The Duke of Connaught was among those who gave evidence, and his remarks on these points are quite pathetic. that even so important and responsible an officer as tire Commander-in-Chief in treland even when he is Prince of tie Blood Royal, can scarcely more hand or foot without obtaining permission from the War Oifice. The Duke complained that years ago in India, when he did not occupy nearly so responsible a_position, he was entrusted with the spending of considerable sums of money, but now he can hardly spend a penny without a long correspondence with don, and an enormous amount of quite unnecessary cleriva' work is thus thrown upon him." The complexity of regulations, the Committee say, is now so great that their interpretation alone leads to a mass of useless correspondence." Several of the witnesses compared this monstrous system with the splendidly smooth-wor machinery of the German army. We. there a model on whit he entie'y re-organised, but will done? The Committee's recommendations are simple and straightforward enough; but News" remarks, "il is the simplicdy of these judements Uhat fils one with despair." How often have ws heard it all be very report. says the same, and every report ends in oblivion, The report presents us with entangled octopus, without Head ov tuli, and with only endless tentacles, which 1 probably overpower any hero who tries to lop them of THe LOTTIE OF VLAKFONTEIN, A week ago we had a brief message from Lord Kitchener announcing that an engagement had taken place at Viakfontein a big zee scale than any battle that has been fought in Sur Africa now for many months, There are, by the way, several Viakfouteins at the seat of war, and have only within the last two or three day been able to identify the site of this battle. Details of the ug, in which we had six elficers and fifty-one men killed, w we since died of y dribbled in, and at o time the War Office had in self-defen to notify the public that no information had reached them beyond that which they hed mide known, There ig indeed a good deal of grumbling at the extreme wgreness of Lord Kitchener's dispatches. Very few trained war-correspondents are now left at the front; inletd, it would a useless expense for the newspapers to Keep them there, since the war is now spread over so wide an area, and there is £0 little possibility of knowing where the next important engagement will lake place, that they would be powerless to send any news beyond what they might be able to extract from head-quarters—and that is practically nothing. We never knew what was going on than we do to-day Dut on the whole whit we do know is fairly encouraging, Vlukfontein was a victory, if " somewhat expensive one, and it is an encouraging sign that the Boers are at last Ariven to fight at cluse quarters, We have hat in one respect: a record Derby this year, the extraordinary field of twenty-five horses having one to the post, Tu these cirewnstances it was regarded as by no means improbable that we should have a repetition of Jeddal's year, when a hundred-to-one chance came elf. But, as, of course, you will have long ago learnt by wire, the result was after all a victory for the favourite, There is evidently no falling fin the popularity of the great race. How: ever much i: may be disparage t by habitues of the turf, still the one racing event ext for the this year it rival as ever. 'The South-Eastern and Chatham Railway Company have just op-ned a station right on the course by 'Tatcenham {Coraer, which anak 5 it possible to get to Epsom' Racecourse in. quicker time than ever; and there is no reason to anticipate that there will be any falling-off i popularity of the Blue Ribbon of the THE awensca ovr.
Our hopes-of a victory in the coming race for the America Cup which were damped by the recent accident to Shumruck TI, when her mast, sails, and gent were all
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.