OFFICERS' EXPENSES.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTLTORM have so often read in your columns that it is folly to attempt to legislate when your legislation may have a totally different effect from what you- anticipate, that I hope you will allow me to point out to you the probable effect of- the measures you so strongly advocate in your article (Spec- tator,. September 12th) on the expenses of Army officers. If you throw open the Army to the sons of poor doctors, solicitors, barristers, &c., whose sole aim in life would be the routine of drill, you would shut it to the wealthier classes, whose very qualities, such as sport and outdoor games, most appeal to the rank-and-file. Do you imagine for an instant that 'if the glamour and prestige of the position now held by an officer did not exist you would get any good men to join an ill-paid, or, more correctly, an unpaid, profession? Take the French Army as an instance. This very plan of a poor man's Army has resulted in no gentlemen joining, and the consequence is that the infantry regiments are officered by men who have risen from the ranks, and who command no respect from their old comrades who ,knew them too intimately in the ranks. I think you would find that instead of increasing your field of selection, you would narrow it down to the dregs of the other professions, and that no good men, rich or poor, would go in for it. No, Sir, the present stamp of officer is quite good enough; but what we want is some inducement for an officer to work, by which,: if he chooses, he can obtain highly paid posts from the very start of his career. If, instead of increasing the pay of officers, a certain number of really well-paid posts existed open td every rank in the Army, you would find it easy enough to get good men,' and also know where to find them when wanted. I have only one more remark to make, and that is that the tendency of the present grandmotherly Regulations is to plaoe the commanding officer at the mercy of his subalterns with regard to " ragging " or mess expenses.—I am, Sir, &c.,
AN Z3E-OFFICER'S DAUGHTER.
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