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The Right Honourable
Hugh Oakeley Arnold-Forster

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MUDON. EDWAKD ARNOLD 191 0

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
Hugh Oakeley Arnold-Forste
A MEMOIR BY
HIS WIFE

' Forget not yet the tried intent
Of such a truth as I have meant.
My great travail so gladly spent,
Forget not yet ! * Sir T. Wyatt.

LONDON
EDWARD ARNOLD
1910

YALE"'

Bvj 4A-:"ici

TO OUR SISTER
FLORENCE
AND TO OUR SONS
WILLIAM, MERVYN, JOHN, and CHRISTOPHER

PREFACE
Whether it be true that the story of a man's life should
not be written for some twenty or thirty years after his
death, or whether, on the other hand, it should be told
whilst, in the minds of his friends and fellow-workers, his
memory is still fresh and undimmed, is a question difficult
to decide. But if a memoir may ever be written after no
long delay, it is perhaps specially permissible in the case
of one whose life was wholly given to the study of the
greatest national problems that have still to be faced and
solved by his fellow-countrymen. To the study and under
standing of the questions that are most vital to us as a
nation and as an empire, my husband devoted a life of
strenuous work. He approached these questions from the
point of view of one who was to the end a student, and
who was always learning. He brought to their solution a
great sincerity of purpose, wholly untouched by any thought
of self or of his own advantage.
He had, to use Mr. Balfour's words describing him, " a
single eye to the great national needs which are now filling so
much of our thoughts." In this characteristic he resembled,
very closely, his adopted father, William Edward Forster, to
whose training and example he owed so much.
" His patriotism," wrote Mr. Garvin, " was as a religion
which possessed him from head to foot. He was a pioneer
of all the imperial causes through their darkest days. No
man knew more about public affairs as a whole. Above
vii

viii HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
all, no man cared more. ... He worked "as ever in the
great Taskmaster's eye' until he wore himself out. Of him
it may be as truly said as of any man who fell upon the
field that he lived and died for England."
It is possible that in a few years' time our national
needs may have changed in character, and that fresh
problems will be ours to solve ; but, at the present moment,
our destiny as a nation seems likely to depend greatly upon
our capacity to organise and co - ordinate the general
resources of the empire ; and, above all, on our power to
devise a system of defence and offence that shall be suited
to its peculiar needs. It was to these questions, and to
others of a similar nature, that my husband gave the best
years and work of his life.
The months that have passed since his death have not
lightened, but have gravely increased our national anxieties ;
and to arrive at a right understanding of these difficult
questions on which the fate of our country depends, becomes
more and more the duty of every citizen. That the studies
and labour of his life might be of use to his fellow-
countrymen would have been the reward that of all others
he would most have desired.
These reasons have had great weight in the decision to
write and publish this memoir at the present time ; although
by taking this course many omissions are necessitated,
which render the story of his public life and of his administra
tion of the War Office a less complete record than it
would otherwise be.
No one can be more deeply conscious than I am of
the many omissions and the imperfections of this memoir.
To write without professional knowledge of the technical
matters that must be spoken of in its pages is to be at a
grave disadvantage ; and I feel a great anxiety lest, being
without such knowledge, I may have fallen into error and
represented imperfectly or inaccurately the views of one

PREFACE ix
whose work was characterised by an extreme and notable
accuracy. It is not an easy task to write the story of a life, into
whose comparatively short space so large an amount of
public work and so many varied interests were gathered,
the materials for which are so abundant ; or to con
centrate the history of so much work and thought into
the pages of a single volume. On the question of the
measure and proportion of such a memoir my husband had
himself so clear a view that by his own feeling on the
subject I have felt myself bound. He pleaded often for
shorter memoirs, limited to the size of some of the " Lives "
written in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. If in
these pages some of the friendships that he deeply valued,
and some of the questions that interested him, are hardly
alluded to, or are wholly passed over, the limitation of
space must be remembered in excuse.
I have to thank many of my husband's friends for their
help and counsel, and for permission to use the letters that
are given here.
To Major Marker my most special thanks are due for
invaluable help given to me in the chapters dealing with
Army affairs, — help that was most freely given, in memory
ofa great friendship. To Mr. Arthur Loring, my* husband's
lifelong friend ; to his sisters Mrs. Vere O'Brien and Miss
Frances Arnold-Forster ; and to our sons, without whose
help and constant sympathy this book could not have been
written, I owe my most grateful thanks.
MARY ARNOLD-FORSTER.
Basset Down, Wroughton, Wilts,
October 1910.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
The Arnold Family — Dr. Arnold of Rugby — Childhood in India
— Days of the Mutiny — Wharfeside — Mrs. W. E. Forster —
— Letters from her brother, Matthew Arnold — W. E. Forster
— His career — His friendship with Carlyle — His public life
CHAPTER II
Schooldays at Exmouth and Rugby — John Penrose — Oxford,
and the Bar — Experiences in Ireland — The reign of terror
of the Land League — Attempts to murder the Chief
Secretary — Mr. Forster's resignation

CHAPTER III
Early Writing — Pioneer work for Imperial Federation — Candi
dature for Devonport — Gradual separation from the Old
Liberal Party — The weakness of the Navy exposed —
Mr. Stead and " The Truth about the Navy " . .40

CHAPTER IV
Marriage — Work at Cassell & Co.'s — The Citizen Reader — The
Death of W. E. Forster — Mr. Gladstone and Home Rule —
Darlington and Dewsbury elections — Books and Articles :
"The Flying Watkin," In a Conning Tower, This World
of Ours — Friendship of W. E. Henley — Organisation of
the printing trade — Our Home Army — A letter from
Lord Randolph Churchill . . 62
xi

HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER

CHAPTER V
PAGE
Belfast and the Home Rule question— West Belfast election-
Stories of the " Fighting West Division " — General Elec
tion, 1892— The House of Commons— Maiden speech —
The national flag on the Victoria Tower — A serious
ice accident . . . . 87

CHAPTER VI
Parliamentary life and work — Naval questions in Parliament
— The condition of the Training Ships — The Chartered
Company and other South African questions in Parlia
ment . . .101
CHAPTER VII
Holidays and playtimes — A barge skipper— The Four Brothers
— "Our toys" . . . . . 123
CHAPTER VIII
A History of England — The children for whom he wrote —
Letters written to his mother — Private letters as a revela
tion ofa man's character — Mrs. Forster's death in 1899 —
The War Office, the Army, and the Empire . . 131
CHAPTER IX
South Africa during the war — The Land Settlement Commission
— A South African journey — A telegram from Lord Salis
bury . . . . . . .148
CHAPTER X
Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty — Lord Selborne and
his Board — The death of Queen Victoria— Navy Estimates
1 90 1 — Letters . . . . . .167
CHAPTER XI
The work of the Board of Admiralty — The New Scheme of
Training for the Navy — The authors of the scheme 1 8 5

CONTENTS xiii
CHAPTER XII
PAGE
The necessity for a better organisation of the resources of the
Empire — The Committee of Defence — Standardisation of
dimensions and material in the Navy — The Standardisa
tion Committee — Victualling in the Navy . . 195
CHAPTER XIII
Fiscal Reform and Commercial Union with the Colonies — A
conversation with Mr. Chamberlain — The growth of an
idea — The Case for Enquiry . . . 209
CHAPTER XIV
The political situation in 1903 — The Unionist Party — Grave
illness — The New Government — Secretary of State for
War — Difficulties of the Position — Secretaries and fellow-
workers — The Abbey Garden, Westminster . .222
CHAPTER XV
Royal Commission on the South African War — Reforms urgently
demanded — Economy a paramount condition — The Re-
constitution Committee — Memorandum on the defects of
the existing Army System — Memorandum on Suggested
Reforms . . . , . .231
CHAPTER XVI
Army Estimates in 1904 — Postponements of the Secretary of
State's Statement to the House of Commons — Resulting in
motion for adjournment of the House — The Militia — A
compromise, July 1904 ..... 247
CHAPTER XVII
Speech, July 1904 — Work and holidays — Summer 1904 . 265
CHAPTER XVIII
Autumn Manoeuvres — Incident of the Russian Baltic Fleet —
Decentralisation Scheme carried out — " A Committee of

HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
PAGE
Enquiry" — A grave protest — Short Service battalions
to be formed and a " Grouped Line Depot "—The Volunteer
question . . • • 27S

CHAPTER XIX
The General Staff of the Army — Memorandum on the formation
of a General Staff— Last days at the War Office — Letters —
A summary of aims and achievements 291
CHAPTER XX
A farewell to West Belfast — The General Election, 1906 —
Croydon Election — Speech in the House on Army affairs
— Illness — Letters . . .301
CHAPTER XXI
A voyage to the West Indies — The Kingston earthquake 308
CHAPTER XXII
Letters to his sister — English Socialism of To-day — Some pro
verbs and some translations — Decision to retire from
Parliament on account of failing health . 326
CHAPTER XXIII
Military Needs and Military Policy — Last book on Army affairs
— Lord Roberts' Preface — The question of invasion — The
Territorial force — The Special Reserve — Compulsory ser
vice — A summary of the results of the Army policy of
the present Government ... 342
CHAPTER XXIV
Grave illness, November 1908 — A stranger's letter — Last
words in the House of Commons — The Special Reserve
and the Army — Last Days — March 12, 1909 353

APPENDICES INDEX

365373

ILLUSTRATIONS
Hugh Oakeley Arnold-Forster, 1903 Frontispiece
Oakeley, with his brother and sister, Edward and
Florence, i860 . facing page 10
Oakeley and "Rob," 1883 „ 42
"The Four Brothers" ,, 128
Mrs. W. E. Forster ,, 142
No. 2 The Abbey Garden. From a drawing by
Will Arnold-Forster . . ,,230
The Secretary of State's Room in the old War Office.
From a drawing by Will Arnold-Forster „ 272

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
CHAPTER I
" And through thee I believe
In the noble and great who are gone ;
Souls tempered with fire,
Fervent, heroic, and good,
Helpers and friends of mankind."
Matthew Arnold: "Rugby Chapel."
The Arnold Family — Dr. Arnold of Rugby — Childhood in India — Days
of the Mutiny — Wharfeside — Mrs. W. E. Forster — Letters from
her brother, Matthew Arnold — W. E. Forster — His Career — His
Friendship with Carlyle — His Public Life.
Hugh Oakeley Arnold -Forster, the second son of
William Delafield Arnold, and grandson of Thomas Arnold,
Headmaster of Rugby, was born on August 19, 1855.
Dr. Arnold, who was born in the Isle of Wight, came of
Suffolk ancestry on his father's side, Arnolds being estab
lished near Lowestoft before the sixteenth century ; whilst
his mother belonged to the Delafield family. Dr. Arnold's
wife, Mary Penrose, came of a race which, as her descendants
love to remember, has given distinguished sons to the
Navy. She was the grand-daughter of John Penrose, Vicar
of Gluvias in Cornwall, and his wife, Elizabeth Vinicombe,
a descendant of the Devonshire families of Ford and
Chudleigh. Their son, Admiral Sir Charles Penrose, Vice-
Admiral of the White, had a long and distinguished naval
career ; serving throughout the great war, and afterwards on
the French coast, in the Mediterranean, and in the Ionian
islands. His elder brother, a second John Penrose, became
1 B

2 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
vicar of Fledborough in Nottinghamshire, and married
Jane Trevenen of Rosewarne in Cornwall. His character
was thus described by one who knew him : "If a man
walks with a Divine spirit those who know its effects will
be able to trace its presence. It is a rare thing to find
those who so walk with the spirit, but those among us
who have been privileged to hold intercourse with such
persons, will remember that they were affected by them
almost unconsciously. . . . They seemed to have an ever-
present feeling of what is right and true and lovely." These
words written of John Penrose would, with equal truth,
describe his daughter Mary, afterwards Mary Arnold, who
was born at Fledborough Vicarage in Iygi.
Of Dr. Arnold and Mary Arnold, his wife, much has
been written. By a rare fortune his life has been made
known to succeeding generations by a biography of singular
beauty and power. A vivid impression of the personality
and teaching of the great Headmaster of Rugby has been
preserved for us throughout the seventy years that have
passed since his death in the pages of Dean Stanley's
memoir, which have kept fresh and unfaded the picture of
this strong man, born to be a teacher and leader of men,
who in his comparatively short life made a mark so deep
and enduring on his generation, and actually did so much
to change and reform the whole spirit of our public schools.
Perhaps one quality of his mind that strikes us forcibly, if
we read afresh the letters of Arnold, is the modern nature
of his thought and expression. The impression is strong as
we read these letters written in the " twenties " and " thirties "
of the last century, that they are written by some statesman
of our own generation ; and that the social and political
problems that face the men and women of to-day are the
actual problems and difficulties that he faces with such an
eager sympathy and understanding, and with a Liberalism so
sane and so finely tempered. It was by virtue of great
qualities, and an intensity and ardour of spirit that would
have made him great in any sphere, that he was a great
teacher. Consequently, as was well said of him by another
Headmaster of Rugby : J " His real position is not so much
1 Dr. Perceval, Bishop of Hereford.

