THE EXPENSES OF ARMY OFFICERS.
WE wonder how long the indignation aroused by the revelations of the War Commission will last. It is nearly three weeks now since the Report of the Com- missioners was published, and during those weeks the evidence given by the officers examined has been the chief topic of conversation wherever men meet together,—at the club, at the dinner-table, in the train. But what is the depth and the motive-power of men's indignation Is it the same kind of indignation that possessed Englishmen in the dark weeks of December, 1899, and will it be pro- ductive of the same silent determination to retrieve what is past ? For the present, we can but hope that it may be, and we do hope so, though the circumstances are very different to-day from those of 1899. Then men were deeply angry at the failure of an Army which they believed had only °to fight to win. But they saw that it was not the fault of the Army—at all events, so far as its fighting .qualities were concerned—and they grudged no personal effort to do what they could do on the spot to secure that the Army should win. They put aside their indignation for the time being, seeing that there was work to be done and that mere outcry was useless. "Some day we shall be able to find out who was responsible for this," they thought, "and then we shall be able to see that such a thing shall not occur again." Meanwhile they worked and fought. To-day they know who was responsible, and there is the same angry resentment ; but where is the work to be done to remedy what is wrong? It is not the custom of Englishmen to-day to punish their officers and Ministers in person—though it is hardly a hundred and fifty years ago that Admiral Bvng was shot at Spithead for neglect of duty—and the officers and Ministers who failed will, to that extent, escape. Yet the Commissioners "are not satisfied that enough is being done" to get us the Army we need, and one of them, more outspoken than the rest, only "wishes," and does not "expect,' that the failure of 1899 may not occur again. If, then, that is the case, what is to be done, and what ought to be the first thing to be done ?
Clearly there is one point which calls for settlement at once, and that is the question of expense. If "enough is not 'being done" to get us the Army we need, which of two things is not being done? Are we not paying enough, and so not getting all we want? or are we paying for the wrong article ? To our mind, there is but one answer to that. We are pay- ing at any rate a great price, and it is doubtful if we could pay very much more; but we are not getting value for our money. Thirty-four millions a year ought at least to provide us with an Army capable of bringing a war with a nation like the Boers to an end in less than two and a half years, and yet the War Commissioners are clearly doubtful whether on emergency we should do much better in the autumn of 1903 than we did in the autumn of 1899. Where, then, are we spending our money in the wrong direction? We will point out at least one direction in which we are convinced that we are wasting money. We will leave for the moment the question of the numbers wanted for an Army to fight the battles we have to fight ; that is to say, we will not discuss now whether or not we want one hundred thousand or six hundred thousand men for • home and foreign service,—we will accept for the moment • the claim made by the authorities that we need all the men whom we are paying for to-day. But what of the officers ? Are we getting the class of officers we need to lead the men,—whatever the numbers of the men may be ?
We believe not, and for these reasons. First, who is the ideal officer? Is he, in any case, a man who does not put his profession before everything else in the world ? Is he a man who thinks bard work and study a nuisance, and who is only concerned to escape as soon as he can from the bond of his uniform ? Does he think more of a brother- officer possessing a large private income than of a serious soldier with nothing in his pocket ? Would he rather play polo than handle his men over difficult country ? Ought he to be incapable of expressing an opinion on this or that point of strategy in a dozen sentences of decent English.? Of course, everybody will answer, he is not that kind of man. He ought to be physically fit, and for that reason the more time he can find to take exercise and recreation, so long as he does not neglect his work, the better ; but, above and before everything, he must have brains and the will to use them ; his heart must be in his work, and he ought to feel towards the profession he has chosen the same devotion and enthusiasm, and the same ambition to get on, as inspire the barrister or surgeon who even- tually arrives at the top rungs of the ladder of his calling. IS that a faithful description of the qualities of the British officer to-day ? We have no hesitation in saying that it is a faithful description of the qualities of hundreds of officers. But does it faithfully describe all? Nobody can say so who has read the evidence given before the War Commission, or who, leaving aside that evidence, has considered the spirit underlying such exhibitions as the recent " ragging " cases in the Guards and at Cape Town. The solid fact remains that in many regiments, especially in the cavalry, it is not "the thing" to work, or to pretend to work, the reason being simply this, that many officers do not need to work. Such officers we do not want, and in paying for them we are wasting money which they do not require, and which we could employ better. But, we shall be asked, whom then are you going to employ ? We would answer that we would employ the men who, as things are to-day, throw their brains and energies into other professions,—the sons of poor men who make their mark by their industry and their wits as barriaters, doctors, solicitors, Civil servants, and the rest. In a word, we would throw open the Army as a career to poor men. The Army is nothing of the kind at present. Few parents dare send a son into a Line regiment unless they can see their way to providing him with at least £100 a year pocket-money ; a cavalry regiment is, of course, absolutely out of the question. The consequence is that though there are many capable officers in the Line, the Artillery, and the Engineers, there might be many more; in the cavalry the number of capable officers might easily be trebled.
