NEWS OF THE WEEK.
MR. BALFOUR suggested a week or two ago that the Government would be upset by a brewer's dray. It has really been upset over a tumbril. Mr. St. John Brodrick, who was the Financial Secretary to the War Office in the last Conservative Government, and who knows a good deal both of the importance and the difficulty of getting large supplies of ammunition on very short notice, raised a discussion yesterday week on the reserve of ammunition for our small-arms, and gave very good reasons for thinking it inadequate. Mr. Campbell-Bannerman produced the evidence of Sir Redvers Buller that, in his opinion, the reserve was ample, and no .doubt it would have been thought ample on the old traditions. But everything tends to show that in cases of sharp attack, such as might be expected if a landing were effected on the English shores by any enemy, quick-firing guns would con- sume an immense number of cartridges in the day, and that a reserve of four hundred per man, which might possibly be used up in a single day's heavy engagement, is a quite in- sufficient reserve. There ought to be a minimum reserve of one month's cartridges for the whole force to be employed ; and it seems quite certain that there is nothing of the kind, and what is more, no intention, at present, of even aiming at such a reserve. Mr. St. John Brodrick moved the redaction of the Secretary for War's salary by £100, just to raise the question of policy ; and the reduction, to the great astonish- ment of both sides of the House, was carried by a majority of 7 votes (132 to 125), whereupon Mr. Campbell-Bannerman at once moved to report progress, in which the House acquiesced.
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