It is perfectly idle to attempt any review of the Ohicese affair, for not a living soul in England has any definite or trustworthy knowledge of the matter. Wβ simply have the confused and confusing and contradictory telegrams that you have in New Zealand, and it is impossible to gather authentically either what has happened, or what is going to happen, or what the whole uproar really means and portends. Vivisection of a very painful kind is being performed just now upon our whole military system. The result has been to disclose scandal upon scandal, abuse upon abuse. One discreditable thing after another is beini? disclosed ,to our astonished and disgusted eyes through the pitiless publicity foroed by the war, until we are beginning to wonder who is to be trusted, or if anybody can be. One gross and glaring abuse consists in tlia favouritism practised in our army through the influence of certain society wo men, who, in the most shameless minner, interfere right and left with "appointments and promotion, exercising absolute terror ism if thwarted, and making the British army and its official personnel the play ground for their personal likes and dislikes. It is notorious as well as scandalous that in competent or negligent officers have been re tained at their posts simply because their superiors dared not offend certain great ladies of high influence by meting out jus tice to the proteges of these latter. And as a result both Brrtieh and colonial soldiers have suffered in the field through the in capacity of these ofllcers. The fate of the whole Empire has been endangered through the incapacity of "Piccadilly pups"—as rude people term those officers whose" sole idea of duty is to swagger about the West End, attend society functions, and let their mili tary work and studies take their chance. Even the officers of this class are brave enough no doubt, but their gross incompet ence as well as their vulgar arrogance" to their subordinates amd even to the colonial soldiers who are their eouals in birth and their vast superiors in efficiency, has caused general disgust. I fancy a drastic reform is pending.
