The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-03-05
LORD WoLSELEY OPENS ATTACK.
Grave Dangers of British Military sys-
 tenn Pointed Out.

tenn Pointed Out.
 l London, March 1.-The Duke of Bed | ford in the house of lords to-day started a discussion of army matters by asking | for information of the military admin istraton and the war office. Lord Wolseley (tne former commando
 er-in-ch of the forces) arose after the
 Duke of Bedford had done speaking
 and from two to three hours he attack
 ed the military system of Great Brit
 ain in a carefully written speech which
 it is understood, he has long meditated
 and had phrased in consultation with
 his friends,
 My arguments he said, "are not di-
 rected against individuals, but against
 the military system which I have hon.
 estly tried for five years and have
 found wanting, and which entails many
 great dangers not realized by the people
 of this realm'
 Lord Wolseley said he had worked
 with the Marquis of Lansdowne. and
 there had not been a single disagreeable
 incident. His complaint was that the
 professional commander in chief was
 robbed of his chief usefulness He had
 to hand over the command and the en-
 tire management of the army to a civil
 ian secretary of state, assisted by sub
 ordinates, with whom he dealt direct
 The responsibility for everything rest ed with the secretary Of state alone The commander in-chief could only bring strongly the wants of the army to the secretary He had often done so. After that he could do no more. He added:
 Although the various needs are un- disputed, not only are no steps taken to meet them, but no one outside of the government is aware that their urgency has been raised. The government has thought it advisable, for economic req sons, to postpone their provision. but yet 1t will not take the nation into it's confidence. That such important de- mands for men and stores have been put forward by experts and neverthe- less refused, I cannot assert too em- phatically. It behooves parliament to devise a plan by which strong repre- sentations made and still refused should be laid before the nation for if to decide between the experts and the economists. In no other way can we safeguard the empire from great and unknown perils. Many an evening, at the end of a days work I have felt sick at heart when I contemplated the great risks deliberately accepted by the government which happened to be thnyr T 2 Because it was not then policy to ask for money"
 Lord Wolseley pointed out in detail how the distribution of responsibility and impaired the war ma- chine. It was an unavoidable and inn possible system The commandar-in- chief had no effective control Neither had the heads of departments and the work and cross references in all branches had largely been increased. My lords, I need scarcely tell VOL" said Lord Wolseley, impressively, "that ,ur soldiers do not love the war office Tor it's civilian rulers. You cannot foul he sentiment of the army without in- uring its morale.'
 The Marquis of Lansdowne (the for ner war minister) replied to Lord Vol | ;eley immediately. He said he was to say that Lord Wolseley turing his term of office, had failed to understand his duties. He might at ease have warned the government that me army corps was not sufficient to rush the Boers
 Lord Wolseley might have enabled he government to turn to better ac | ount the auxiliary forces of the coiIn- ry. He might have told the govern nent before the South Africa war that Iadysmith was not a suitable military tation. He might have prepared chemes for defensive and offensive op- rations. Lord Wolseley had restricted is duties; he had not taken advantage f the opportunities at hand The war flee system might have been changed 3 advantage in details, but the main rinciple of enabling the secretary of tate to get advice from his experts at and, he was not willing to give up. he mistakes and failures in South frica were not due to the system, but ) the fact that it was not carried out