The Daily News. TUESDAY, MAY 29, 1900. RED TAPE AT THE WAR OFFICE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 100, 29 May 1900, Page 2

The Daily News. TUESDAY, MAY 29, 1900. RED TAPE AT THE WAR OFFICE.

In normal times the antics of the demon of red tape and his legion of satellites, with their ways that are mystic and tricks past understanding, afford some amusement in spite of occasional hardships, but none the less has there been a many years war against these offending imps of officialdom and still they live, ever on the look out for victims over whom their fiendish chuckle rings the louder in proportion to the greatness of the injury inflicted. The satire of Punch, arguments of legislators, and exposure by the Press have effected at times some slight cheek on the vagaries of these jacks-in-office, but every now an again, especially at the most awkward times, there is an outbreak, and the game once started stirs up the restrained evil spirits into a rivalry which knows no limit save the patient endurance of the victims. And all the while the one sided fun is progressing, those who could and should nip it in the bud look on in solemn silence—nay, are even ready to be the apologists for the inhuman monsters who transpose their functions in such a chinese manner. A few of the latest instances are communicated by the London correspondent of a contemporary who says:— " The force of red tape can surely go no further than in the case of Private Hammond, which has been brought to light by a London journal. Private Hammond belongs or he belonged—to E. Company of the Ist Scots Guards. He was among the first of his battalion to proceed to the front, and during Lord Methuen's operations on the Modder River he received a wound which necessitated his removal to the base hospital at Cape Town. Thence he was sent Home, and after a short stay at Netley was discharged as cured, and sent on to Wellington Barracks, where the 3rd Battalion of his regiment is in residence. But then his troubles began. No member of the Ist Battalion is in London, and when Private Hammond inquired where he was to find food and lodging he was sent from sergeant-major to sergeant-major without any satisfactory result. "They told me," he said, " I might find a bed when somebody was on guard. As to messing, I have no company in London, and can go to none. If I had not obtained leave and gone to some friends in town I should have been in difficulties as to both bed and food." This is hardly the treatment which should be meted out to one who has been wounded in his country's service. Hammond was discharged from Netley on the 20fch ol March, and he cannot even obtain his pay, for no company in London has his name upon its roll. He is simply a military derelict whom nobody owns, but hs is still a soldier of tho Queen, now apparently in the best of health. The military authorities ought surely to be able to decide the future status of a man who deserves well of his country, even although he may be the only representative of his battalion in the barr.icks i that refuses to provide for h'm. " Another case of official neglect on allfours witli that of Private Hammond is that of Private Pell, who was in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, and served seven years in India. Coming Home about nino months ago, he started in a small business, but was called npon with the reserves for service in South Africa. H e was wounded at Modder River and invalided Home. As soon as convalescent, Pell was sent from Netley to his depot—Stirling C stle. The authorities there, however, declared that they did not know him, and therefore could not give him any pay that might be due to him. From the time of joining until six weeks ago the only pay Pell received was 2s. After hanging about the barracks for some time, he succeeded in bon owing .£4, and came home to London on furlough for two months. The only article of clothing belonging to his r giment he had on when he came Ilouie was a forage cap, the rest of his attire being made up from different regiments, and included a a pair of boots too large for him. This case and that of Hammond are not iso'ated instances of official neglect ol wounded men from the front, but these two cases are sufficient to show that I" tho Absent-minded Beggar" is not) corded to the ranfe Whilst on the';

subjeot of red tape, I ni-.y mention that last week, in answer to a question why Lord Methuen had been ho long in sending in a report of the battle of Magersfontein, Mr. Wyndham (Under-1 Secretary for War) said that his first] report had been returned to him, and he gave as one of the reasons for this that the paragraphs had not been numbered . The gentleman who ordered the report to be returned, and put forward this as one of the grounds, certainly deserves a prominent niche in the Temple of Tape.

A "Retired Field Officer" also writes to the London Times from South Africa:—"l am entitled to pension and now employed as a special correspondent iu South Africa. During the first week in January I wrote a manuscript certificate to the effect that I i was X. Y. Z., late a major in the Blankshire Regiment, and entitled to pension for the quarter ending December 31, 1899. My signature was attested by the chief staff officer of the division to which I was at the time attached. I sent home this document with a request that the amount should be paid to my wife. The PaymasterGeneral has refused payment upon the grounds that the form of certificate was irregular, and that the attesting witness was not competent. A printed form of tne usual description has been sent to me. In the meantime my pension is now nearly six months in arrears. Need I say more, except to whisper the word red tape ? My wife is not starving, but merely suffers inconvenience ; yet, why not the first ? That my family has food and other necessaries is no thanks to the Pay-master-General, nor that my wife has been able to pay for my son's outfit on embarkation for the seat of war." The British Samson has broken the bonds of Red Tape in which, Delilahlike, the War Office had bound him, but he is very far from being free of its entangling and paralysing power. Broken though the strands may be, they cling around and retard his every moment and are continually tripping him up. By-and-bye he will turn round in his wrath and demolish the Temple in which Red Tape is worshipped and will bring the whole rotten and antiquated structure about the heads of the fools who serve therein.