THE REMOUNTS REPORT

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7567, 27 November 1902, Page 2

THE REMOUNTS REPORT

HISTORIC PICTURE OF THE DEPARTMENT'S LABOURS.

The report of the Military Court of Inquiry into tho Remount Department finda that the unprecedented <lemands upon the Inspector-General and Jiis staff were met with extraordinary success. In support of this opinion it pictures their labours with touches of spectacular veracity which will be of value to the historian.

The Remount Department occupies a flat on the fourth floor in Victoria Street, "uuflioiently commodious for the small staff, and connected with, the War Office by a telephone—convenient for ordinary office purposes but not admitting of confidential conversation with tlie Secretary of State or tie Commander-in-Ohief." It was jelegated to this position, the court points out because ita business " never called for speedy and momentous decisions. The. policy of the Department," which consisted in. careful measures for the purchase of 2500 horses a year, " could be discussed! at leisure, and any change need only be dealt with deliberately."

Major-General Truman was appointed: to this Inspector-Generalship in January, 1899.' He had joined the Army in 1862, and had held the rank of colonel twelve "\ears. The Quartermaster-General, who was officially responsible for what he might do, said some months after the war broke out to Lord Lansdowne, in reply to an anxious question, that although, he " did not consider the Inspector-General of Remount's to be a man of exceptional aibility," he had found him in that position, thought he was doing the work to the best of has ability, and believed* in his absolute integrity. ,

SUDDEN ttfSvSPQNSIBILITY. Quite suddenly Truman, whose Department spent money by rote, was called upon to administer a euro of more than ten millions sterling, • with an indirect expenditure o£ several millions more. The five major-generals who constituted the court say that in giving his evidence he -has never done full justice to himself. " Instances of want of accuracy in his replies and of difficulty in grasping the gist of a question will be f oundl on a, study of his evidence, and the court cannot help thinkihg that this disability must have been prejudicial to his interests in his interviews with many persons, from the Secretary of State downwards." A sympathetic picture of his daily troubles in the fourth-floor flat is presented, with on expression of regrefr that it was not found possible to lodge iham nearer Pall Mall. "His office was beset by applicants and visitors, many of whom had a keel appreciation of the fact that vast sums of money were being expended. There was not even sufficient desk-room for the clerical staff, and neither the Inspector-General nor his subordinates had a. single quiet room for the transaction of their important business. Further, the restricted space made it impossible to provide for an. adequate expansion of the staff.

"These difficulties appear to have'affected the entire management of the work, and a certain unwillingness, and, perhaps, impatience, in dealing with applications and suggestions from outside (which have affected the reputation of the Department/ may doubtless be traced directly to these causes." FAILURE AND TRIUMPH. The Court 'look at what was done, however. " It is true that, in their opinion, the In-spsctor-General relied too much on the knowledge possessed by himself and the few officers under (him — which, as regards the foreign horse market, was confined to his own acquaintance with Argentina. The recognised medium for obtaining information from' foreign count r-os was the Intelligence Department. • They did not apply to it,, and the Quarter-master-General says it had the information they needed. Similarly, their purchasing officers in the United States and in Austria-Hungary did nob apply to the British Military Attaches there, who coulxj have given therm valuable help. They say they thought? this would not have been a sufficiently' secret way of going about it.

Again, the Department warned nobody at Gibraltar of the number of mules to be suddenly sent there, whioh was 15,229. Nor did it ascertain that there was no room for them in that fortress. All the Department kn«w about mule supplies, officially, had been ascertained in 1895, and they had made no attempt to bring this up to date. The conducting officers' sent with some unfortunate cargoes of horses were not instructed as to what was their status with reference to masters of ships. Hence some preventable losses.

But it was not the faulb of the Department that horses and 1 mules on. arrival at Cape Town were hurried 1 up country unshod and unrested, so that in one case 300 out of 500 ill-fed and ill-watered remounts died of exhaustion in three weeks, and there was throughout a. wastage of 120 per cent per annum. This was due to the exigencies of the war, as they appeared. to the Command-er-in-Chiefi , ' ADMIRALTY BLAMED.

Nor could the Department prevent the engagement of drunken veterinary surgeons in America, who landed sickly cargoes " inches deep in decomposing filth." Such veterinarians were, it seems, the only men procurable. Blame for the overcrowding, which killed 95 mules. out? of 808, and 187 out of 2080, with heat apoplexy, is cast upon the Admiralty, though Coloni Seobie, in one case, had power, it is held, to prevent the mischief.

As for the employment of middlemen, the purchasing officers— including, presumably, those who might have sought assistance from our attaches — had no option. Urgency required it. In the circumstances, therefore, what they paid was unreasonable, 1 though the profit of the middlemen was probably greater elsewhere than in Canada, Australia and Argentina. Major-General Truman did have a share in the shipping business of Messrs Houlder, but it was only £35, "an innocent and insignificant matter," and it did not influence him in any way. Seeing, too, that he was overwhelmed with applicants, and ihad to carry on business in a small office, it is not surprising that .. he felt on firmer ground in trusting, witE respect; to the Hungarian purchases, to the recommendation of a Yeomanry officer who had had experience. To carry outi duties enormously expanidetd as the Inspector-General's wdre "required a combination of qualities rarely foumdi iva one man, such as great powers otf organisation, extraordinary foresight, previous exTHE CONCLUSION, perience of business on a large scale, and! full knowledge of the resources and conditions of the horse markets at ihome and! abroad," The Court, does not say in such, terms thub Major-GeneraL Truman was such. a. man. But "while not sparing ■tlheir criticism on errors and' failings, many of which were inseparable from operation© oif thisi magnitude," it is of opinion "that the card and abi'Kty displayed by the Departmenti must be primarily judged by the successful achievememit of its task." THE FOURTH-FLOOR FLAT. The flat relforreid to in tlie report is a, little flat of six small rooms on the fop cf No. 66, Victoria Street, a block about midway between Westminster Abbey a«nd Victoria Station. It was origdnally intendfeidl for residence, but became offices. The! wonder is that the enormous tastkj could have been got through •tJiere- at all. Sometimes the corridor got so full of peopie^khrkeis, countesses and horse-deal-ers — .th a t others who went up in the lift} , bad to go down again and return by the

stairs to taike their place at tn© end of th« queue.

General Trumao had the drawing-room. His chief assistant worked in the principal bedroom. The dining-room served for fchet clerks. The secomd bedlroom was givfeia t'o 1 the second! assistant; the servants' room) wus tine waiting-room. ; aiiid iihe mcesemgetf maaiaged 1 in what had been "ttkel kitcKemi. PraieticaQly in four small rooms in a fourthfloor flat it was expected that the wfoole work of supplying 'tfate Army witb borsea! could b^ carried on.