THE ARNOLD FAMILY 3
that of a schoolmaster as of a prophet among schoolmasters,
a man whose special mission it was to unveil and interpret
the higher possibilities, responsibilities, and duties of the
schoolmaster's life. Through the intensity of his moral and
spiritual feeling and his ' radiant vigour,' he vitalised ideas
of which weaker men had been but dimly conscious, or which
they had merely carried about with them as inert or pious
opinions. Thus the value of his example is to be sought in
his unconventional attitude of mind, his striving for reality,
his high moral aim, his intense religious purpose. In a word
it is that influence of the prophet which is the salt of society
in every age."
The pilgrims who cross the Atlantic year by year to
visit the homes and shrines of " the noble and great who
are gone " whose names they honour, come still in never-
failing numbers to Fox How, which holds, linked together,
the double memories of Thomas Arnold, and of Matthew
Arnold, his son.
Dr. Arnold was forty-seven years old when he died
at Rugby in 1842, leaving his five sons and four young
daughters to be brought up at Fox How under their mother's
care. These were : Matthew his eldest son, the poet.
Thomas, his second son, — whose beautiful sensitive face
reflected the unworldliness and purity of his mind, the friend
both of Clough and of Newman, — has given a brief auto
biography of himself in his Passages from a Wandering
Life. His later years were given to work in the Royal
University of Dublin.
Edward, one of H.M. principal Inspectors of Schools.
A man highly gifted, and remembered with undying love by
two generations of friends.
William Delafield, soldier and Indian administrator.
Walter, who served in the Royal Navy and became later
a member of " Lloyds."
Of Dr. Arnold's four daughters, Jane, Mary, Susannah,
and Frances ; the eldest, Jane — her brother Matthew's early
correspondent, the " Fausta " of his poems — became the wife
of William Forster.
The house at Fox How, built by Dr. Arnold, lies in

4 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
the Westmorland Lake country, in Wordsworth's loved
valley of the Rotha. It is reached by the winding road
from Ambleside to Rydal, which, following the course of the
Rotha, skirts round the base of Loughrigg, the beautiful
mountain within whose sheltering arm the valley lies. The
road passes by river and fields, and through a little wood
whose tall trees shade the grey stone gabled house. Its
windows look across a bright space of garden, down the
valley, and into the very heart of Fairfield. A scene more
lovely with the intimate charm and loveliness of Westmor
land it would be difficult to find. The circle at Fox How,
and Fox How itself, must needs be spoken of in telling the
story of any descendant of the Arnold family ; for during
their beloved grandmother's life, and later under the gracious
rule of their Aunt Fan (Miss Frances Arnold), it has
remained a place of hallowed memories, strong in its influ
ence over the lives and thoughts of the children whose happy
lot it was to grow up familiar with its spirit and traditions.
Some places seem to acquire an actual personality of their
own, so strong are the associations entwined about them.
It is a good fortune for any child to have among those early
impressions which are never lost, impressions so unworldly,
so high and pure as those inspired by such a home as
Fox How.
" There is no place in the world," wrote Oakeley Arnold-
Forster a few months before his death, " which is so full of
associations and happy associations as Fox How. Every
room and every path is haunted by bright and happy ghosts,
whom I can see almost as plainly as if they were before me
in the flesh. I see them with a clearness of vision which is
quite startling. I know exactly what they all wore, where
they all sat or stood, which chair in the drawing-room, which
place at the dinner-table, was appropriate to each of them.
I remember the sound of their voices ; I can see them smile.
But all these vivid memories, precious as they are, are of
less value to me than my recollection of the whole tone and
temper of that wonderful society, so good, so brilliant, so
affectionate, so complete in all good gifts.
" The being here and thinking of these things does not
make me sad, not even when I look as I did on Sunday on the

FOX HOW 5
tablets in Rydal Church, so nearly full, or as I did yesterday
on the graves of our dear people in Ambleside Churchyard.
The memories which these things bring to me move me
greatly, but they do not sadden me. You know, as I know,
that there never were people more capable of living the best
and fullest life on earth, and yet more fit to leave it when
ever their call came. For them I cannot and do not grieve ;
I press home my recollections without fear, they do not
distress me, though they all bring back the thought of the
treasures we have lost. . . . How much I wish that my boys
could in their turn have had at least the opportunity of
seeing what great lives can be . . . that they could have
seen and felt the influence of the life which was lived here
by the generation which has now so nearly gone. My
dear F., I could go on writing to you for ever about this
place. " You would understand me when I told you that I
ought not to be writing in this dining-room at all. Uncle
Edward or Uncle Matt ought to be sitting in this window
surrounded by papers, and protected from interruption by a
mysterious code which admitted of no infraction. When I
go into the drawing-room I am quite prepared to see the door
open and Uncle Edward appear, his boots just spotted with
the grey gravel from the front court, his black shiny spring
gaiters showing below his dark Inverness cape, and his soft
hat (not the hard tall one of Sundays) still on his head for
the moment. He smiles, his wonderful blue eyes twinkle as
he asks if some one is not going to walk to Ambleside.
" Then in the corner of the sofa it ought not to be me,
almost the youngest and almost the smallest of the whole
party. It ought to be Grandmama with her soft face and
her little red shawl ; or later that beloved mother of ours, in
those days before the sad look came to her, when she was
still as active and vigorous in body, as to the day of her
death she was in mind and spirit. Even in that great
company how immeasurably superior she was to all others.
" And then all the others — I can place every one of
them, and so can you — Father, Aunt Fanny Lucy, Uncle
John (never to be forgotten), Aunt Susy, Uncle Walter,
Aunt Mala, Mr. James Cropper, the happy and favourite

6 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
guest with his beautiful face. And all the younger gener
ation. . . .
" I was looking at Mr. Tatham's portrait last night, an
odd, round, rough man, who is still to me the only legitimate
occupant of the pulpit at Rydal. But, alas, there is no
pulpit now — at least no real one ; and the chosen corner
of the Fox How pew, where under Banks' desk the very
young could escape the observation of the grown-ups, exists
no more. But I know where it is, and though no one else
was aware of the fact I was in it last Sunday.
" But, as I say, dear, I could go on for ever and you
would understand ; but conditions of time and space inter
pose limits, and I have said quite enough to make you
understand how marked an event is this visit to me." l
This description of Fox How, and its influence on a
younger generation, is given in full because it seems to tell
so much both of Fox How itself, and also of the writer of
the letter. Oakeley's father, William Delafield Arnold, was only
fourteen years old when Dr. Arnold died. From Rugby
school he went to Christ Church, Oxford, and thence passed
into the Indian Army, serving in the 58th Regiment, B.N.I.
A curious and vivid picture of life in the army as he saw
it is given in his remarkable book Oakfield, or Fellowship
in ttte East, a novel which, written as it was by a very
young man, shows much of the character and ability of the
writer. It tells the story of a young officer of Arnold's own
type, earnest and fearless as he was himself, brought into
contact with Anglo-Indian society in a native infantry regi
ment at the time of the Sikh War. Written as Oakfield
was, shortly before the events of the Mutiny, there is a
special interest in the warning note that it strikes, and in
the grave reminder to England that, whatever the history of
India and our future there may be, they must and will
depend upon the actions and character of the Englishmen
in India. " There was a great charm and nobility in my brother
Willy's character," wrote his sister, Mrs. W. E. Forster,
1 A letter written in October 1908 to his beloved sister, friend and corre
spondent, Florence Vere O'Brien. '

WILLIAM DELAFIELD ARNOLD 7
" combined with remarkable energy and ardour and some
thing of youthful vehemence." And in one of his brother
Matthew Arnold's most beautiful poems, " A Southern
Night," the same impression of youthfulness, gallant and
lovable, is conveyed. " Is this the eye, the footstep fast,
The mien of youth we used to see,
Poor, gallant boy ! — for such thou wast,
Still art, to me.
That comely face, that clustered brow,
That cordial hand, that bearing free,
I see them still, I see them now,
Shall always see ! "
Foremost among the group of friends whom he drew
round him in India, which included Sir Donald Stewart,
Sir Henry Lawrence, Sir Allen Johnson, Colonel Pearson,
Charles Saunders, and Sir Charles Oakeley, was Sir John
Lawrence ; and with him Arnold became closely and inti
mately allied in friendship.
It was in the house of John Lawrence that his marriage
took place in 1850 to Frances, daughter of General Hodgson.
John Anthony Hodgson, whose career in India had begun in
the Bengal Light Infantry, may be remembered as having been
the earliest successful explorer of the sources of the Ganges
and Jumna. He afterwards became Surveyor -General of
India. Of his daughter Frances, Oakeley's mother, a charm
ing description is given in a letter written by the wife of Sir
Henry Lawrence to Mrs. Arnold of Fox How. " Your son
might have searched India through," she says, " and not
found another girl of Miss Hodgson's stamp, and this I say
after months of almost daily intercourse with her."
Three years after their marriage William Arnold was
obliged, on account of ill-health, to take a long leave of
absence, and he brought his wife and eldest child home. It
was during this prolonged stay in England that Hugh
Oakeley, the subject of this memoir, was born in 1855 at
Dawlish in Devonshire. When he was four months old the
parents returned to India, taking with them their three little
children — Edward, Florence, and Oakeley.
William Arnold's great opportunity of service had now

