May 27.
Tar annual inspection of the Volunteers has now been brought to a conclusion, and we believe that the account, they have given of themselves has in most cases been excellent. General Fowler's report will not be available, naturally, for a little time to come, but we may quote the opinion of competent observers who have noted the keenness of all ranks and an increasing efficiency. Of hard work during the season under review there has been no lack, and, what is more, it has been directed along the soundest lines possible. For one thing very great attention has been and is still being given to the equipment of the Corps; for another, the Corps to-day has a great fund of experience to draw upon. Its utilization, not on any haphazard system but only efter careful consideration of all the human elements which find so wide a play in volunteer matters, in other words getting the right man in the right place, was bound to have an excellent effect upon the Corps generally, and this we are seeing to-day. This principle does not apply alone to what we wight call the more senior posts, such as that of company command ders, but it runs through the whole of the ranks, right down to the smallest command—the fire unit. On the calibre of all these unit commanders, their resource in emergency, their enterprise, their capacity for handling their commands, no matter whether small or large, depends the efficiency of the Corps as a military machine. The training of the past twelve months has shown steady progress in getting. towards the ideal to be aimed at in matters of command, and with
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.