The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-05-16
LORD KITCHENER ST|RS
THE DRY BONES OF THE
BRITISH ARMY IN INDIA
Soldiers Life Is No Longer to Be
Life of Ease and Dalliance
in Pleasant Places.
THE GOSPEL OF WORK
Is Being Enforced by the Con-
queror of Soudan and South AT
rica-Not Clerks, but Warriors.
THE GOSPEL OF WORK

SIMLA, May 15.-Oficers in the Indian
army are beginning to realize that Lord
Kitchner's recent army order strikes a
heavy blow at the careless polo-playing life
of the British regimental officer in India.
1t is designed to convert Ouida's luxury
Tapped exquisites into practical, hard-work-
ing professional soldiers who must either
take regimental work seriously or lose their
careers in the service. 1t nails responsible
ity for the efficiency of both the officers
and the men of the regiment upon the
colonel commanding. 1t makes the general
Of the district personally answerable, not
only, as at present, for reporting defects
in the corps under his control, but also for
remedying such defects.
Lord Kitchener holds that the regiment.
and not the garrison class, must be the
young officers training school, and he is
introducing ingenious test TO settle
whether failure, where such occurs, to
reach a definite standard of efficiency, is
due to defects in the regiment in which
case the blame is to rest upon the officer
commanding, or to incompetence on the
part of the junior. whose military career
under these circumstances, he intends to
cut short Lord Kitchener recognizes frank
ly. that there may be commanding officers
who through ignorance, Incidence, or in
capacity, may fail to properly instruct
those under them; and he declares that
he does not intend to allow the prospects
of young officers to suffer on this account.
He is abolishing garrison classes.
whole. on the ground that they tempt Off
GERS to cram for their promotion exami-
nations, but he is making one exception,
which may best be described in his own
words.
SCHOOL OF INSTRUCTION.
81 therefore propose he writes, Ito OBJ
in oor ola mill h.
tended only by officers who have failed to
pass direct from their regiments. Should
such officers subsequently be successful.
after attending the class in question, it will
be a reasonable inference that the system
of education in their regiments is defec-
tive, and for this commanding officers must
be held responsible If, however they
should again fail it will be equally fair TO
attribute the double failure to their own
Incidence or incapacity, and their future
retention in the service will then become
an impossibiity."
The duties for which Lord Kitchener
holds the general of the district responsible
are no less onerous than those which he
imposes on the colonel commanding
Troops, he says. must be accustomed
TO regard their generals not as necessarily
hostile critics, always on the lookout for
something to find fault with. but their
trusted leaders in war, their instructors in
-,
able and willing to promote their welfare
and to spare no effort to increase their pre-
paredness for the stress of active service"
He goes on, in his remarkable memoran-
dunn, to describe the qualifications he will
require of general officers.
'"To be regarded as leaders," he writes
they must be competent to lead; to be ac-
cepted as instructors their professional
knowledge must be undOubted and this en-
tails on them the obligation of increa sing
study and of constant practical applica-
ton. In this way alone can they properly
prepare their troops for war, and at the
same time so train themselves as to be able
adequately to discharge the great response
bilities which will devolve upon them when
called upon to command in the field"
COLLEGE FOR OFFICERS.
Lord Kitchener fully recognizes the ex-
tent of the burden he is putting upon his
officers, and he announces a number of
measures he is taking to help them to bear
it. He Is starting a staff college at Quetta
where carefully-selected officers will be
trained for staff duties in India He is in
creasng the strength of the general staff.
and defining the duties attached to each
post upon 1t. his object being to prevent
officers from being taken away from their
legitimate duty of assisting their general
to be shut up inside offices and converted
as has often occurred in the past. into mere
clerkly officials. He is working at a great
scheme 10 remedy the defects i'm the ex-
listing distribution of troops and commands
throughout India. to meet the altered CON
ditions that have arisen with the construc-
tion of railways and the extension of Brit
ish territory.
The Indian army is quarter of n million
strong 1t is being made self-supporting in
regard to supplies and transport 1t has it's
own ammunition factories and will short
ly be fully furnished with the most mod
err cordite. lyddite. rifles. field guns. and
gun carria ges. all manufactured i'm India
! i'm works among the best equipped in the
world Its reserves are being increa Sod
and Lord Kitchener is engaged in raising
the standard of efficiency IF its personnel
! He is organizing a fighting machine which
| already approaches the standing army of
! Great Britain in strength. and which bids
! fair TO leave the latter behind I'm the mat
ter of war This lighting machire
does not cost the British taxpayer a pennv
| 10 maintain. Lord Kitchener is doing more
than improve IL. He is himself learnin-
/ lessons of practical experience which are
! likely TO stand Great Britain in stead a +
! the not long distant date when he will ex-
| change Simla for Pail Mall. The Indian
arm v. under him. is solving for itself the
trobem of military efficiency that has baf-
| fled succeeding generations OF British
! statesmen at home. IL Is setting an ex-
! ample of accomplished fact TO the War Of
| flee that Is worth more than all the
schemes aud commissions in the world.