8 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
come. One of " John Lawrence's men," tried and trusted,
he was called on by his chief to undertake a work, new
indeed to him and arduous, but congenial, and full of
importance to the great province of which Lawrence was
the ruler. Arnold became Director of Public Instruction in
the Punjaub, and it fell to his lot to organise for the first
time a system of public instruction and education for the
whole province.
He and his wife made their home at Dharmsala. In
the terrible year of the Mutiny, and the anxious and harass
ing months that followed it, Arnold had continually to leave
her and his children in their home in the hills, whilst he
travelled from place to place carrying out his arduous duties,
and carrying them out so well that to this day a gold
medal, struck in honour of his memory, commemorates the
work that he did so faithfully. This medal, three of which
in gold and silver are still given year by year to the best
scholars in the schools which he founded in the Punjaub, is
thus described by one who knew him well : " It bears on its
obverse his likeness in relief, beautifully carved, and convey
ing the precise impression which so fascinated his friends —
a kind of sweet stateliness in accord with the whole tone of
his mind." At Dharmsala, in August 1857, their youngest
child Frances was born, and in the March following the
children's beloved mother died, in the house of friends, in
the hill station of Kangra, before her husband, who was
absent on one of his long tours of inspection, could reach
her side.The earliest memories that Oakeley could recall were
of Dharmsala, of bright scarlet rhododendrons there, and of
the Khud, an abyss down which children's playthings could
be thrown ; memories of tents lighted by a wick floating in
a tumbler of ghee ; of " dhurzis who sat mending our clothes
in the verandah," and of " men who beat wool with sticks
like drumsticks."
In 1859 the four children were sent home to England,
their father bringing them down from Kangra to Calcutta.
Many incidents on that journey through India impressed
themselves indelibly on the mind of the three-year-old
Oakeley. Of Cawnpore he told me, " We were driving with

WILLIAM DELAFIELD ARNOLD 9
Papa in a buggy, a very light sort of gig, when we passed
what I was told was the ' Well of Cawnpore ' — I have had
a perfectly clear and distinct memory of it ever since and of
what it was like, but it was quite unlike any well or any
picture of it that I have ever seen ; for what I saw was a
mound of earth and a square of white planking covering it
in, and railings all round enclosing it." " And long after
wards," he said, " when I described to Lord Roberts just
what I remembered at Cawnpore, he said, ' Yes, that was
what it was like then ' " — the well of the terrible tragedy
had been cleared out and covered over with temporary
planking, and a railing put round it shutting it in. " I
recollect," he went on, " that in Delhi where we stayed with
the Saunders's, there were windows with no glass in them,
and Edward told us that they had been destroyed in the
siege." Some shadows of the dreadful years through which
this country was passing were reflected in these memories of
a little child. " I knew," he said, " that there was some
crisis going on, that there was fighting, and that men were
being killed, and when we saw a show of marionettes who
fired toy guns I wondered dimly if they were not real and
were not part of the fighting that we were told of." He saw
and remembered the lines of native troops drawn up for the
review at Lahore, when the historic proclamation was made
of the assumption of the Government of India by the Queen
of England ; the proclamation which ended the long and
eventful rule of the East India Company, which sealed the
unity of Indian Government, and with which a new era for
India opened.
The children's journey home was made in the s.s.
Calcutta. William Arnold saw them safely embarked at
Calcutta. In March he himself started for home, travelling
by the shorter Suez route, intending to meet his little ones
in England. Worn out and broken by the deep sorrows
and anxieties of the past years in India, he fell mortally
ill before the journey ended, and was landed at Gibraltar, to
die there on April 9, 1859, at the early age of thirty-one.
In " A Southern Night," and in "Stanzas from Carnac "
Matthew Arnold tells the story of this much-loved brother's
journey and death.

10 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
" Ah ! where is he, who should have come
Where that far sail is passing now,
Past the Loire's mouth, and by the foam
Of Finistere's unquiet brow,
Home, round into the English wave ?
— He tarries where the Rock of Spain
Mediterranean waters lave ;
He enters not the Atlantic main.
Oh, could he once have reached this air
Freshen'd by plunging tides, by showers !
Have felt this breath he loved, of fair
Cool northern fields, and grass, and flowers !
He long'd for it — press'd on. — In vain !
At the Straits fail'd that spirit brave.
The south was parent of his pain,
The south is mistress of his grave."
That grave, long afterwards visited by his children and
grandchildren, stands under the shadow of the great north
front of the Rock, where it is tended by reverent hands, and
where the climbing rose geranium blossoms over it year by year.
" William Arnold," wrote his friend, Meredith Townsend,
" did not live long enough to gain his true place in the
world, but he had time enough given him to make himself
important to a government like that of Lord Dalhousie, to
mould the education of a great province, and to win the
enduring love of all with whom he came in contact."
His children made their long journey home round the
Cape, their ship bringing home many sick and wounded
soldiers invalided home after the Mutiny. Long afterwards,
when Oakeley went out to South Africa and was landing at
Cape Town, he told how clear was his recollection of the
Calcutta coming to anchor in Table Bay, and of a gun fired
on shore, which it seemed to the children must be the firing
of the enemy.
They were met at Gravesend by Mrs. Forster, William
Arnold's eldest sister, and were taken by her to Wharfeside,
William Forster's home in Yorkshire; where William and
Jane Forster became henceforward father and mother to the
orphaned children, and where they grew up in the tenderest
atmosphere of love and care.

Oakeley, Edward and Florence Arnold, i860.

WHARFESIDE 1 1
The house at Wharfeside to which the children came,
was added to as they grew older, to meet their needs.
A pleasant, deep-eaved, gabled house, it stands among
tall beech trees and shrubberies, looking across to distant
moors, over the shining stretch of river, where the Wharfe at
its broadest winds among ash trees and meadows. Many
were the changes and additions made to the modest house
which was first built by Mr. and Mrs. Forster when they left
their earlier home at Rawdon.
" To the four children who came from India to their
home on the Wharfe," wrote Oakeley's sister, Florence Vere
O'Brien, " to the ivy-covered house, embosomed in trees,
standing in a garden, bright with flowers and smooth-shaven
lawns ; the original Wharfeside, as it was described to them,
seemed as difficult to picture in imagination as the marshes
of Westminster before London was built. From first to last
the real core and nucleus of Wharfeside, the centre round
which everything seemed to have formed, was the library.
This room was the connecting-link between my father's x old
surroundings and his new ; for its exact proportions and
size, the low raftered ceiling, the dark mahogany bookcases
that lined the walls, were copied, or had been transported
bodily from his library at Rawdon. And the heavy red
velvet curtains, drawn every night across the wide window
that filled up nearly the whole of one wall, were a purchase
of his bachelor days, of which he was not unreasonably
proud. This library was the room of the house. Wharfe
side never possessed a drawing-room, properly so called.
From the first it was in the library that my mother's sofa,
her writing-table, her flowers and books were established,
and this room was the scene of that active joint life, that
perfect companionship in all their plans, occupations, and
interests, which began with those early years of quiet work
at Wharfeside. In later times the library was still the
family room, as might have been seen by the various
tokens of feminine, not to say juvenile, occupations in
truding amongst the piles of newspapers, the letters, Blue-
1 The children were taught to call their adopted parents by the name of
" Father" and " Mother," and hereafter, when these names are used, they refer
to Mr. and Mrs. Forster.

12 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
books, and despatch boxes, which might well have claimed
a monopoly of right to the limited space available in the
small library, the work-room of a busy public man. " But
so long as the sanctity of his writing-table was respected,
my father would cheerfully tolerate this joint occupation
of what might naturally have been considered his special
room, and the pleasant, book-lined library, with its outlook
over river and meadow and distant moor/, was still the
common resort of the family."
Like the home at Fox How from which Mrs. Forster
had come, the house at Wharfeside impressed those who saw
it with its great simplicity. It had no modern or artistic
furnishings, the bedrooms looked rather austerely plain
with their dimity hangings and severe engravings ; but
the presence of books, in every part of the house where
books could possibly find a place, and many pictures on
the walls, made it a very individual and a very homelike
house. Of those who built Wharfeside and made it what it
was, it is difficult to give any description which shall convey
the impression of their personality, or explain the influence
they exerted on their own and a succeeding generation.
Mr. Yarnall, an American writer, who wrote a pleasant
book on Wordsworth and the Coleridges, says : —
" What a vision it is for my memory, that pretty house at Wharfeside,
where I first came to know William and Jane Forster. Never was
there a closer intellectual companionship than theirs ; each, as it were,
supplementing the other ; his rugged strength, his quick mind, his wide
knowledge of books, of men, and affairs. Her keen intelligence, her
grace of manner, her sweet dignity, her tenderness of feeling."
And elsewhere the same writer quotes William Words
worth's charming saying about her, that " in all that went
to make up excellence in women he thought Jane Arnold
was the finest example he knew."
There are few people now who can remember Mrs,
Forster in those early days when Mr. Yarnall first saw her —
"' a young lady, of slight and graceful figure ... in whom
intelligence, refinement, high and pure thought met together
with all feminine charm." There are more friends who will
remember her in her later days, when her face and figure
were worn, and seemed of an almost extreme delicacy and

WHARFESIDE 13
fragility, though the beautiful brow was shaded by hair that
even to the day of her death was still dark and waving.
They remember her slender figure seated on the little sofa,
or on her small low chair, drawn up near the fire at
Wharfeside ; her eyes, sensitive always to extremes of heat
and of light, shaded by screen or fan from the firelight,
or from the afternoon sunshine as it streamed in through
the big window into the library.
Her manner, to which a slight, natural shyness or
reserve gave a little formality at first with strangers, was
gracious and full of charm, especially when the guest she
was talking to was young, or needed himself to be set at
ease. Some of the most interesting of Matthew Arnold's
letters were written to his beloved " K," as he called this
sister, to whose critical judgment he turned for finest
criticism, and for truest sympathy. Only a brief quotation
from one or two of these letters can be given here : —
" My DARLING K — I seem to want to see you and be
with you more than any one when my poems are making
their way, or beginning to make it. You were my first
hearer — you dear K, — and such a sympathising, dear, ani
mating hearer too." 1 " LONDON, Tuesday Morning, April 1856.
" Many thanks, my dearest K, for your extracts. My
poems are making their way, I think, though slowly, and
perhaps never to make way very far. There must always
be some people, however, to whom the literalness and
sincerity of them has a charm. After all, that American
review which hit upon this last — their sincerity — as their
most interesting quality, was not far wrong. It seems to
me strange sometimes to hear of people taking pleasure in
this or that poem which was written years ago, which then
nobody took pleasure in but you, which I then perhaps
wondered that nobody took pleasure in, but since had made
up my mind that nobody was likely to. The fact is, how
ever, that the state of mind expressed in many of the poems
is becoming more common, and you see that even the
Obermann stanzas are taken up with interest by some."
1 This letter is undated, but was marked in pencil by Mrs. Forster, " 1853 ? "

14 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
In a letter to Mrs. Forster, written in 1859, he
writes : —
" My dearest K — . . . I could talk to you a great deal
more about the pamphlet l . . . but I have not time to go
beyond this sheet. You and Clough are, I believe, the two
people I, in my heart, care most to please by what I write.
Clough (for a wonder) is this time satisfied, even delighted.
' With one or two insignificant exceptions,' he says, ' I believe
all you say is probably right, and if right, most important for
English people to consider.' . . . ' The worst of the English
is that on foreign politics they search so very much more for
what they like and wish to be true, than for what is true. In
Paris there is certainly a larger body of people than in London
who treat foreign politics as a science, as a matter to know
upon before feeling upon. . . .' Tell William I should be
very glad if he could find out how either Bright or Cobden
liked my pamphlet. . . . They are both well worth con
vincing. Send Gladstone's note on to Fox How, and with
love to William and kisses to the dear children, believe me,
my dearest K, your ever affectionate M. A."
Mrs. Forster's own great gift of writing was known to a
very small circle of her family and friends. To the brothers,
sisters, and children, of whom she was the constant corre
spondent, her power of literary expression was known to be
no less remarkable than the keen political insight and
understanding of public affairs which was recognised and
appreciated by the wider circle of William Forster's friends
and fellow-workers.
The reflection of the mother's influence upon the son
she loved so dearly may be traced on every page of this
memoir and in all his letters to her. For her birthday in
1893 Oakeley writes: "Every year, during which I am
still permitted to look to .Wharfeside, and to you at Wharfe
side, the head, and guide, and beloved mother, is a gift
added to one's life, of which I think I become every day
more sensible. Round you every bright recollection of the
past is centred, and at the same time your beloved letters
bring me every week the assurance that what you were to
1 " England and the Italian Question, 1859A

