§ An important Committee, known as Mr. Clinton Dawkins's Committee, reported at the end of last session. It. was composed quite independently of the War Office, and it included the names of business men in whom the House could 376 place confidence. It has been practically possible for me to accept almost en bloc the recommendations of that Committee. I do not want to weary the House by going at full length into the details of their Report, but I will give a résumé of the points we have carried out. The principle adopted by that Committee was, if possible, to check the immense number of Reports with which officers are occupied in the districts, and which come to the War Office to be read by officers already very busy, or filed unread. We propose to substitute inspection for Reports where-ever we can. We have appointed an Inspector General of Artillery, just as we have an Inspector General of Cavalry, and we are going to appoint an Inspector of Yeomanry, and to carry out the system of work within the districts with inspection from headquarters. We propose to give GeneralOfficers commanding larger financial powers, to give them larger powers over the Auxiliary Forces, to prevent and criticise all those constant checks on administration which are caused by references on small points to superior authority; and we propose, if we can—and this is a subject to which I wish to call the special attention of the House—to relieve the engineers of some of their multifarious duties with regard to barracks. I believe the amount which the engineer officer is expected to learn is more than you can expect an individual properly to master. The vagaries of engineers with regard to barracks have caused in some instances inconvenience to the Army. When it was proposed to the Duke of Wellington, with regard to a particular barrack which was supposed to be very fine, that the name of the engineer should be placed over the portal, the Duke observed, "That would be too severe a penalty." I think it may be possible, in some way or other, to avail ourselves more of civilian assistance; and for that purpose I have appointed a Committee, with Lord Esher as chairman, to consider whether the work cannot be carried on with some economy, and with greater relief to the engineers. Then there is the question of auditing. We propose to carry out the suggestion of the Committee to audit the accounts more largely in the districts than we have done; and we are going to plant at Aldershot, Salisbury, and Dublin, three branches of the Accountant General's 377 Department, with a view to settling on the spot every question which can be settled there. We have also been urged to establish a Working Board, and I have carried out, to a large extent, the recommendation of the Committee. The War Office Council is now not only a consultative body, but coming to no definite decisions, but it keeps minutes. The opinions given are recorded, the final decision of the Council is recorded, and also the decision of the Secretary of State upon it. The Secretary of State will, therefore, hand over to his successor an absolute record, not only of the decisions, but of the opinions expressed by all senior officers on all great problems which are brought before the Council. The Army Board has been unshackled; it is now allowed to tike up any question it pleases, without reference to the Secretary of State; and there is also a co-ordinating Council. The one object we have had in view has been writing as little as possible, and deciding as rapidly as possible. There is one other subject on which I wish to touch. I have established on the military side of the War Office the principle that military officers and military clerks shall take the place of civilian officers and clerks. We have thirty-two places for officers, for which there have been 182 applications. We have 264 places for non-commissioned officers and men, for which we have 2,000 applications. I believe that by applying that system to the War Office, we shall discover good results. There is one other change of routine which 1 must mention before 1 leave this branch of the subject, which is rather tedious and dull; and that is that we have greatly strengthened the office of Director General of Military Intelligence and Organisation. That official has been for 200 years either existent or non-existent, but he has always been on the outer ring of the War Office circle. When he was first appointed, the first officer bore the extremely appropriate name of "Scout Master General." We have now introduced him into the inner circle, and he practically discharges a good many of the duties which in a foreign army corps are discharged by the Chief of the Staff.