It was announced on Thursday that the Wax Office had
placed orders with ordnance manufacturers, including Messrs. Vickers and Maxim, and Armstrong, Whitworth, and Co., for a sufficient number of field-guns to rearm the whole British Army. The guns are 18i-pounders, of the type recommended by Sir George Marshall's Committee, and accepted last August by the Army Council. We have repeatedly called attention to the dangerous weakness of our existing artillery, and it is with great relief that the country
will hear of the action of the War Office. At the same time, it must be remembered that none of the new guns can be delivered before six months, and complete rearmament will probably be a matter of two years. We are glad to see the War Office ordering wholesale, and not in driblets, a system which causes much unnecessary waste ; and we sincerely trust that in a matter which above all others requires foresight and early preparation, the policy of drift will be finally abandoned. It is a discreditable thing that a Press campaign should be necessary before the commonest precautions are taken.
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