WHARFESIDE 15
us all thirty years ago, and twenty years ago, and ten years
ago, you still are. ... We never have a joy or a sorrow
which you do not share with us, and we know and feel that
you do share it. We never have a difficulty in which we
would not have your help before any other. And to me,
perhaps, dearest Mother, the privilege is greater than to
any of the others, for in the rough and tumble, the vulgari
ties, the brutalities of political life, in the many mistakes I
am bound to make, in the vexations which I from time to
time go through, the knowledge that I can turn all my
thoughts towards an horizon where everything is to me
perfectly bright and serene, and to be loved, is a privilege
and a happiness which I cannot exaggerate."
And for another birthday he writes again : " It was
indeed a blessed day, dearest Mother, that began your life,
and to no one, now living, is that life more precious and
more important in all matters of thought, hope, association,
love, and intellect than it is to me. . . ." And this acknow
ledgment occurs over and over again in his letters. Their
correspondence, regular and uninterrupted from his childish
school-days to the last week of her life, was preserved by
both mother and son, and her letters touch on every subject
in which he was interested or on which he was working.
Politics are their groundwork and substance, for her life
had been cast in the world of politics ; but of politics, in the
party sense of the word, it is difficult to find in them even a
trace. She writes to her little boy at school ; and, after
sending him the loving injunctions, the encouragements, and
the warnings that mothers will ever want to send to an
absent child, she tells him, with sure confidence in his
interest, of the last development of the political situation
in France or in Italy, of some Bill before the House of
Commons, of the parliamentary work and political anxieties
and hopes that are filling his father's mind and hers.
Echoes of the great world beyond England fill these
letters which, if printed as they were written, would furnish
a commentary on all the great events that were taking place
in the world. Of England, and her relations to her Colonies,
her relations to other European nations and to America ;
of our responsibility towards native races ; of the grave

1 6 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
anxieties that were looming in South Africa — of all these
she wrote fully and often. And to her early influence, and
to the interest with which she invested such questions,
Oakeley ascribed his constant desire for more knowledge
about the politics, the history, the geography of other
countries, which enabled him to acquire information so
wide and so accurate about foreign affairs.
Underlying all else that she thought and wrote about,
above and beyond her great interest in the world's history,
there was ever the constant thread of deep, spiritual thought
that gives the clue to her whole life. The " things of the
Spirit " were ever present, ever deeply and actively interest
ing to her. Of the life of the soul, its need of God, its
need of the whole Christian armour, she wrote freely and
naturally, because these were realities as present and as
vivid to her as the current events of political and social
history. If his mother's mind and character exercised a deep
influence throughout his life on Oakeley Arnold-Forster, he
owed scarcely less to the father who adopted him and who
stood to him in the closest and most intimate relationship of
affection. William Edward Forster was the son of Quaker
parents, of William Forster, missionary and evangelist, and
of Anna Buxton his wife. The Forster family were among
the earliest followers of George Fox. It is believed that
they came originally from the Yorkshire dales, but they had
settled in Tottenham, and William Forster himself was born
at Bradpole in Dorsetshire. After he became a manu
facturer in Yorkshire, and made his home in the Valley of
the Wharfe, it was often said that he closely resembled,
both in figure and manners, the people of the West Riding
among whom he lived ; and men spoke of him as a " typical
Yorkshireman." " Perhaps," suggested his biographer, " in
his bluntness of speech and his indifference to his personal
appearance, he furnished an example of a revival of the type
of some far-away Dalesman ancestor." Mr. Gladstone,
speaking of him when the political differences between the
two men had been closed by William Forster's death, said
in the House of Commons : " He was a man upon whom
there can be no doubt that nature had laid her hand for the

W. E. FORSTER 17
purpose of forming a thoroughly genuine and independent
character." "A man of great power of mind," wrote a friend of the
Arnold family about the time of his marriage, — " to a great
degree self-educated, frightened of nothing, and willing to
go on boldly and take the consequences of all his thoughts
to a degree that few people will sympathise with. A man
whom every one must respect, even if they abuse him, very
likely to become a great man in the country, and the leader
of the Radical party."
The memoir written by Sir Wemyss Reid gives a fair
picture of William Edward Forster, graphic and full of interest.
It would be very difficult to make any such sketch in a few
pages, because to tell the story of his public life, full and
important as it was, would be practically to tell the whole
story of his times. And there would be much besides to
tell, beginning with his upbringing by his saintly Quaker
parents, his eager youth, the friendships he formed with
the noblest figures in the Society of Friends of his day, with
his uncle Sir Fowell Buxton, the champion of the cause of
the negro slave, with Elizabeth Fry, the reformer of the
conditions of prison life, whose stately presence and thrilling
power Mr. Forster loved to describe.
With something of Carlyle's own power of forcible and
picturesque description, his letters tell of the acquaintances
he forms, and the friendships he makes, in his early middle
life, friendships which included the Carlyles, Monckton
Milnes, Sterling, and Emerson. The diary-letters describing
the visit to him at Rawdon of Jane and Thomas Carlyle are
so pleasant that an extract from them is given here. Part
of the programme of their visit was to include an expedition
to Derbyshire. "Aug. 16, '47. — Past nine in the morning, but no chance of break
fast yet. Carlyle has just informed me from the abysses of his bed he
will be ready in half an hour, and Mrs. C, I am told, has been poorly
all night, so I will catch a chance of beginning a letter. I have been
' spa-ing ' in this distinguished company now for three days. I joined
them at Matlock on Friday morning. I find my company not only
informing, but most pleasant and easy. Mrs. C. like a girl in her
delight in new scenes and situations, and the master uncommonly good-
humoured and accommodating, glad to find any one to relieve him of
C

1 8 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
the trouble of travelling, his general tone a good-natured humorous
sarcasm, but every now and then a burst of furious indignation or a
flash of fiery eloquence.
His pictorial power is wonderful, I should think unmatched. It is
pleasant to see such a mind completely at play, and, moreover, they
have both of them so much real heart and genial kindness about them
that I believe I shall form a genuine friendship with them.
It's little notion of a Sunday they have ; but last evening I deluded
them into a Methody meeting-house, for which I did catch it afterwards ;
it was a sad failure. . . .
We had one rich scene on our journeyings. Determined to see
Buxton properly, we drove to a first-class hotel in the Crescent  a
stylish, comfortless temple of ennui, inhabited by old maids and worn-
out half-pay roue's, and peaked-up parsons, a species of walking white
neckcloths, altogether the most opposite of Carlylean that can be con
ceived. Well, down we went to the table d'hote, self at bottom as last
comer, C. and his wife on one side of me, and a tall, starched, gentle
manly Irish parson, the ruling genius loci, on my left. For a time all
went on easily in silent feeding or low grumbling, till at length Carlyle
began to converse with parson, then to argue with him on Ireland, then
to lose thought of all arguments or table d'hdte, and to declaim. How
they did stare ! All other speech was hushed ; some looked aghast,
others admiring. Of course they none of them had ever heard or seen
any approach to such monster ! We remained incog, the whole time,
spite of all the schemes of the guests, and the entreaties of the waiter
to book our names, and my proposal to Mrs. C. to save our expenses
by showing him at so much a head."
" Aug. 27. — Carlyle and his wife are still with me, and seem to
take to Rawdon kindly ; like the quiet — said quiet being both novel and
refreshing. He is busy sleeping, and declares himself lazy as a lotus
eater. . . .
Monckton Milnes came yesterday, and left this morning. A pleas
ant, companionable little man, well fed and fattening ; with some small
remnant of poetry in his eyes and nowhere else, delighting in paradoxes,
but good-humoured ones ; defending all manner of people and principles
in order to provoke Carlyle to abuse them, in which laudable enterprise
he must have succeeded to his heart's content, and for a time we had
a most amusing evening, reminding me of a naughty boy rubbing a
fierce cat's tail backwards, and getting on between furious growls and
fiery sparks, but managing to avoid the threatened scratches."
"Sept. 6. — . . . The Carlyles left me this morning. . . . His holi
ness and I have got on remarkably well these last few days, quite lovingly,
and before leaving to-day he actually committed some pretty speeches
to the effect that they had reason to be thankful for three pleasant, peace
ful weeks, ' a Sabbath in the mountains,' etc., to which I purred forth a
modest, complacent return of gratitude for their visit, and so we parted.
Mrs. C. has taken off a wild, furious, spit-fire of a kitten, out of
which she has been sedulously and most vainly trying to 'love the
devil,' a la Emerson. She begged me for a name, and so I have sug
gested ' Quack,' as short for Quaker, and emblematic of the giver."

W. E. FORSTER 19
To tell the story of Mr. Forster's life, some account
would have to be given of the causes which moved him so
deeply, and for which he laboured so long: the abolition
of negro slavery, the protection of native races, the need for
a comprehensive national system of elementary education,
and the principal reforms demanded by the Chartists —
although with some of their claims and some of the methods
by which those claims were advocated he disavowed sym
pathy. It was in very early days, when he was still quite a
young man, that he began first to realise vividly the con
dition of the Irish poor. As early as the famine year of
1846, the terrible "Year of the Hunger," Mr. Forster gave
devoted personal service in Ireland itself. Deputed by the
Society of Friends, he journeyed through the country,
alleviating distress in the famine-stricken districts, adminis
tering relief, and calling public attention to the condition in
which he found the peasantry. Speaking afterwards to
Thomas Cooper, the Chartist, he said, " If I had to take a
part in the administration of affairs in this country, I would
strive to accomplish two purposes — to give lasting relief to
Ireland, and to get the children of the working classes out
of the gutter by educating them."
His name will be most clearly remembered in connection
with his Education Bill of 1870. He should be remembered
also as among the very first of our statesmen who saw in
the improvement of our relations with our Colonies the
possibility of a great future federation of the Empire.
Nor should his work as mill -owner and employer be
forgotten, an employer of whom it was said by Ludlow, the
editor of the Christian Socialist, " He was the only mill-
owner whom, at that time, I had ever heard claimed by the
working men as a friend. ... A mill-owner whom the
working men all around love and trust, and take pride in as
a friend, and will have, sooner or later, for their represen
tative in Parliament."
His more public life began with his election to Parlia
ment in 1 86 1 as a member for Bradford. Four years later
he was appointed by Lord Russell to the Under- Secretary
ship to the Colonies. Short as was his tenure of this office,

