The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-10-19
THE BRITISH WAR OFFICE.
Loose Organization and wasteful Meth

| DDS Described by an Old Attache.
In my times (and even now I discern
no great difference) some departments
were overmanned and some We're I'M
dermanned. The entire staff of some
room idled and played for days, while
another room was overwhelmed with
work, half of which need never have
been done at all Evolution in it's
course might be studied to advantage
by eminent naturalists in Pail Mall for
| the war office is full of rudimentary APP
| pendages which die very slowly of dis
use. The members employed were sup
| posed to compose a staff sufficient for
| emergencies, but when wars and ru-
mors of wars arose some men still con-
| tinued doing nothing with dignity,
while others shaved at the unnecessary
| from eleven till five o'clock, or perhaps
| later. Even when the office was in the
agony of delivering half brigade with
half it's transport, a staff officer could
still be found to write mo Remarks
on papers with which his branch had
ceased to have anything actual to do
for half q century
The writer's" or copyists, who alone
We're paid for their overtime, continued
with trained intelligence in appearing
busy, to put off working till overtime
began. When they had really done
there remained no official to check them,
and another hours overtime at ten
pence an hour was made as they sat
around the fire smoking and discussing
their superiors or the music halls. In
one room / was credibly Informed box
ing gloves We're kept, in another foils.
In one department the juniors Second
division clerks and writers) had invent
ed a particularly enhancing game,
which consisted in putting three or
more candles in row and extinguish-
ing them by an end-on shot from a
we'll aimed army list. The resulting de-
structon of candles was tremendous,
but 1t never led to any complaint
owing, possibly to the fact that some
one below stairs made little on the
transaction.
If there was always friction between
the civil and military staffs, there was
forever some subdued hostility be-
tween the different departments. A. G.
1, for instance, might be Jealous of A.
G.. g. and it's members would explain to
all and sundry that half the work done
there was the merest surplus account
and marking time. The ordnance peo-
pie We're at loggerheads with every one.
Business which should have been
worked together wasidore through third
parties. We went around the world to
get from Pail Mall to Pimlico. Rooms
next door were aliens; a man some
times sat a quarter of mile from
those who were doing like work. Pa
pers were missing, and were then de-
scribed as ION transit" which meant |
that Messenger A was having a quiet !
smoke with Messenger B, or that Or
derby X said the job was Orderly Us. |
A. room up stairs, which had something
to do with the surveying department, !
was a smoking room for a score of us
who wanted to light our pipes before |
one o'clock.
Pride in work or pride in smartness
there was little. No real encourage
ment was afforded to worker. The
general scheme of the unwarlke opera
tions was that of badly managed |
men ended in trying to do as
little as possible. The smartest staff
officer was the most disliked-it was
thought a good joke to hoodwink or
puzzle him. Not room in the whole
office but was distinguished by some
especial Ounce, who probably drew
five hundred pounds year for doing
nothing, and doing it badly. 1t was
notorious that one man could not write
out an original telegram with reference
to the paltriest detail of the movement
Of troops without taking half an hour
and half a dozen forms to do it on.
Another's chief claim to consideration
n his branch was that he could take
onger to prepare any given return than
my other clerk there, and yet keep up
sweetly dignified air of being en-
wrapped in necessary national bust l.
ness. When l was a newcomer in my
)Wn ROOM the absence through illness
If one man threw the prepare ton of
return on my shoulders, and
lot having been posted on tradition, I
lid it in three hours and took it TO the
hief next door. So little did this man
Know of the work of his own rooms that
lie positively declined to receive it, on
he ground that it could not be done
nder four days This let me into the
ecret, and, not wishing to be disloyal
0 the sick man, l withdrew the return
nd kept it for week, "Ah,'' said my
apient chief, 81 told you that it took
ime to do it properly"
The waste of Her Majesty's station
ry is an old story, but in the war office
probably reached its maximum Few
len in the place ever dreamed of wri-
ing private letters on anything but the
est war Office paper, Some men used
who did Journalistic work during Of