UNDER-SECRETARY FOR WAR.
[Copyright 1900 by Underwood & Underwood.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for War since October, 1898. Born in London, 1863; educated at Eton and Sandhurst; entered the Coldstream Guards in 1883, and served in the Suakin campaign and at Cyprus, 1885; Private Secretary to the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, 1887-92; Captain of Cheshire Yeomanry.
The Government unprepared.
Dec. 1899.] Shortcomings of the War Office.
It was urged, indeed, as an excuse for our failures that other armies had made deplorable mistakes—notably the German in the war of 1870. This no one will deny. But the point is that in spite of these mistakes the German Army won every battle, and that the German government and nation had taken every step which science and the sense of duty could suggest to prepare for war. Could as much be said of Britain? Those who have followed the story will have marked the lack of transport and of cavalry, the insufficient proportion of artillery, the want of maps, and the delay in the preparation of troop-ships. They will have noted that the reports of the Intelligence Department as to the enemy's strength were put on one side and neglected. They will know that the strenuous warnings of Sir Alfred Milner and of the Natal Government as to the imminence of war were calmly disregarded. They will remember that defects in the Army, pointed out year after year by critics in the House of Commons and in the press, had remained unremedied. They should reflect that the Army and its leaders had been denied the inestimably valuable exercise of annual manœuvres until the last year before the war. Even then the manœuvres were not of a nature to yield real instruction. And the mere fact that in the gravest emergency ministers turned to Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener, showed that they had not chosen, as they ought to have chosen, the generals who were believed by all to be best qualified for a difficult campaign.
THE HEADS OF THE WAR OFFICE.
[Copyright 1900 by Underwood & Underwood.
Commander-in-Chief of the Army since 1895. (See note to portrait on page [59].)