Mr. Brodrick's contribution to the debate was good both in
form and substance. He declared that the Government had not been tardy in meeting Lord Kitchener's demands. As soon as he asked for more mounted men the Government took steps to provide them. That no doubt is true, but it does not entirely absolve the Government. They should not have waited to be asked, but should have anticipated. Lord Kitchener's demand and have been half ready to supply it before it was made. It is by such anticipations that businesses are made successful. The general in the field is the customer and the War Office is the shopman. He is the best shopma.n who divines what he will be asked for two months hence. How- ever, we have no desire to belittle Mr. Brodrick's efforts, for we believe him to be thoroughly in earnest, and we recognise that he had .a great deal of leeway to make up when he came into office. Since October he tells us that he forwarded some thirty thousand horses to South Africa—i.e., six thousand miles—an unparalleled feat, as he points out. The new call for Yeomanry, says Mr. Brodrick, has been a great success,—some nine thousand men having already been enrolled. That is good, bet we do not doubt that if they had adopted a more popular system of recruiting the Govern- ment could have got treble that number in the time.
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