Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-08-11
Colossal Sums Wasted
By British Army Tinkering
Special Correspondence of The Star.

Special Correspondence of The Star.
LONDON. August 3. 1907
TOR several years past successive Sec
r. retaries OF state have been tinkering
with John Bulls army They begin
by making great promises of sweeping ref
ormatons and they end by leaving things
as bad or worse than they found them. OF
this striking Illustration has Just been
furnished by the report of the committee
OF public accounts which has been Issued
as parliamentary paper. 1t Is a startling
record OF the scandalous waste of public
money through the incompetence OF officers
charged with important administrative
functions-the same thing which caused SO
many "regrettable Incidents in the South
African war.
OF the numerous cases cited 1t viii suffice
to mention only a few. At Aldershot
$4,000 was expended on a shed to provide
accommodation for the construction Of
big military balloon. So slowly did the
manufacture of the balloon proceed how
ever. that by the time it was nearly fin
ished a lot of other buildings had arisen in
the immediate vicinity and crowded so
thckly about the shed that the balloon
could not be got out OF 1t and given
chance to soar. The shed had to be taken
Job this time cost $4,000.
At Tidworth nearly s5.OO0.OO0 was ex-
pended in building barracks for eight In
fantry regiments. though accommodation
for only four was needed. The surplus
barracks are being altered at considerable
cost to house a cavalry regiment and other
troops. Quite recently $4,000 was spent
on the erection OF a mounted infantry
school at East Bulford. That school has
now been closed: the money has been lost.
Near Fermoy $4,000 was expended on tho
purchase OF a site for another mounted In
fantry school. Then the war office solons
decided that they did not want school
there either. Meanwhile nobody has lost
his Job In consequence of these colossal
plumbers and nobody is to be prosecuted
The most discouraging feature Of the re-
port is the statement made by the com
rnttee that It is without assurance that a
moro satisfactory result may be expected
in the future. as the military directors
who now frame estimates and control the
progress OF expenditures are transient off,
GERS who only get to know their work thor
oughly by the time they have to go"
Which means that the tinkering policy
pursued by successive secretaries Of state
is a hopeless failure and that things are
getting worse instead OF better. The root
Of the trouble lies In the fact that the army
Is rega rded as a sort of preserve for the
sons OF the af!StOcFaCS anu oI wealthy illeii-
Writing in the Cavalry Journal recently
Gen. Baden-Poweu said: They join the
army unable 70 make a precis or to write
English precisely or even dramatically"
The comma ndant of the Royal Military Col
lcge at Sandhurst. which corresponds to
Americas West Point. Is still more out
spoken in his condemnation OF the young
swells who come to him to be turned into
army officers. Cadets from public schools.
he writes cannot use the pen, they cam
not write or compose or think. They have
neither Judgment nor Imagination, they are
ignorant of history and geography: in fact
they are quite unfit to follow military In
structors in the simplest problems.
That such men should make colossal
bIunGers and waste millions when they get
the chance is only what might be expected
Of them The British army will continue to
be the costliest and most inefficient Of any
first-rate power as long as the bulk OF Its
officers are aristocratiC blockheadS.