20 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
it was long enough to lay the foundation of the deep and
constant interest he took in all questions touching our
Colonial possessions, and their relation to the mother-
country. In 1868 Lord Russell's administration was succeeded
by that of Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Forster became Vice-
President of the Council, or, in other words, Minister of
Education in the new Liberal Government. He found him
self in a congenial office, in which he was able to accomplish
part at least of the great educational reform he had longed
to see undertaken. His Education Act gave him a great
opportunity for providing for the establishment of schools
wherever they were needed, " into which should be gathered
the great army of untaught children," which should bring,
he trusted and hoped, " to every child of English birth the
blessings of education," and which might, he hoped, also keep
for them as part of their heritage the teaching of the Bible
in every school.
The opportunity was a great one ; but the storm of
angry discussion and debate which raged round the Bill was
extraordinarily severe. It needed all Mr. Forster's fortitude
and courage to carry it through Parliament as he did, in the
face of the opposition of the representatives of the voluntary
schools and also of the bitter hostility of a large section of
Nonconformists. At the end of a long and exhausting
session the Bill passed through both Houses of Parliament.
After the dissolution of 1874 and the accession of Mr.
Disraeli to power, Mr. Forster was proposed as the successor to
Mr. Gladstone, who had resigned the leadership of the Liberal
party. A meeting of the party was held, when the votes were
evenly divided between Mr. Forster's candidature and that
of Lord Hartington. In a letter, which it was universally
thought did him great honour, Mr. Forster withdrew his
claims to the party leadership and retired in Lord Hartington's
favour. In 1880 Mr. Gladstone returned to power with a great
majority, and Mr. Forster was appointed Chief Secretary
for Ireland. The earnest sympathy with her people which
he had shown in such practical form in 1846 made him the
more willing to take upon his shoulders the heavy burden

W. E. FORSTER 21
of responsibility for the administration of Irish government.
For the two anxious years in Ireland during which Mr.
Forster served as Chief Secretary, Oakeley lived constantly
with his father, working for him and sharing in all his
experiences, his dangers and difficulties.
There is not space within the limits of this memoir to
give more than a very slight outline of the life and character
of William Edward Forster. As soon as Oakeley was old
enough he shared actively in his father's interests, and both
in Ireland and later, when Mr. Forster was working for
Empire Federation, he acted as his father's secretary and
helper. A friendship based on the closest intellectual sympathy
and on deep personal feeling made their relationship as
father and son one of peculiarly affectionate and frank
intimacy.

CHAPTER II
" When each by turns was guide to each,
And Fancy light from Fancy caught,
And Thought leapt out to wed with Thought
Ere Thought could wed itself with Speech.
And all we met was fair and good,
And all was good that Time could bring,
And all the secret of the Spring
Moved in the chambers of the blood."
Tennyson : "In MemoriamA
Schooldays at Exmouth and Rugby — John Penrose — Oxford, and the
Bar — Experiences in Ireland — The Reign of Terror of the Land
League — Attempts to murder the Chief Secretary — Mr. Forster's
Resignation.
When Oakeley was nine years old, he was sent to his
kinsman John Penrose's preparatory school at Exmouth.
One of his first letters written to his mother from school
must have made her smile. After thanking her for various
treasures, he tells her, " We went to Church yesterday, and
they said the Comination, and I was so awfully glad of it,
for the prayer-book tells you such a little about what will
hapen to you if you do wicked things, but only what will
hapen to you if you are good."
Exmouth school was a very well-known one in Devon
and Cornwall, and many Cornish and Devon families such
as Aclands, Bullers, and Tremaynes had regularly sent their
sons to be educated under the able but stern head-mastership
of John Penrose. Accounts ofthe school and of its discipline
vary very much. Some distinguished men, whose earliest
school years were spent there, speak of Mr. Penrose's severity,
and of the Spartan regime which offered few of the amenities
of life. All were agreed that Mr. Penrose was an excep
tional man, and an exceptional teacher of classics and history,
and it is fair to say that many of his pupils, including Oakeley
Arnold-Forster himself, looked back with kindly and tolerant

SCHOOLDAYS 23
memories to the school, and with real affection and esteem
for the able man who conducted it.
The wide sea estuary, over which Exmouth looks, made
bathing a natural resource, and the open moorland behind
the town possessed many attractions for country-loving boys.
Men who were once together at Exmouth School under
John Penrose seem to forgather naturally in after-life, and
to have a hundred old memories to discuss.
In later years, Oakeley certainly kept in touch with
many of his Exmouth contemporaries ; and a number of
letters from his old head-master show the kindly interest
with which Mr. Penrose followed his young kinsman's career
at Oxford, and in the world of politics.
In a letter from Oakeley to his mother, written in July
1888 at the time of John Penrose's death, he says : " It was,
I think, simply owing to Penrose's really fine and sincere
character that we who had to do with him remembered only
the good, and forgot, or, at any rate, never resented, the
rough side of his nature. Besides my feeling of respect to
him as my old master, I must say that his funeral touched
me in another way too, for when I saw him laid in his
grave, I saw the last of one more of that generation which
to all of us younger ones is so utterly above and apart from
the rest of the world. I marked one more gap in that
once complete circle of faces under whose influence we all
grew up. He was not one of the nearest or dearest, but
still he had a share of that quality, I cannot describe,
which every one of us recognises, which we have never seen
elsewhere, and which when all those who have it are gone,
we never expect to see again."
It was a natural sequence for an Arnold to go from
Exmouth to Rugby; and the autumn of 1869 saw him
established in the schoolhouse, under the head-mastership of
Dr. Temple.
The boy's letters to his father and mother tell, as boys'
letters do, of his school's successes in cricket and football,
and of the friends he makes. In a letter to his mother, he
tells her of the delights of the Arnold Library. " I have
made the discovery that I can see the Saturday Review and
the Guardian up at the Arnold Library, as well as the Hall

24 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
papers, so I am as well off here as at home, as regards news,
except for the ' Spec'. ... It is such a place to fall back on,
such lots of good books, and a jolly fire, and carpets, and a
comfortable chair to read in." For the great world of books
was opening itself out to him, and in books, English and
French, his eager mind was finding the food that it needed
and that it delighted in.
A friend who was his contemporary both at Exmouth
and Rugby, and who was grieving for the loss of a dearly
loved father, wrote to me long afterwards of the great sym
pathy and understanding that Oakeley showed him at this
time : —
" We only saw each other occasionally at Rugby, for we were new
boys, and in different houses. One day we were alone together, a
somewhat unusual thing in the case of boys in different houses. I was
in a very bitter and unhappy frame of mind, and I ran away from him,
crying out in a kind of desperate way. I remember that by a kind of
divination, he recognised that I was speaking of my father's death, and
that he knew what I meant by my wild words. He ran after me and
caught me up, and spoke to me with such wonderful sympathy and
understanding, I thought then that his insight and comprehension were
just wizardry. . . .
He exercised a great influence over me, for I had an unbounded
admiration for his intellectual power. I remember how he talked at
Exmouth. Why, he was not then 1 4 ! and how wonderful it all
seemed to me. I daresay you do not think it is possible that I, who
was not 14, any more than he was — was a competent judge that
his conversation was remarkable — but I am very sure that it was re-'
markable, and touched on all kinds of subjects boys at preparatory
schools are little suspected of discussing."
It was unfortunate for Rugby and also for Oakeley's
school life that Dr. Temple's rule came to an end when it did.
Dr. Temple was appointed to the Bishopric of Exeter, and
was succeeded by Dr. Hayman, whose head-mastership did
not tend to keep up the old discipline, or the high tradition
of the school. Mr. Forster was dissatisfied with the new
condition of things at Rugby, and took his son away at an
earlier age than he had intended.
After working with a tutor until he was old enough to
go up to the University, Oakeley matriculated in January
1874, and entered University College, Oxford, where
Dr. Bradley, afterwards Dean of Westminster, was Master,
As is usual with a man who comes to Oxford with a mind

OXFORD 25
receptive, and quick of apprehension, he found himself in a
society and in surroundings which delighted him, in a place
which has attracted and won the love of each succeeding
generation. Oxford, even if her sons criticise her methods, still keeps
her old power, and exerts an incomparable influence over
their lives and thoughts. Her appeal is made by the magic
of her beauty, and by her great tradition, and it is made at
a time of life when men are most sensitive to such impres
sions. Perhaps more than he gained from lectures, or from
the teaching of tutors, Oakeley found in the congenial
atmosphere of college life the mental stimulus that comes
from the talk and discussions of equals, from the clash and
debate of minds young and ardent, from " Education by
mental contact, by mutual stimulation to new surmise, by
the joint voyages that living and glowing minds set out
upon, in the long midnight talks by the fire in college
rooms." l
John Ruskin's influence was just then attracting great
numbers of undergraduates, who were drawn to him by the
singular charm of his personality, by his wonderful words,
and by the glamour of his teaching. His lecture-room was
crowded week by week, and for a while, in order to carry
his teaching into practice, the undergraduates went forth to
the countryside to break up stones, and to construct a road
under the direction of the Master. The young road-makers
used to smile afterwards at the form their discipleship took ;
but they kept a real respect and affection for Mr. Ruskin,
and kept also their belief in the fine and generous ideals
that he taught and upheld.
The reading and study necessary for the History degree
were peculiarly congenial to Oakeley, fitting in as they did
with his natural interests, and with the study of political
and social questions, which were becoming more and more
absorbing to him.
The influences of his home, his father's distinguished
career in the House of Commons, and his own natural
inclinations, all pointed in the direction of a political train
ing and a possible political future. And into the study of
1 E. Montague.

26 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
history and economics, which make a general foundation
and groundwork for political knowledge, he threw himself
with ardour, and read, if not with that exclusive attention
to the subjects for the schools that his tutors advised, yet
with passionate interest, and with lasting profit to himself.
He went in for his degree in 1877, and obtained a First
Class. He loved his University and he loved his college ; and
everything that kept him in touch with Oxford in later
years gave him pleasure. By an omission that he after
wards regretted, he neglected to take the degree of Master
of Arts. When he became a member of the Government
this omission was remedied very happily. A little party of
friends in the House of Commons, who had been contem
poraries at University College, went up to Oxford together,
stayed at their old college, and received their Master's
degree at the hands of their friend and colleague Sir
William Anson.
Another link with his college gave him pleasure. When
the great hall at University College was being restored and
beautified, it was noted that five old members of the college
were at that time Ministers in Mr. Balfour's Cabinet. A
window was placed in the Hall commemorating the names
and the arms of the Lord Chancellor, Lord Halsbury, Lord
Selborne, Lord Salisbury, Mr. Akers Douglas, and Oakeley
Arnold-Forster. The two letters that follow were written by Mrs. Forster
to her son whilst he was at Oxford ; the one when he was
confronted by a " Divinity" examination, and the other just
before he went in for the final schools. " 1876.
, ." I am sorry the ' Articles ' are such a bugbear, my dear
boy. Is it the learning by heart which is difficult? I
should have thought their very quaintness and archaic style
would have made them easy to remember, especially for an
intelligent mind, like I won't say whose, which knows them,
almost every one of them, to be the monuments (not the
entombments, I fear) of old controversies which have in
tensely interested and influenced human beings, occupied
philosophers, divided Churches, and shaken Kingdoms. See

OXFORD 27
how much I could find for you in the Articles ! and then a
clever young Oxonian finds them nothing but a bore.
" However, I would rather you knew the Old Testament
than the Articles. I should like to see the papers they set
you. Farewell, my dearest." "Fox Ghyll, May 1877.
" My dearest Oakeley — I feel sure that you will
employ part of your first Oxford Sunday in writing home ;
and so I shall look with confidence for a letter in the dear
hand upon the breakfast table to-morrow. Without waiting
for that, I, too, am going to devote part of my Sunday in
writing to you — our last Sunday at Fox Ghyll, . . .
" I feel as if it might be a troubled time in Parliament
for father, for I do not see that his news about Eastern
matters will quite satisfy anybody ; and that is a position
which demands some philosophy. However, in the main, I
suppose he and the chief Liberal leaders are agreed, though
they probably all of them will be more disposed than he
will to occupy themselves in recrimination against the
Government.1 The chief good gained from the Conference,2
and its failure, seems to me to be that it finally breaks all
our ancient ties with Turkey, and sets us quite free for the
future. And I hope the first use we shall make of that
freedom will be to keep a vigilant watch upon the conduct
of the Turks in their Christian provinces, and to interfere to
some purpose if it proves that their promises of reform are
a sham. I do not see why we should be hopeless about
their Constitution. That it can work in its present shape,
Kings, Lords, and Commons, I do not believe. But they
have the strongest motives to make it a reality in respect to
just dealing towards the subject races. You must have
been as much interested as we were in the account of their
Grand Council. If one could have forgotten that, instead
of representing the nation it, in fact, represented the
Notables and Pachas — that is, the wolves against the sheep,
— one would have felt that it was the promise of a new day
for Turkey. As it was, it was impossible not to admire the
spirit shown in facing so many dangers for the sake of their
national independence.
1 Mr. Disraeli's Government. 2 The Berlin Conference.

