Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-09-22

| Office OF secretary of state for war, with
Lord Roberts as commander n-chief, with
public opinion hot on the subject. and with
| 100000 men coming back from South Africa,
| each believing that the war office was col
| lectively a chump, and each suggesting
| more or less practical reforms the fashion
| able institution in Pail Mall would think 1t
| had been struck by whirlwind. That so
ciety lady whose name has never been pub
lished. but who has been said to be able TO
| get any army appointment she wished for
| any friend of hers. would have cause to
| mourn and would not be comforted.
THE only trouble about this" says our
radical, is that, except IN time of war, the
man In the street cares precious little about
| the army The glory of a military hero
| soon fades and becomes only a sort of ira
dition, and unless the fight Is taken up in
parliament and pounded through to the bit
| ter end things will soon drop back into
| their old ways. and the next war, II Ii
waits long enough. will find us as unpre-
| pared as this one did, or as your war with
! Spain caught YOU
h Red Tape Incarnate.
The real incarnation of all the red tape
! In the war office, who in way
| other has had in the long run more indirect
| effect on the British army than any other
| man, and the sum total of whose influence
| In the war office has been greater than
that OF any other person. is a man whose
| name has probably never been heard of by
| one American In a million and Is almost
unknown here, except to those who have
dealings with the war office or some especial
| interest there He has never seen active
service In his life, and Is said to be of the
| opinion that these generals who spend their
| lives fighting must have precious little I'M
| derstanding of the needs of the war office
! they are so impractical and are always
frett1ng at necessary official restrictions.
He knows war office routine from the
| ground up, and has the army regulations
at his fingers ends. No one ever knew him
| to do any other than the correct thing.
inf Int ofv,c av,1
| built up a system in the war office that
| makes the whole department work like ma
chlnery War ministers may come and war
! ministers may go, and likewise command
ers-in-chief, and they may try to interfere
with the workings of the machine, but If
they do the whole thing goes wrong and
that is proof that they should have let 1t
alone. So they get discouraged and after a
while Sir Ralph Knox, the steady old chief
engineer, gets 1t to going smoothly again.
Sir ralph Henry Knox, X. c. B., entered
the war office forty-four years ago at the
age of twenty, and has been there ever
since. He got no salary worth mentioning
when he first went there as junior clerk
but by strict business methods and careful
attention to detail and much organizing
ability he worked his way up step by step
through the civilian end of the war Office
until he became permanent under secretary
OF state for war. with salary of $4,000 a
year. Before he became permanent under
secretary he was accountant general for
fifteen years. and even in that post he
probably exerted more actual influence in
army affairs than-the Duke Of Cambridge
for instance.
Such Wonderful PrecisfOn
| Every twist and turn of war office red
| tape, from China to Pail Mall, and from
| Pal Mall to Vancouver, is known to Sir
Ralph. Experimenters, inventors and in
novators and all such cattle are not smart
enough to foiSt any of their notions on
him. Commanders-in-chief who think they
| are going to overturn his system get left.
War ministers who undertake to do much
more than sign the great mass of papers
| he lays in orderly piles before them find
| themselves presently in confusion. He
| works from early morn till late in the even
| ing. He never lets go until everything is
| exactly right. His methodical habits won
| him the admiration of all behoders, and he
| was knghted five years ago.
just what will happen when Lord Roberts
| and Sir Ralph Knox cross swords is pain
| full to mediate upon. But thing is
| certain. If the Beers had abided by Sir
Raiph's regulations for the correct conduct
| of enemies, they could have been whipped
with much less effort than 1t cost Lord
Roberts, and from the civilian viewpoint in
the war office this should indicate that Sir
| Ralph is the bigger man of the two. The
! unerring precision Of the system which Sir
| Ralph has done so much to perfect is in
| dlcated by the experience OF the COM
mander of a volunteer force who recently
sent to the war office the name of a we'll
| known clergyman as chaplain. The war
office sent back an imposing list of cues
| tons to the nominees age. birthplace,
character, &c. and also this query: Has
the applicant ever been in prison, and, II
so, for what offense?" The commander
sent the list back with all the questions
| answered except this one. which seemed
hardly intended for the case of clergy
man. In due course he received another
official document from the war office IN
which was written stiftly: I'VE note that
you give no answer to question No. -. we
hope that this does not imply that the per
son you nominate has been convicted we
shall be glad of definite answer on this
Bobx' Reward.
'Bobs' Is already Baron Roberts of Kan
dahar and Waterford, P. c., K P, G. c.
B., G. c. S. l., G. c. 1. E., V. c., d. c. L.,
and three times LID. The freedom of
London. Glasgow, Edinburgh and half
! dozen other places has been conferred upon
him. He has medals and clasps to burn,
he has been thanked officially twice by
both houses of parliament and on several
occasions by the government OF india; ana
before he began to write dispatches him
self he received so many of the coveted
mentions in dispatches that he has proba-
bly, lost count of them.
Now the government Is trying to think OF
some new honors and titles for him. 1t
cannot give him back his only son, who
won the Victoria Cross at the cost of his
life at the beginning Of the war. but 1t is
planning to make him either a marquis
or an earl and TO give him a grant which
will probably be S250,D0-a small sum COM
pared with that given to the Duke of We'll
lington, who received 81, 100000 less than a
month after the battle of Salamanca and
81 100000 a year later. After the battle of
the Nile Nelson was made a baron and got
a pension of $4,000 a year for three lives
and $50, 900 outright.
Although Lord Roberts will be sixty
eight on September 80, his tastes are SIM
pie and his health is excellent. and it is
likely that ne will be commander-in-chief
when the war office pulls itself together
from a wonderful collection of mismated
and scattered buildings where some of it's
clerks have to work by candle light, and
moves into the imposing structure which is
to be built across from the horse guards on
Whitehall, and for which the excavation
has already been made.
CURTIS BROWN