The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-01-30
NEEDS 4 SCAPEG()AI
Salisbury Government Will
Sacrifice Wolseley
TO SAVE ITS OWN BACON
Before Parliament 1t viii
Stand or Fall Together.

| London, Jan 29-England's Parliament
meets this week for the first time since
| the humiliating British reverses that have
signahzed the early stages Of the war
with the Tansyaal and it is already ap-
parent that it will be in every sense of
the word a war department session.
| While it is possible that subsequent sue
cesses may close the mouths of some
critics, yet the tone of the recent utter
| ances Of the entire British press, ire
spective of party politics, has been such
as to indicate that a storm is about to
burst over the head of the office in IalI
Mall and viii sweep down upon the Mill
tary authorities from every quarter Of
the House of Commons.
The English people realize that their
army costs them annually, within few
million dollars, as much as that of Ger
many, of France, or of Russia, while it
is nearly twice as expensive as that of
Austria-Hungary, and that on the first
occasion when it has been put into the
field against a white foe and a civilized
British taxpayer is convinced that he has
not got his moneys worth; that through
incompetence and Encouragement in the
expenditure of the nearly 500, 600 which
he devotes each year to the maintenance
of the army he has been subjected to de-
fats by a handful of farmers. And this
being the case, he is firmly resolved to
ascertain the identity of the officials re-
sponsible for this condition of affairs and
to call them to strict account, subjecting
the War department to a radical process
of investigation and reform.
That the government is disposed to
make scapegoat of Field Marshal Lord
Wolesey and to endeavor to place upon
his shoulders the burden for everything
that has gone wrong in South Africa is
apparent from the significant utterance
of the Under Secretary of State for the
War department in the weekly newspaper
Of which he is the acknowledged propri-
etor to the effect that lit is public mis-
fortune that the Commander-in-Ch of
the army has not all the vigor Of his
prime and again, equally patent is it
that in moments of stress great disad-
y
lish public life to exclude a man from
places of high authority until he has
passed the meridian of mental and physi-
cal strength
Other organs of the administration have
followed suit, declaring that the blame
for every mistake that has been made
lies at the door not of the civilian side of
the War department but of the military
branch against which latter alone criti-
cism must be directed. Mr.. Balfour, the
First Lord of the TT "a sury, has SAT- as
much in his platform speeches at Man
and finally the administration
has Issued an intimation to its supporters
that it intends to stand together. to de-
cline to sacrifice any Of It's members, and
if necessary to fall together.
Now, there are, so far as the general
public knows, two predominant figures at
the War epartment-namely: the Score
tary of State for War, who is the Mar
quis of Lansdowne, and the Commander
In-Chief, who is Lord Wolseley. mas
much as the government admits that
cruel mistakes have been made,for which
it is necessary to hold some one or other
and seeing that it makes the
cause of the Marquis of Lansdowne its
own, it naturally follows that it will
make an attempt to sacrifice Lord Wolse-
ley to the popular fury.
Lord Wolseley labors under the disad- |
of possessing no political intiu-
ence. He is not favorite at court, and
he owes his present appointment as Com
nander-in-Chief to a Liberal administra-
ton Lord Lansdowne, on the other
hand, commands an immense amount of
and social power. Himself the
head Of the House of Fitzmaurice, he is,
through his wife-a sister of the Duke Of
Abercorn-allied to the so-called Hun |
gary Hamiltons" and to the Spencer |
while his chief ally and rep |
resentatie In the House of Commons, the |
Under Secretary of State for War, is to-
iay the stepfather OF the young Duke of |
Westminster, who. as the greatest ground |
landlord in the United Kingdom, is able |
to command degree of territorial inhu- |
snce in politics that is absolutely unique. |
Can IT be wondered under the circum-
stances that the government, called upon |
10 choose between Lord Lansdowne, the /
statesman. and Lord Wolseley, the bat |
tle-scarred veteran, should prefer 10 sac
-iice the later to public Irritation, rot |
Tor the good of the nation but for TIE |
benefit of the Tory-Unionist Talty and |
administration?
The position of Lord Wellesley is so lit |
own tie understood abroad, and even his /
own countrymen are so grossly ignorant /