor-general draws attention to two blunders which involved considerable financial losses. In one case 402 horses and mules were destroyed under the mistaken impression that they were suffering from glanders. In the second instance, a drill hall, disposed of by the authorities for £B6OO, had later to' be repurchased for £13,000. The latter transaction is described by the auditor as a “ serious and expensive mistake." In 1927, says the.report on a supposed - outbreak of glanders in Egypt, 369 norses and mules, army property, and 33 owned by army officers, were destroyed. A further 280 animals, supposed to be infected, awaited destruction. A senior officer was sent from England to investigate. He found that the sickness had been Wrongly diagnosed as glanders, Disciplinary action was taken against the .officers held to have been primarily responsible for the mistake. • . To compensate the officers whose private horses were destroyed a sum of £46o\ was .paid.. The drill hall, which was for certain Territorial Army huts, wcj erected in 1912 at a cost of £6BOO. In 1921 the hall was declared unsuitable, owing to the ab? ■sence of stables, riding school, and permanent staff quarters, and the units were ' transferred to some barracks on which £2OOO was expended. The drill hall was sold and realised £B6OO. In 1924 it was reported that the barracks were' unsuitable, and by 1937 their evacuation became, imperative. The alternatives were cither to erect new premises altogether or to find some existing accommodation which could be adapted for the purposes of the Territorial Army. SUPERFLUOUS, fiOAP. The only suitable premises proved to be the very hall which bad been sold toi £BOOO in 1021, After'protracted negotiations, this .property was repurchased for £13,000, this price being regarded as favourable in comparison with the alternative of new construction. Sanction to this repurchase was only given with reluctance by the Treasury, who expressed the view that the . decision to * move in 1921 had been taken without sufficient consideration of the future cost. , A bad deal in soap is also reported upon. - Purchases of yellow soap had been made by the War Office duribg 1927, under a running contract, and the excessive size of the stock was noticed. The soap was offered to other departments, .and 113 J tons were sold at less than-cost price. Other offers to purchase had to be declined, for it was discovered that the originally estimated surplus of 125 tons was, in fact, some 660 tons less. This over-estimate had Resulted from the omisslon to make allowance for the. considerable loss of weight due to evaporation that had occurred in' the soap, which had been In store for a number of years. Purchases to .bring the stocks up to requirements were made under the 1028 running contract; . In explanation of the over-buying it wag stated that it arose from miscalculation regarding requirements for Shanghai and to the fact that t! e increased demands anticipated had not materialised as soon as had been expected. - ORNAMENTAL BOMBS. Attention is called to the payment at tradesmen’s rates of pioneer workers in a number of infantry units. None of the units concerned was able t- produce adequate and up-to-date records justifying, the payments, and it was clear that in. numerous instances tradesmen’s pay had, contrary to regulations, been issued for days on which the men had done no public work at their trades. The War Office replied that they had no reason to believe that irregularities of material extent had occurred. The Air Services Appropriation Account for the yfear ended March 31,’ 1929, records damage to the extent of £607 to Air Ministry buildings and stores due ,to an explosion of bombs presumed to be dummies and used for ornamental purposes since 1919. It is stated that responsibility for allowing the bombs to be used as ornaments could not, after the lapse of time, be determined. Considerable destruction of and damage to aircraft by fire was caused by the accidental discharge of a Verey light pietol,_ due to a breach of the special instructions issued' to prevent such accidents. Disciplinary action was taken against the airman pilot, and the sum of £9 was recovered from him toward the gross loss of £1530. A SALE OF SANDBAGS. Air losses or damage in the course of , flying involved an expenditure of £3588. An aircraft left unattended with the engine running, collided with the wall of a hangar, and damage to the extent of £4ll was caused. When a large bombing aeroplane was in the course of transit by road it was so badly damaged that an expenditure of £560 was necessary to repair it. The Auditor-general, in his report on the account, has only one criticism to offer. He draws attention to the sale in Irak of 562,500 sandbags. A local contractor, before the bags were sorted,' offered a prize per 1000 for the unserviceable bags, estimated at 300,000. The whole of the bags were sorted as unserviceable, and the contractor purchased the whole quantity at the original price offered. “ Subsequent events." comments the auditor, "indicated that at least one other local merchant was willing to tender, and did, apparently, shortly after the sale was completed, purchase a large number of sandbags from the original purchaser at a much higher price."

—Picking up a pearl necklace in a gutter, Frank Deluca, a taxi driver in New York, was laughed at by his fellowdrivers, who told him it was no good, aa they did not find real pearls as large aa that, -He took them home for hia niece to play with, but, hearing of a lost necklace belonging to Mrs Maude Metcalfe, a wealthy society woman, he turned them in. They were worth £IO,OOO, and he was given £IOOO reward.