THE MORAL OF LORD CLYDE'S ORDER OF THE DAY. THE
lecture which Lord Clyde, through the Adjutant-General of ker Majesty's Forces in India, has addressed to the commanding officers of regiments, and which he has made public, is so clear and emphatic that we should have hesitated to comment upon it, had not its purpose been misconceived. This decisive order has been_regarded as pointed at the medical officers alone, although the least consideration of its terms makes it clear that its purpose is to rouse commanding officers of regiments to a due sense of their duties.
Lord Clyde made a tour of inspection, and at two stations he found that the hospitals had been, for several months, without a supply of quinine. No doubt, he observed other things, not more to his liking; but the omission he mentions, sufficiently warrants him in taking it as a text for one of the best lectures ever read to the Army. Who is responsible for the defect of quinine ? not the medical officer, but the commanding officer ! "He is as much responsible that his hospital is duly supplied with medicines, as that his men receive their daily pay." This is sound doctrine. If he cannot, or does not, get what he wants, a commanding offi- cer must appeal, in succession, to all the authorities above him, even to the Commander-in-chief. That is "his bounden duty." Nor in hospital matters alone is he responsible.
"In the same manner, in common justice to the regiment he commands, he should never rest till he has obtained the best accommodation, furniture, shelter, &c., which the circumstances under which he is placed may permit.
"It does not belong to his situation patiently to endure what appears to be ignorance, sloth, or carelessness in the functionaries who are bound to provide his regiment, according to their various vocations, whether it be the commissariat, barrack department, the executive engineer, the civil authorities, or the superintending surgeon ; it is incumbent on him, as being intrusted with a great and trying responsibility, to report to superior authority when he considers his regiment wronged or neglected, or that it is suffering from causes which it may be in the power of the Commander- in-Chief to remove."
This is wholesome military doctrine. A commanding officer is undoubtedly responsible for everything pertaining to his regiment, or battalion. Lord Clyde is obliged to reiterate" this pimple fact. Are we to infer from this that hitherto commanding officers have been ignorant, or neglectful of it ? If commanding officers patiently endure sloth, ignorance, • carelessness, clearly they are not fit to command. Now, we have it on high authority that it is no unusual thing to find men at the head of regiments who should' not be there. General Simpson told the Purchase Commissioners he could name several who were unfit. Lord Clyde's order is evi- dence that there some unfit commanders now in India or at least some who take a very narrow view of the duties of their position. Unfitness tells upon a regiment very severely. We can give an illustration. There is a regiment of heavy cavalry which some years ago had a most excellent commander. He was skilled in the management of men; he was up to his duties as a soldier ; he was one of the best horsemen in Europe. He did his duty, and under him, even in the dreadful old ultra-regulation days of the balance seat, his regiment could do anything. He passed from the command in due course—unhappily good men cannot last for ever. His successor came to the post in the usual way—he had bought up to it, and he got it. What sort of a man was he ? He was a well-meaning, but muddleheaded gentleman with very limited faculties; in every respect, the reverse of his predecessor. Of course, the good system established went for something ; but the spirit which gave it life and vigour was gone. The regiment fell off in excellence, and very soon lost the faculty of doing everything, because it had no confidence in its commander. In this way regiments are spoiled, because money, and not fitness, is the qualification for command.
Couple this specimen of a not uncommon occurrence, with Lord Clyde's rebuke to commanding officers in general, and then tell us whether men who are entrusted with such serious duties should not be appointed by selection ? To allow officers to rise to com- mands by purchase, is not a whit more defensible than the practice, in the late Bengal army, of appointing native commis- sioned officers by seniority. A refusal to select commanding officers argues a deficiency of moral courage. One would think that the Army is a club, and that the higher members are afraid of offending one another. Perhaps Lord Clyde's order of the day, which is evidence of the inefficiency of the existing system, may help to open the eyes of those who have it in their power to enforce the remedy.
Previous page
