Evening star., 1909-09-05
Kinu Edwards Brother
Exposes Military Job
cial Correspondence Of The Star.

Special Correspondence OF The Star.
LONDON. August 70. 100.
~NE of the biggest rows which has
Il disturbed British politics and So
~ cie.y and the British army for q
long .ime is threatened as the result of
what at first was merely a little plot to
find lob for friend of the man who at
the present moment seems to be the
..boss'' of England
The man is Lord Esher. who holds no
Official position. bat who seems TO se'
nret,y much what he wants In every de-
partment of the British government ana
particularly in the two fighting services.
one Of his closest friends is Gen Sir
John French. a dashinS cavalry leader
whom, no one ever accused OF bt'nS y
heaven-sent military genius Lord Esher ;
friendship seems to be quite as useful as
genius how svcr. and II was an esceiient
thing for Sir John when L"rd Esher
second son became his aid-de-camp.
A couple of years ago Sir John term
i'm command at Adershot was about 10
expire, and in the usual course OF events
he would have gone ON hair pay lol d
wear or two until another command "ds
open for him. Sir John IS pool uin il1,n ~
how ever. and could not afford to DC 'dte'
so he called on his friend. Lord t-sher' 10
see II anything could be done. Al ms
time the Duke of ConnauEht, hihS r-u
wards brother, was occupying tie poS'
Of inspector general OF TIE iorees' W., wa
headquarters at the war office. Loru
E,sher Thought this Was desiraple pos.
for lis fri.nl and set about securing IL
for him. .
The first problem to be solved was 10
eet rid Of the Duke of Connaugiit, ana
a,+tng rid of n royal duke Is no easy
matter. particularly when tn" person 70
he got rid OF, In addition to being foSai
duke, is one OF the keenest., mos. coliue-
tent and most popular so,dlers IN T., .i,., :.
Britisi, army Lord Esher, however saw
his friend. War Secretary Haida,ie' anu
the duke was bounced out OF the war
office by the creation for MN OF ne"
post that of commander-ih-clnel III lie
Mediterranean, with heaoa"ai'ei'
Malta. :;
AS soon as the duke heard what was IN
the wind he d ,clared that he wouldn't go.
and he added that the job was useless
one anyhow, and it's creation was a great
waste Of the public money. Secretary
Haldane and Lord Esher first implored.
and then threatened,- but the duke de-
clined to bulge from the position he had
taken, and finally the conspirators ap-
pealed to King Edward and convinced
him that the, post was an important one,
and that his brother was just the man
for it. The king then persuaded the duke
TO give the job fair trial, and he prom
sed to do SO.
two years. he has resigned and has de-
clared that his first impressions were
right Every effort was made to induce
him 10 reconsider. but he solved the prob
lem by coming home and declaring that he
intended to stay at home. Now the liberal
government, which WAS elected on plat
form of economy and efficiency, Is placed
in the awkward position of being con-
victed before the country of having wasted
the public money, either III order to find
a place for a royal duke or for a favorite
of person entirely devoid of official re-
sponsibility. t.
Some OF the revelations which have been