Sir Michael, it is pretty clear, thinks we are spending
too much, and is most anxious to dissuade the country from any large increase in the Army. The numbers, he says, are suffi- cient; what is wanted are better training, and more suppleness in meeting the needs created by improved weapons, and neither will be secured by lavish expenditure. Perhaps the pay of the officer, he said, was too small, but no pay would suffice unless extravagance in the regiments were stopped, such extravagance that when cavalry commissions were offered to the Universities the graduates could not take them, though they eagerly accepted commissions in the infantry. He quite recognised that there were deep-rooted abuses in the British Army, and trusted Mr. Brodrick and Lord Roberts would remove them; but the secret of greater strength lay, he was convinced, in providing greater efficiency in the Volunteer Forces. All this is most sound, but if British officers are to be trained professionals they must be enabled to live on their pay ; and we demur to Sir Michael's hearty defence of the artillery if he means to imply that there is enough of it. There would be enough were it all here, but it never can be all here, and we are too often com- pelled to rely for safety upon the Navy alone. Sir Michael, however, it is quite clear, is a source of strength in the Cabinet on other subjects than finance.
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