Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1902-05-25
Extravagant Living Keeps Many Capable
Men from Service in the Army.
CAVALRY SERVICE MOST INEFFICIENT
Private Income Needed to Piece Out Salary
in This Department of Army.
RADICAL REFORMS ARE RECOMMENDED
Disclosures of Inemciency In south
Africa Likely TO Lead TO a Revo-
luton in Organization
of the Army.

Copyright. 1902. by Press Publishing Coz
LONDON, May 24.-(New York World Ca
blegram-Special Telegram.)-The system
Of educating British army officers has been
declared by a committee of experts, after
eighteen months Of investigation, to be
effete, rotten from top to bottom. The re-
port explains the secret of much that ha
happened in South Africa in the attep
to subdue the Beers.
Sandhurst, the British West Point, IL
equivocally condemned. The whole /,
of training. mental. moral and physiO.
will be radically altered. The existing sys-
tem, the committee asserts. offers no re-
ward for zeal or ability and an oficers ad-
vancement depends upon anything but
knowledge and eficiency-in other words,
II depends entirely on seniority and favor
itism.
AN officer especially mentioned for clev-
erness and energy, gains nothing unless he
has pull" Of some sort.
The extravagant living, especially in the
cavalry, will be checked. Polo tourna-
ments will be prohibited while regimental
coaches and packs Of hounds will be abol-
ished. The ime-honored notions, that the
biggest dandies make the best officers and
that the sedulous cultivatlng Of sports and
pastimes, at the expense of professional
duty, equips a man to be a successful COM
mander, at last have been exploded by the
| bitter humiliation in the South African
war.
The possession Of a considerable private
! income has hitherto been an essential to
| holding a commission in a cavalry regt-
ment, owing to the regimental expenses,
which now will be cut down. The commit
| tee asserts that as between money and
brains 1t is better that the army should
4 have the latter.
| Censored TeIeErams Not Truthful.
Even more sensational than this sweeping
report is the second volume Of the Times
History Of the South African War" in
which the mismanagement of the Natal cam
paign and Buffers blunders are remorse-
lessly exposed. Battles like that at Talana
hill were brazenly described In censored
| dispatches as brilliant British Victories
and now. for the FIRST time. It is admitted
that they were overwhelming defeats. The
whole truth about the humifiating disaster
! at Nicholson's Mex, the flight of Grimwood'!
! infantry brigade and the cavalry stampede
are described with painful minuteness, the
account winding up with an admission tha
the surrender, though premature, was MOI
more humiliating than many instances II
which the struggle was abandoned wher
there was much better hope OF escape ol
| relief"
The most startling part Of the criticism
of Buffers conduct Is his abandonment o
his guns at Colenso the lamentable failure
at spionkop and the historic heliogram di
recting General White to surrender Lady
smith.
pitiful picture is also painted of tn,
panic Of cad In the War once by Bulleri
contradictory dispatches, one moment refus
ing reinforcements. the next counsellinl
surrenders.
Balfour is compllmented for his firm
courageous counsel at this critical moment
At his suggestion Butler was ordered b!
cable to either persevere or come home
II Butler has any defense II is believes
that he will be stung by this merciless in
dictment into making 1t at all risks.
The book affords the first glimpse. partia
and restrained Of facts in the South Afri
can campaigns, which the most rigorous
censorship ever known hitherto contrive'
to conceal.