A striking speech was made on the same occasion by
Sir John French, who replied to "the calumnious charges of inefficiency and incompetence which had been unwarrantably levelled against the office rs and men of his Majesty's Army,"—the allusion being to Colonel Gadke's criticisms in the Daily Tele- graph. He maintained that Britieh officers were equal in average ability to those of any other civilised nation ; the same might be said of their energy and devoted self-sacrifice; and in the junior ranks, where it was quite as prominent as anywhere else, it was out of all proportion to the emoluments they received. He declared, finally, that "in point of efficiency and training the first line of our Army was second to none in the world." No doubt; but that is surely a reason for not being sensitive about criticism.
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