28 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
"You have not lost much by leaving us, for until
yesterday we had had nothing but rain. You never had
the problem of finding out how to dispose of a fine
day ! But I shall not soon forget how well you solved
the problem of disposing of wet ones, by your steady
work ; and it is a greater happiness to me than I can say
to see, in those who are dear to me, this power of steady
and dutiful work, especially in young men, for it is so
essentially manly. How much I hope, my dearest, that
you may have all the success you deserve. We know that
this is not entirely within your own control, and you must
not make your dear self too anxious about it. I may say
this without any danger that you will think I undervalue
the happiness to us as well as to you of success. But,
alongside of my thoughts and hopes about this, have been
clinging to my mind lately the thoughts of that other and
lifelong race between time and eternity which you are
running. What a difference between the two ! In the
race towards the earthly goal, all run, but ' one receiveth the
prize.' In the heavenward race ' so run I, not as un
certainly,' and whereas all earthly judgments are fallible and
partial, here we have to do with an unerring Judge — One
who judges not according to results, but motives. Does not
that assurance encourage and stimulate while it awes our
spirit ? Dearest, in this race, in which we have no choice
but to be runners, good or bad, may you who are setting
out, and I, your loving mother who am nearing the goal,
both of us ' so run that we may obtain.' "
Up to this time the four children adopted by William
Forster had borne only their own name of Arnold. Now,
however, that they were of age to decide, they wished to
bear the name of their adopted father as well. The
necessary steps having been taken, they were henceforward
known by their double name ; but to the end of his
life, to a few of his oldest friends, Oakeley was always
" Arnold," the name they had known him by at school or
college. Oakeley now settled in London to read for the Bar.
He worked in the chambers of Mr. McCall, K.C., passing

EXPERIENCES IN IRELAND 29
his final examinations in 1879. Mr. McCall writes to me
of this time : —
" It was, I think, in 1877 or '78 that he came to read with me. I
was then getting a fairly large practice in small cases in London and in
the Northern circuit. I was greatly struck with the care with which
he got up the cases, and the interest with which he followed them in
Court. I soon after made the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. W. E.
Forster, and was a frequent guest at 80 Eccleston Square. As our
political views were much the same, I greatly enjoyed their hospitality
and the interesting people I met at their house. One of my most
interesting recollections of that time was the part Arnold-Forster took
in conversation with such admirable talkers as Matthew Arnold and the
late Lord Coleridge.
In 1 879- 1 880 he had some work at the Bar, and during that time
he argued several cases for me which I was not able to attend. Away
from my books I am unable to refer to them more particularly, but I
well remember one case in the Court of Appeal at Westminster when
the Lords Justices in giving judgment spoke in high praise of the
power and lucidity of his argument. In the winter assize of 1880 he
came as the Marshal of Lord Coleridge ; this work he enjoyed greatly.
How well I remember him sitting beside the Lord Justice and following
every point in the case. In all that he did he was ever thorough}
He continued to work regularly for me until his father was made
Chief Secretary. His interest in legal work ceased for the time when
he went to Ireland in the stormy days of the Land League. The Chief
Secretary asked me to join him in Ireland, but legal office in Ireland
had no attractions for me, and I watched from a distance the efforts
your brave husband made to bring to the knowledge of the British
people the tyranny and crime of the League. ... I think it was in
the summer of 1884, at a reception at Mrs. Forster's house, that I
heard Charles Russell, Matthew Arnold, and Arnold-Forster discussing
the Irish Question. There were two things to be observed — the
mastery of facts by Arnold-Forster, and the conviction with which
Russell said that no sane statesman could regard Home Rule as a
practical policy."
Work at the Bar came to him in due course, and, after
a time, the briefs, coveted by the young barrister, came in
sufficient number and importance to satisfy him that he
could make his way in his profession. But in the mean
while the development of political affairs took place that
1 "My dear Oakeley," wrote Lord Coleridge in a letter characteristically
graceful and gracious a little later, " I thank you heartily not only for your book,
but also for the thought of our old connection, so pleasant in memory to me, and
which I would fain hope may some day soon be renewed. I shall read your
book with care and interest you may be sure ; with probable agreement and
certain pleasure I am persuaded. — Ever sincerely yours, Coleridge."

30 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
Mr. McCall speaks of in this letter, and for a time changed
the current of Oakeley's work and thought, affecting the
whole of his political life so seriously that it cannot be
briefly passed over. His connection with Ireland and with
official life as his father's private secretary began in the
year 1880.
When the Liberal Government came back into power
and Mr. Forster went to Dublin as Chief Secretary for
Ireland, the opportunity soon came for Oakeley to serve
under his father, and to be of use to him in the heavy task
that lay before him. For the two years that followed he
devoted himself entirely to lightening that burden and to
sharing in his father's anxieties and dangers.
If the story of Mr. Forster's Irish Administration is told
here at some length, it is because these experiences through
which Oakeley lived were of a kind so unusual and so
terrible that they exerted a very strong influence upon him
and upon his career. It is hard to conceive circumstances
more calculated to make an indelible impression on the
mind of a man young and ardent than those under which he
first saw Ireland. He saw his father, to whom he was deeply
devoted, threatened and attacked, his life in constant danger.
Even his mother was not spared. Those who could not
shake the spirit of the Chief Secretary sought to intimidate
his wife by means of letters which threatened Mr. Forster.
When the difficulties and dangers of Mr. Forster's position
thickened round him Oakeley never left his father's side,
but accompanied him on all the journeys that were neces
sitated by the disturbed condition of Ireland, and by the
tactics of the Nationalist party in Parliament.
He saw on the spot the suffering and misery caused to
the poorest and most defenceless of the community — to men,
women, and young girls, by a political tyranny that was alike
cruel and calculating. In 1880 it had already become clear
that the position in Ireland was one of great difficulty. The
winter of 1879 had been marked by something approaching
famine. Distress had intensified the general disaffection ;
and the power of the Land League and the rapidly increas
ing influence of Parnell were alike becoming formidable.
The question that immediately faced the new Government

EXPERIENCES IN IRELAND 31
was whether, in view of the grave and threatening condition
of the country, the existing Coercion Act, which would
expire in the course of a few weeks, should or should not be
prolonged. There was a hope that the prevailing hostility
to the law might be allayed, and the agitation in favour of
Home Rule be modified, by the removal of Irish grievances,
by creating new Land Laws, and by establishing better rela
tions between the two countries. The attempt seemed worth
making, and the Cabinet decided that it would try to govern
the country by means of the ordinary law alone.
As a remedial measure, demanded by exceptional cir
cumstances, Mr. Forster brought in at once a " Compensation
for Disturbance Bill," the practical effect of which would
have been to suspend evictions for a limited period of time.
The Bill, which was opposed by landlords and by the Con
servative party for going too far, and by the Nationalists for
not going far enough, was thrown out by the House of
Lords at the end of the session.
The autumn and winter that followed saw the beginning
of a long struggle waged between Mr. Forster and the forces
of the Land League on the one hand, and between Mr.
Forster and a section of his colleagues on the other. For,
although to those on the spot it had soon become only too
evident that, under the ordinary law, the executive was
powerless to cope with the rising tide of lawlessness, there
was nevertheless a powerful group within the Cabinet which
offered strong opposition to Mr. Forster's demand that
exceptional powers should be granted to enable the Irish
executive to suppress disorder.
Trials of persons guilty of crime and outrage were held
throughout the country during the autumn, but were abortive,
for juries in the south and west simply refused to convict.
The practice of " boycotting " grew up suddenly, and in the
hands of the Land League became a weapon of fearful power.
The boycotted man was, in Parnell's own words, "shunned
in the street, in the shop, in the market-place, even in the
place of worship, as if he were a leper of old." Tradesmen
refused his custom, under pain of being themselves ruined.
If he had servants, they departed. If he went to church, the
congregation rose and left it. Threatening letters came to

32 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
him warning him of his danger ; his cattle were found dead
or mutilated, his barns and stacks were destroyed by fire.
And it was not the well-to-do only who suffered, but still
oftener the poorest labourers and the most helpless women,
who fell under the ban of the Land League, and who were
ostracised and punished. Reports of moonlighting outrages,
of incendiary fires, of cattle-maiming, and attempted assas
sination increased week by week. To those who were of
necessity brought face to face with this suffering, the sights
that they saw, and the reports that were laid daily before
them, were heart-breaking, and never to be effaced from
their memory.
At any cost Mr. Forster was resolved that this rule of
general terrorism enforced by personal outrage should be
brought to an end. His earnest desire to better the con
dition of the country, echoed in the prayer that came from
his very heart that God might indeed save Ireland, was
never divorced for an instant from his determination that
the law must and should be upheld, and that no combination,
however politically strong, or personally threatening, should
be allowed to defeat our paramount duty of giving protection
to the weak and helpless against violence and compulsion.
With all his heart he strove to discover and remove the
causes of the disaffection and distress that he found prevail
ing. But neither that great task, nor the storm of unpopu
larity that met him ; neither the threats of the Land League,
nor the misunderstanding of his own colleagues, made him
swerve in his resolution that, as long as power rested in his
hands, the Government should combat to its utmost the
terrible system of tyranny which was oppressing men, women,
and even dumb animals, who had incurred the displeasure of
the Land League, and were condemned to its cruel and
unrelenting persecution.
In a letter written to his sister Florence in November
1880, Oakeley says: "I am beginning to wonder what
amount of crime undetected and unpunished will be thought
requisite before a Coercion Act is called for. I must say that
the only doubt in my mind for some time has been whether,
granting that you suspended the Habeas Corpus, you would
mend matters. Now, however, that Gladstone says that