But what steps can be taken, it will be asked, to bring all this about,—that is, to get rid of the loafer and the snob wherever he occurs, and to substitute for him a keen, ambitious soldier ? First, all expenses incurred in the regiment ought to be reduced. For that reason we welcome most heartily Lord Roberts's severely worded Army Order of Monday. "Extravagance amongst officers," the Order runs, "individually and collectively, has long been for- bidden by Regulations If officers are extravagant in their mode of living, it is the duty of a commanding officer to discourage and prevent it, and should any commanding officer fail to carry out, in their true spirit and intention, the Regulations of the Service on-a subject so materially affecting the interests and prospects of the younger officers, the Commander-in-Chief will seriously consider the propriety of retaining him in his command."
• We sincerely hope that those words of caution, never more urgently needed than to-day, will have their effect; and we should like also to know—what we certainly cannot take for granted at present—that, not in the far future, or even the near future, but at once, there will be an end put to the exasperating and senseless round of changes of petty details of uniform which are the despair of all officers looking for reform in expense. [We have not space to enter fully into this question here ; we can only refer our readers to "An Army Outfitter's" astonishing letter in Tuesday's Times.] But we believe, in all serious- ness, that something more than mere "eduction of expenses is necessary if it is to become possible for any young man with brains but without money to hold a commission in any regiment in his Majesty's Service, cavalry included. We would, in short, increase the officer's pay,—not largely in the case of the junior officer, for a junior in the Army ought to go through the same probation as regards living uncomfortably on a small income as banisters and, doctors do before achieving success. But we would offer him an income which should make it possible for him at least to enter the Army ; and when once in the Army, he should know that by hard work he could come by as good. a position as his doctor or his solicitor. He ought to be able to look forward to an income as a Captain of at least .2400 a year, and. as a Colonel a good deal more. He would have to work hard. to get his captaincy, and harder still for his colonelcy ; but he ought to he able to get both by working hard, and he ought to be sure of seeing the loafers sent to the wall, dismissed the Service, if not with disgrace, at least with certainty. If it 'were open to any young man to do that, we should hear no more of " stupid " or " lazy " officers ; and we should get in the Army eventually more of the under- graduate spirit, which accepts a man for his character and not for his purse. That is what is wanted to a. large extent throughout the Army to-day ; and that is one of the ends—there are ' others, of course—towards which reformers should direct their efforts. We asked at the beginning of this article what there was to be done by a practical man desiring to give effect to his deep dissatisfac- tion with the facts disclosed by the Report of the War Corn- mission. Is there not this, at least,—to demand from the Member who represents him, not merely vague assur- ances that he is in favour of Army reform—we are all in favour of that—but a definite promise that he will do all he can to see that the Army for which the voter pays shall be officered, not only by muscle and pluck, but by brains ? The country does not demand the brains of all its sons for its Army ; but that it should be able to obtain the best brains, if necessary, surely needs no proving ; and it cannot command that supply of brains in its Army unless it offers there a career at least as attractive as other careers in which moneyless men can achieve high position.
Previous page
