BRITAIN’S DANGER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3435, 29 January 1912, Page 3

BRITAIN’S DANGER.

AN INEFFICIENT ARMY.

SERIOUS WARNING FROM LORD

ROBERTS

Lord Roberts, during the course of a long letter to the London ‘‘Times,”, writes, inter alia:—“We have been on the brink of a great war; yet in the condition of even our regular army I have no hesitation in saying that in the most important respects that army .is not fitted fior war. Our rifle is very inferior to the rifle with which French and German troops are armed. It is proposed to provide a. new bullet for it, but even with that, bullet our men will lie at a disadvantage. The point-blank range of the French and German rifles is SOO vards; that of the British rifle at its highest is ■ 600 yards. The equipment of our artillery is scarcely more satisfactorv. Our fuse and fuse setters are not up to date; our sights are not up to date, with the result that our gun is not an automatic-firing gun. Again, in aviation we are behind ether nations. That science is in its infancy, but it has already proved of the utmost service in detecting movements, and thus in eliminating to a. great extent in military operations that- uncertainty which we are. accustomed to call ‘the fog of war.’ France and Germany have the command of the air. The former already has a fleet of 200 aeroplanes; Germany proposes to spend this year and next year £1,500,000 sterling on aviation alone. In England there are only four aeroplanes fit to take the field- This assuredly is n(ut the line of policy for a country famomTheyond all others for its enterprise, whether in peace* or war. We may write, but war will not wait. Let, us cease to blind ourselves by. vain sophistries to the dangers which beset us- Let us face reality. Britishers are no fools.”