The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, JULY 15, 1901. ARMY REFORM.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 157, 15 July 1901, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, JULY 15, 1901. ARMY REFORM.

A cablegram of a couple of lines notifies that a great reform is to be made in the British army. Lord Boberts has given the order that sword, lance, ynd bayonet exercises are to bo discarded in fzY ot mors practice with the riile, that the ornamental and I ceremonial are to give way to the practical. That is a lesson which the Boors have dearly taught us. It is not so important itself as in the augury that reforms of a beneficial kind are :o be made.* The British army, however, will never be the effective force hat it should be until a different sysiem prevails as to tire promotion of ifficers. In time of war it has been ound necessary, to some extent, o discard the system by which he ballroom dandy may get the n-eference over a more deservig man. But unless the Com- I : lander-in-Chief deals firmly with this base of the Army, things will soon rift back into the old groove. At resent a man who is splendidly fitted ) rise in the Army, but whose finanal position is weak, is soon given to nderstand that promotion for him .eans ruination, for he ha 3 either to re up to a very expensive style, or :come a kind of outcast. Until that ystem is beaten down the efficiency of the Army must suffer, and that it has suffered in the past the South African campaign has proved too truly,