At last, it appears, the task of rearming our artillery with guns not outclassed by those of all the other great Powers, has been undertaken in earnest. It' was acknowledged more than two years ago that our present guns were a0 hopelessly inferior to those ofjother nations that if by ill-fortune we were pi into war the results could hardly fail to be di astrous. The cost of the rearmament is estimated at something like three and a-half millions and therefore no-one can blame the authorities for taking a reasonable time to determine folly what was the best weapon to employ before undertaking this expenditure; but the time that has elapsed before putting the work in hand seems a little beyond what is reasonable. The taxpayers will not be pleased at a furth" addition to the cost of our army, which has much more than doubled itself since we must all acknowledge that thi absolutely. necessary expenditure, and we must hope that in compensation economies will be effected in other directions, Lord Roberts contributes to the current number of the " Nineteenth Century" remarkable article in which, incidentally, he dwells on this need of improved guns, and expresses the opinion that the now arms will be equal to, if not better than, those of any other Power. The great need of the army opinion is, however, better marksmanship. He declares that his recent visit to South Africa has con firmed him in the opinion that our disssters during the Boer war were very largely due to our men not being able to shoot straight.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.