Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-03-21
Use ARMY ESTIMATES
British Government Will
Practice Some Economy.
MILITARY MEN DEMUR
FOR GOOD OF SERVICE.
Agitation Against Chinese Labor-At-
torney General to Try to Purify
Company Financiering.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
LONDON, March g. 1904.
A further installment of the British war
Office reconstruction committees report is
not, perhaps, quite SO revolutionary as the
earlier procurement. Financial control
and congestion of work are the two sub
jects dealt with. The former has got into
civilian hands, with the result that army
questions have ever been approached from
the point of view of peace rather than OF
war. The latter has resulted from failure
to distinguish between administrative and
| military executive functions, and naturally
has led to, indeed is at the root of. the pres
ent ineff1ciency. This is the text of the re-
port. The remedies proposed are better
definition of the financial work and the d.
vorce of administrative from executive
functions by means of the army council al
ready appointed, and the dividing of Brit
ain into eight army districts, each COM
manded by an officer and staff taught to
undertake responsibility and initiative. But
this seems merely the much-derided army
corps scheme under another name. AS In
the greater appointments, so In the less,
there is to be change of personnel. The
strong point, however, is the provision for
less civilian interference arising out Of the
power of the purse, and more military re-
| sponsibility entailed in the possession OF
greater financial power by soldiers proper
| The Duke of Connaught has reconsidered
| the offer to appoint him inspector general
| of the forces and the result Is that ne mas
| accepted the Office and is today gazetted for
| the post. The duke who, next to kitche-
| ner, was regarded as most eligible for the
| post, Is fifty-four years old and has been
| in the army for twenty-six years. AS
royal duke he has not, of course. seen
| much service under fire, but he served In
| the Fenian raid in Canada in 1870 and was
| present at two battles of the Egyptian
| campaign in 1882.
The army estimates show the direction in
which the British government is practicing
economy. Provision Is made for 227,OOO
| men, S,761 fewer than last year. The total
than that for 1884, including. of course,
| the supplementary vote of e, 100000 passed
by the house of commons last week.
1 know that three months or so ago serv-
ice circles were in a state of indignation
against Mr.. Arnold-Forster, the war min
lister, who was said to have acquiesced in
some great reductions in the requirements
put forward by the professional heads of
the army.
1 heard, for instance, that the amount
which the LIST Army Corps command
| wanted to spend on maneuvers and training
this year was cut down by more than a
half, and that very much of the same
thing happened in the case of the troops in
Ireland.
The fact is that military men have had so
much money to spend of late years that
| the war minister who carries them out is
| bound to be unpopular with them. This
| may account some degree for the dead
| set which is being msde In some circles
against the latest reforms. 1t Is to be pre-
| Sumed that the military members of the
| new army council were made aware before
| they took office of the leading features of
| the new estimates. 1t is being said that
| there has been much friction already on the
conduct of the business of this body; but
| the reports come from the same interested
| quarters, and, of course, after SO great
| change things must take little time to
settle down.
Chinese Agitation.
| The agitation against Chinese labor is
| steadily gaining strength. 1t has for the
| moment superseded the interest in the fiscal
| question, and members of parliament know
| from their correspondence how intense is
| the feeling it is arousing all over the coun-
| try.
The Free Church council will discuss the
| question at its annual meeting on the 9th
| of March, and it is proposed that the fol-
| lowing Sunday should be converted into a
| sort of anti-slavery Sunday. 1t is suggest
ed that on that day all the NoncOnformiSt
congregations should solemnly be invited
after the usual service to express their
opinion on Mr. Lyttletons policy.
The proposal to make a keenly controver-
sial question like that of Chinese labor the
| subject of resolutions and demonstrations
| in Nonconformist churches is diStaSteful to
| great many people.
| If the question at issue were purely polit-
| ical there would be no justification for
| such a course of action, but the argument
| of those who are recommending the adop-
| ton of this course is that the question in
| dispute is moral even more than 1t is polit-
| ical In these circumstances it may be ex-
pected that the great majority of the Nom
| conformist churches will give forth strong
| blast against the introduction of Chinese
| labor into South Africa Already several
| church congregations have registered unan-
| imous votes against the policy.
Big Job on His Hands.
| The attorney general has now disclosed
| the methods whereby he hopes to prevent
| a repetition of the " hittaker Wright scan
| dals and to purify the British system of
| company finance The bill which Sir Rob-
! ert Finlay has introduced into parliament
! is published. Any director or official of a
| public company who in future knowingly
/ publishes any false statement relating to
| the financial affairs of his company will be
| guilty of a misdemeanor and liable to two
| years imprisonment or a fine of $500. The
| reform of the law consists in the elimina-
| ton therefrom of the question of intent"
| The willful publication of false financial
| statement will henceforward be a misde-
/ meanor. The new act will certainly make
| the law clearer. The difficulty of proving
! intent has hitherto always been got over
| by the wholesome presumption that a man
| intends the reasonable consequences of his
| act The bill has been printed in time to
| take some of the sting out of Mr.. Lambert s
! pending impeachment of the attorney gen.
| eral.
| London Election.
| Next Saturday London will elect it's tri-
| ennial parliament, but 1t must be confessed
| that very little interest is being taken in
| the election despite all attempts from plat
| form and pulpit to arouse electors. This
is probably chiefly due to the complete
| satisfaction with the work of the present
| council, which 1t is hard to conceive could
| be improved upon. The moderates are
| making great deal of the extravaganza of
| the progressives, but when the electors look
| at the system of electric cars, the immense
| improvements that are going on all over
1 London, the number of housing schemes
| that are being carried out, they feel that
they are obtaining good value for their
| money. Municipal politics apart, the cleo
| tions will possess other interests.
The nomination papers of Sir William NJ
Geary and Mr.. Bernard Shaw are among
the euriosities of the election, for they con-
tain the names of Mr. Percy Bunting, a
noted nOnCOnfOrmjSt editor and Mr. Fl r