7 SEPTEMBER 1901, Page 26

The Army and the Press in 1900. A Study by

a British Field Officer. (F. E. Robinson and Co. is. net.)—Nunquamne reponans veratus totiens? says, or may be taken to say, the writer of this pamphlet. He makes a very vigorous reply to the news- paper critics of the conduct of the war. We have no intention of judging between them and him,—such a function does not belong to us. But we may say that he is, by almost universal consent, speaking within the truth when he says, it propos of the remark that "our Army was planned for any other pur- pose but that of war " : "This is the Army which—leaving out of account the troops serving in China and West Africa, the forces garrisoning the.British dependencies, the Colonial troops, and the garrisons of Great Britain and Ireland—has placed 250,000 men in the field at a distance of 6,000 miles from their base, and maintained them for a year and a half,—a feat unique in the annals of military history." He is, we see, complimental to the Spectator. Nevertheless, we must protest when he quotes a letter as an utterance of ours. How does he know that it was not printed as a "shocking example" ? In the case in point we happened to be at one with the writer, but that did not necessarily follow from publication. No journal is responsible for its correspondents.