One cannot blame the smaller clerks of the Treasury for
not paying out money without the regulations being complied with to the letter; but why does not some big official at the War Office or the Treasury, or, for the matter of that th Secretary of State or the Chancellor of the Exchequer I f ° take the responsibility of giving the order that all forms may be dispensed with when it is prima' facie clear that the money ie dna P - If this were done the effect would be exactly that of Florence Nightingale's order to the sentry, and the money would flow out at once into the proper channels. All that is wanted in such cases to break through the enchanted circle of red-tape is for some one to take a little peraonal responsibility. Meantime the ruin that is being done to re. cruiting is incalculable, and the disastrous belief is spreading that the Government really wants to cheat the soldier. A propos of the difficulties experienced in getting the discharged Yeomen to re-enlist, we may mention that if the War Office had adopted our proposal to register the names and addresses of all the men who originally offered to serve or who have been discharged, they would now find the re-enlistment difficulty much less. They would be in touch with a very large number of men to whom their offer could be made directly, and so quickly. But perhaps we shall be-told that the War Office could not have started a Register after we had suggested it, because it would have seemed like yielding to newspaper criticisms, and that it is we, therefore, who are really respell. sible for this obvious expedient not being adopted! Seriously, we should not be surprised to hear this suggestion.
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