IRELAND IN 1881 33
things may become so bad as to make it imperative, I think
it must be assumed that he, at any rate, thinks it would be an
effectual remedy. If that be so, I fail to see in what parti
cular the utter defiance of the law that we see now, can well
become more pronounced than it is. I must say if I really
thought that a Coercion Act would stop the outrages, I
would, for the time being, suspend any constitutional or
other safeguard without a moment's hesitation. ... It
seems to me that for the next six months or so the life and
property of every honest man in the West of Ireland must
simply be at the caprice of any ruffian who thinks them
worth attacking. About a thousand crimes have been
already committed, and it seems only reasonable to suppose
that the number will increase, as the immunity from punish
ment becomes more universal and absolute. That such
immunity at the present time exists to all practical purposes,
seems undoubted ; and I suppose if there is one thing more
certain than that a criminal in the West will be undetected,
it is that he will escape punishment if he be detected. For
a long time I was convinced by the practical argument that
suspending the H.C. would not enable the Government to
punish the right men. I confess I do not think so any
longer, and that being so, I am not so terrified by the
dangers to liberty that the suspension would involve, when
I consider that the only visible form of liberty in Ireland
at present is the liberty to terrorise, to plunder, and to
murder." Parliament met again in January, and a " Protection "
Bill was at once introduced, giving to the Irish Executive
the fresh powers that were required, and empowering the
arrest and detention of persons under reasonable suspicion
of crime. After protracted debates and strenuous obstruction on
the part of the Irish members, the bill became law, and
men were arrested who had organised intimidation, and
who were known to be guilty, but whom no jury of their
neighbours would have dared to convict. The duty which
was thus carried out was distressing in the extreme to
Mr. Forster, who had so earnestly longed to rule Ireland
by methods of conciliation and peace. His life was one
D

34 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
of perpetual harassment and strain. He had to journey
almost every week between Dublin and London, fighting
the Land League in Ireland, and coming back hurriedly
to fight the organised opposition of the Nationalists in
Parliament, which was engaged throughout the session
of 1 88 1 with the intricacies of Mr. Gladstone's Land Act.
The incendiary speeches which were made by Parnell and
by the other Irish leaders, were closely and constantly
followed by outrages, the total of which still grew ; till
in September agrarian crime was higher than it had ever
been before.
" Unless we can strike down the boycotting weapon,"
wrote Mr. Forster at this time, " Parnell will beat us ; for
men, rather than let themselves be ruined, will obey him
and disobey the law."
In October Parnell was arrested and sent to Kilmain-
ham prison, and, closely following on his arrest, the Land
League was proclaimed an illegal association, an association
which had prevented the payment of rent by illegal means,
by intimidation and conspiracy. The meetings were hereafter
suppressed, and its treasurer fled the country hastily with
its funds. If any justification for its suppression were
needed, it would be found in the character of the No Rent
manifesto that it had published and enforced, and in the
character of the speeches made by its organisers, speeches
that were inevitably followed by the crimes which they advised
or palliated. " You, the members of the local Land League,"
said Mr. Biggar, " can use your exertions to get everything
in favour of a person who is charged with such a crime as
shooting a landlord."
The pamphlet called the " Truth about the Land
League," which was compiled and published at this time
by Oakeley, is a collection of facts, speeches, and documents,
relating to the League and its leaders, both in and out of
Parliament. It is taken entirely from documents published
by the authority of the Land League, and the quotations
contained in it are from sworn reports which have been
put in evidence and not challenged. Marshalled as they
are, they show clearly the consistent and systematic doctrine
of this powerful organisation. Its publication brought

EXPERIENCES IN IRELAND 35
home to many readers the real nature of the movement.
It was republished in several editions, but its facts remained
unchallenged ; and that no answer to its charges was forth
coming was in itself a condemnation of the League. But
the gravest condemnation pronounced on the League is
to be found in the weighty and measured words of Mr.
Gladstone :
" We have got before us," he said, " a state of crime
widely extended. Gentlemen would have us to suppose that
this crime is owing to distress in Ireland, that it is owing
to evictions in Ireland. It is evident, by the testimony
afforded by facts, that it is owing neither to the one nor
to the other. . . . With fatal and painful precision tlie steps
of crime dogged the steps of the Land League!'
Journeying through the countryside with one of the
Resident Magistrates, Oakeley was present directly after
some of the murders that took place in the West of Ireland.
He had knelt in the roadside by a dying man who had
been shot down by unknown enemies from behind a hedge
as he drove to Mass, and he went into the homes of many
other victims of the powerful Land League. Accompanying
his father, he was present at the death-bed of a poor man
whose only crime was that he had paid his rent. " I
believe that he had committed that crime," said Mr Forster.
" He thought it his duty to pay. Fifteen or sixteen men
broke into his house in the middle of the night, pulled
him out of bed, and told him that they would punish him.
He said, ' My wife went down on her knees, and said,
" Here are five helpless children ; will you kill their father ? " '
They took him out, they discharged a gun filled with
shot into his leg, so closely that it shattered his leg. It
will dwell with me all the rest of my life," added Mr.
Forster, " and if I can do anything .... I will .... to
prevent these things happening. Whatever hard opinion
you may think of me ... . the time will come when the
Irish people will be thankful they were stopped."
" In Tulla Workhouse," wrote Oakeley to his mother
the same day, " Father visited the poor fellow who was
so brutally attacked the other day. I am afraid he is
dying. It was a painful and dreadful sight, and made

36 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
doubly so by the poor man's pathetic story of the outrage,
of his wife's appeal to the murderers to spare him, and by
his sorrow on behalf of his little children. Father gave
him £10 for his wife, and said a few words to him which
I am sure must have comforted him not a little, and which
indeed touched everybody."
Although some improvement took place gradually in
the general condition of the country after the suppression
of the League, the anger of the extreme members of the
revolutionary party in Ireland, and of the Irish-Americans,
led them to attempt to revenge themselves upon the man
who represented English rule in Dublin. Many facts
respecting the repeated attempts that were made on Mr.
Forster's life only came to light in the trials after the
Phoenix Park murders ; but at the time, the danger that
he was constantly in was well known to Mr. Forster him
self, and to those round him. To Oakeley, and those
others, to whom the life and safety of the Chief Secretary
was so precious, the burden of anxiety, apprehension, and
responsibility was terrible.
Threatening letters came by every post. A Secret
Society was formed in Dublin whose object was " to make
history by the removal of tyrants "• — Mr. Forster being the
first person against whom the conspiracy was directed ; next
to him being Lord Cowper and Mr. Burke.
The evidence of the "informer" Carey and of the
other conspirators, revealed a history, extraordinary to
read, of the hairbreadth and almost miraculous escapes
from assassination that Mr. Forster had made. Plot
after plot was formed to take his life ; all just failed of
success. After several unsuccessful attempts had been made,
Brady and Kelly, the men who afterwards murdered Lord
Frederick Cavendish, lay in wait for him, intending to
assassinate him while driving in his carriage from the Chief
Secretary's Lodge. Warning was to be given of the
approach of the carriage, but the heart of one of the
conspirators failed him at the last ; the signal was not
given, and the carriage and its occupants passed unharmed.
Again fifteen men waited for four successive nights in

EXPERIENCES IN IRELAND 37
Westland Row Station in order to kill him when he
entered the train for Kingstown. Mrs. Forster and her
daughter were recognised — so Carey said — but Mr. Forster
was not there. He had gone down by an earlier train to
dine at the Kingston Yacht Club, and again he had escaped
the murderers' watch.
The following letter was written by Oakeley to his
father a year later, when these facts were publicly disclosed.
"Savile Club, 28.1.83.
" Dear Father — I cannot let the week go any further
without writing a word with regard to the disclosures in
the Dublin enquiries. When I last wrote I had not read
the reports very closely, and I had not realised the whole
bearing of the evidence — indeed, I was under the impression
that when the ' Chief Secretary ' was referred to it was
Trevelyan that was meant. Now that I have gone through
the whole of the evidence in the English and Irish papers
I see that the escape was yours, and it was not the only
one for which we have to be thankful. It is not easy to
say, nor indeed to feel, all one ought, when reading now
of your danger and your preservation.
" The fear was so long present to us all, and to me,
perhaps, as much as any one, all the time we were in
Dublin, that now, when suspicion has become certainty, it
scarcely brings the shock of surprise that would seem
natural. " Nevertheless, I cannot help writing to say how deeply
thankful I am ; thankful, too, that I saw you go through it
all without turning your head an inch one way or the
other ; with a patience and a courage which only we, at
home, can ever really appreciate. It is a lesson I hope not
to be thrown away."
Mr. Forster's time of office was now drawing to a close.
In May 1882, Mr. Gladstone — urged by some of the
members of his Cabinet, and discouraged by the necessity
for the continuous stern repression of crime — -conceived the
idea of making a new departure in his Irish policy. The
negotiations known as the " Kilmainham Treaty " were

38 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
entered upon ; and it was soon decided that Parnell and
the other imprisoned members of Parliament should be
released, on the understanding that they would give their
support in future to the Government. Mr. Forster had in
sisted on certain conditions as being absolutely indispensable
if the release of the prisoners was to be granted. Neither
of the conditions that he considered necessary formed part
of the " Treaty." Mr. Forster realised that his position
was an impossible one, and at once resigned his office.
The unconditional release he looked upon as a surrender
to the law-breakers, a surrender that would make the
government of Ireland impossible. His resignation was
followed with tragic suddenness by the murder of Lord
Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke. The men who had
so often tried to " remove " Mr. Forster, had murdered
his successor, and the Under Secretary who had served
Ireland with such devotion and loyalty.
In a few weeks a Coercion Act containing clauses of
great stringency was passed ; and the country began at
last to understand the reality and seriousness of the dangers,
concerning which he had given such grave and repeated
warnings. It can well be understood that the sights he had
seen and the stories he had heard under circumstances so
tragic burned themselves into Oakeley's heart. It is little
wonder that he should have determined that, whatever
ability he might possess, and whatever opportunity political
life might hereafter give him, all that he could give should
be devoted to helping and defending these men and women,
whose only crime was their obedience to the law of the
land, and their refusal to obey the " unwritten law " of the
League. The debt that England owes to those who have been
loyal to her was a debt he ever recognised, and enforced
with passionate earnestness.
Feeling thus strongly, it was natural that he should
have made their cause his own, the cause of the loyal men
and women in the North as well as of those who were
scattered throughout Ireland.
As the representative for thirteen years of an Irish

EXPERIENCES IN IRELAND 39
constituency, he felt always that he was sent to speak, not
only for the people of Belfast, with whom his relations were
ever so cordial, but also, as far as possible, for the loyalists
in the South and West of Ireland who are wholly unrepre
sented in Parliament.

CHAPTER III
" Forget not yet the tried intent
Of such a truth as I have meant,
My great travail so gladly spent,
Forget not yet." Sir T. Wyatt.
Early Writing — Pioneer work for Imperial Federation — Candidature for
Devonport — Gradual separation from the Old Liberal Party — The
weakness of the Navy exposed — Mr. Stead and " The Truth about
the Navy."
"ARNOLDS seem to write as naturally as they learn to
breathe or to walk," said Sir M. Grant Duff; and, in
deed, the habit of expressing himself by means of writing
came to Oakeley with the ease of a purely natural gift;
to write his thought was with him always the easiest and
simplest means of its expression. No success that any of
his books or writing brought him in later days gave him
quite the same pleasure that he felt when the first article
that he wrote for the Nineteenth Century was accepted in
1 88 i, with a kind message of praise by the able and friendly
editor, Mr. Knowles. This was the beginning of the long
series of articles on various subjects contributed by him to
that review during a period of some twenty-six years. It
was the first also of that still longer series of his writings
on military subjects which, beginning in 1 88 1, ended with
the book on the army, which was published in 1909, in the
week in which he died.
Military and naval questions had from his childhood
interested and attracted him with a fascination not to be
resisted. " I think I must have been a soldier or a sailor,
if I had not been a Quaker," Mr. Forster said once to me
laughingly. As soon as he was old enough, his holidays
40

EARLY WRITING 41
were constantly spent in following military and naval
manoeuvres at home and abroad, visiting dockyards, watch
ing soldiers and sailors, getting to know about them and
their work, and ever reading and learning all that books,
Blue books, and " service " papers could teach him.
His first article in the Nineteenth Century is called " A
Civilian's Answer to Sir Garnet Wolseley." Though written
twenty-nine years ago, neither its arguments nor its examples
seem unfamiliar or wholly out of date ; for the then recent
war in South Africa furnishes the examples from which he
draws the lessons he would enforce, and the difficulties
entailed by the linked battalion system, the evils of drafting
men from one corps to another, to serve in time of war
under officers whom they had neither seen nor learnt to
trust and follow, are some of the points on which he dwells.
They have a familiar ring in our ears even to-day ; and so
has the anxious question that he asks, How far was the
Army Reserve adequate for the immense double task it was
calculated to perform — how far was it a real reser-je at all ?
Other articles that followed " A Civilian's Answer " in the
Nineteenth Century were on " Proportional Representation."
a subject which had always a great attraction for him ; and
two on the subject of " Outcast London " and " The
Dwellings of the Poor." These were the fruit of work on
which he was for a considerable time engaged with Miss
Octavia Hill, and to which he gave much of his leisure tine.
investigating the material conditions under which the very
poor live in London, and especially the conditions of their
housing. These articles give a brief and practical summary of the
existing laws and machinery which provided for the repair
ing, pulling down, and replacing of insanitary houses, and
the clearing of unhealthy areas ; and a summary of the
powers already given by law to compel owners of insanitary
dwellings to put them and keep them in habitable condition.
The creation of Sanitary Vigilance Committees is advocated.
to put the existing law into operation : " Committees which
would further and consolidate the isolated efforts of solitary
workers among the poor." ..." Society," he adds, " scarcely
knows how much it owes to the silent labours of the

42 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
personal friends of the poor. To keep in actual touch in
some way, however slight, with the life of the poor, ought
to be the constant aim of any public man who attempts to
legislate for their wants."
A small booklet that he wrote at this time, summarises
in simple language the legal aspect of the question. In a
practical form, easily accessible to workers among the poor,
it was published by a Committee on which he served, which
included among its members Lady Burdett-Coutts, Miss
Octavia Hill, Lord Shaftesbury, and Canon Barnett. Com
mittees such as those advocated were afterwards adopted
with signal success in many large towns.
The ideas expressed in these articles, and the experience
that he gained in the East of London, led to his connexion
with a Working Boys' Club in Whitechapel, which he helped
to establish and to carry on. Some years previously, whilst
he was still an undergraduate at Oxford, his sympathy with
social work led him to spend one of his long vacations in
Liverpool in the company of two Oxford friends who were
preparing to go out to missionary work in Africa. The
three young men lived together in one of the slum districts
of Liverpool, and worked there among the very poor ; part
of the vacation being spent by them in the Infirmary, where
Oakeley shared with his friends their preliminary nursing
and ambulance training.
In a letter to her sister written at this time, Oakeley's
Aunt Susy (Mrs. J. W. Cropper) speaks of this experience,
to him a novel and a sad one, which brought him for the
first time into close contact with the misery of a great city.
" You will like to hear that dear Oakeley appeared
yesterday while we were at tea, having come to Liverpool
on Friday. It was hard to talk to him as he is so reserved,
and yet it was unnatural not to talk of his occupation here.
... I was rejoiced to find that he and his two friends are
sent to Mr. E.'s parish, and that Oakeley likes him very
much. I found out how he is filling up his time, and very
beautiful it is to see such a life chosen voluntarily by a
young man, even for a month or two, when he might be
taking holiday, like all his friends and relations. . . .
Yesterday morning he went to Mr. E., who talked over with

Oakeley and Rob. 1883.

SOCIAL SERVICE 43
him the work for the week, and then committed him to the
Scripture Reader, who took him through the parish, and
Oakeley seems to have been very much impressed with all
the misery that he saw. He went through the streets lead
ing down from behind Bold Street to the river, and there
these young men are to visit, and to spend their days.
When I asked Oakeley if he could not always come out to
tea with us, he said that he should not be able to, as he was
going to visit in the evenings when the men would be at
home from work. On this hot day, when every one is
thinking it too tiring to walk, and finding shady places even
in this cool, fresh Dingle, I have thought so often of him in
his self-imposed task, spending all its hours visiting in those
courts and crowded rooms in the poorest streets. (He seemed
very anxious not to be talked about.) "
The volumes of the Nineteenth Century for the years
subsequent to 1881 form a guide to which, when trying to
write this account of Oakeley's busy life and its many
activities and interests, I have constantly to turn for reference ;
for the articles that he wrote were always the expression of
the thing that was filling his mind at the moment, and their
dates mark the sequence of the ideas that possessed him,
and of the work upon which he was engaged.
In the volume for 1883, there is an article entitled " The
Liberal Idea and the Colonies," which throws light upon the
beginning ofa movement which was rapidly becoming, both for
him and for his father, one of paramount importance. The
idea of a closer union between this country and the Colonies,
and the possibility of a future federation of the Empire, was
not then the matter of general interest and wide acceptance
that it has since become. These ideas were strongly held
by a few men ; but to many they were unwelcome, and to
still more they were unknown and unfamiliar.
Among the great services that Mr. Chamberlain has
rendered to his country, perhaps the greatest has been the
work that he has done in the past ten years in bringing
this thought of a common Empire, the inheritance of
ourselves and of the Colonies, within the beliefs of us
all, and in making this ideal understood and desired
by the man in the street, as well as by the student and

44 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
by statesmen of the two great political parties. The
very language in which he clothed these ideas has passed
into the vocabulary of common use, and the knowledge
and love of the Empire of which we are citizens has be
come a part of our children's education and heritage. It
was truly a great and memorable service to have rendered.
In more than one of his speeches to great audiences of his
fellow countrymen on the subject of their Empire and their
responsibilities, Mr. Chamberlain reminded those to whom
he spoke that though there are many now who believe in it
and work for it, the ideal of a great federated Empire had
been conceived and helped forward twenty years previously
under great difficulties, at a time when the conception met
with scorn and unpopularity, by a little group of men, among
whom William Forster was foremost. Many may follow
after them, now that the roads are made, but to those men
who first saw the way and made it clear, the honour of
having been the pioneers is due. These were the members
of the Imperial Federation Committee, of which Mr.
Forster was the first President, Lord Rosebery the second,
and to which Oakeley Arnold-Forster acted as honorary
secretary. It was no easy task that lay before this little group.
The ideas, which are the property of us all to-day, were not
only new, but were very little liked, and were often scorned in
1883. It was a matter of common knowledge that opinion
among advanced members of the Liberal party was strongly
averse to drawing any closer the connection between our
selves and the Colonies. It was no rare thing to hear it
said, when difficulties arose between the Colonies and this
country, that to '' cut the painter " might be no bad solution
of the whole difficult problem. It is a solution which no
serious politician would care to propound to an audience
to-day. Oakeley's article on the " Liberal Idea and the Colonies "
begins with an argument which we may trust is not now
needed : that " Separation from the Colonies is not part of
the true Liberal idea " ; that it is, in fact, diametrically
opposed to that idea, rightly understood, and that a closer
drawing of the bonds between us ought to be a prominent

IMPERIAL FEDERATION 45
part of a Liberal programme, and ought to be supported by
the popular party.
" Whether the future of the English race is to present the picture of
a score of separate nations, with different and conflicting interests and
divergencies every day extending, or whether it is to be the record ofthe
gradual and harmonious growth of an Empire undivided, and without
cause for division, depends almost wholly upon the spirit in which the
future is regarded by the leaders of opinion in this country at the
present time. As long as we are content to heap up objections, and to
magnify difficulties, nothing can be done. The people of England must
make up their minds that they wish to share in the great future which
is in store for their race, and must let it be known that such is their
wish. The spirit and ambition of the country are not dead. The
people of England will not be, and ought not to be, content unless they
possess some great and absorbing ideal outside the immediate round of
their material existence. ... It is hard to conceive a more fitting
opportunity for rightly directing national pride, the justifiable belief of
Englishmen in the capacities of their race, than is offered by the accept
ance of a rational and consistent policy having for its aim the federation
of the Empire. . .
In conclusion, why should we, and we alone, shun a consummation
which every other nation in the world is striving to attain ? . .At
present we are in great danger of throwing away that which every
other nation of Europe is striving, with blood and treasure, with suffering
and sacrifice, to obtain — namely, the union of members of a kindred and
sympathetic race."
A few days after his death there appeared in the
columns of The Times the following account, written by
Dr. Parkin, of Oakeley Arnold-Forster's share in the pioneer
work of Imperial Federation, which summarises his services
more fitly than any other words can do.
" Sir— The extraordinarily wide range of activities which filled the
strenuous life of the late Right Hon. H. O. Arnold-Forster, and his
prominence in questions now under keen debate, sufficiently explain an
omission in the otherwise admirable sketch of his career given in your
columns of the 13th instant. That omission should, however be
supplied. His association with the Right Hon. W. E Forster in
founding, m 1884, the Imperial Federation League, a body which in its
less than ten years' active work, has been said by one of the highest
journalistic authorities in this country to have 'shifted the mind of
England ,n regard to colonial affairs, engrossed for a long time his
best thought, and profoundly affected his whole subsequent career
With the late M. Labilliere, he was hon. secretary of the conference
thf 1 JUff /8i4, £ ^ men fr°m different Parties determined
that an effort should be made to overcome public ignorance on
the great problems of the colonial Empire. He was chiefly instrumental

46 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
in preparing the report of that conference and distributing it in every
part of the Empire. When the league was formed in the autumn of the
same year, he became a member of the council and of the executive
committee, and for years afterwards, both while Mr. Forster lived and
later under the presidency of Lord Rosebery and the Hon. Edward
Stanhope, he laboured constantly by tongue and pen, and with a
wonderful variety of knowledge and literary resource, to forward the
work of the league and promote an understanding of colonial problems.
Later, in his position as a director of Cassell & Company, he gave
special attention to the publication of books intended for popular educa
tion on national questions, sparing no time or thought, as I have reason
to know, in making them efficient instruments for creating an intelligent
Imperial patriotism. If the influence of these books is to be measured
by their large sale, then Arnold-Forster's work must be reckoned among
the principal forces which have brought Empire problems to occupy a
foremost place in our national politics. The influence of those earlier
years has been evident in all his later work ; and his profound belief in
the Empire and his intense anxiety for its welfare probably best explain
the vehement energy and even asperity with which he combated what
he believed to be ignorance of its vital problems.
When the brusque manner which sometimes exposed him to
criticism, but which covered one of the tenderest natures I have ever
known, has been long forgotten, the far-sighted patriotism of this
singularly gifted man will, I am convinced, be recognised more and
more as time goes on. — I am, sir, your obedient servant, Geo. R. Parkin.
March 19, 1909.''
With an equally close knowledge of the work done in
those early days, his friend Sir John Colomb also wrote : —
"As one ofthe four or five men, nearly all of whom are now dead,
who induced Mr. W. E. Forster to initiate and lead that movement, and
as a participator in the subsequent work of organising it under the
name of the Imperial Federation League in 1884, I crave a small
space to refer to this phase of Arnold-Forster's manifold activities.
The corporate existence of that league was short — it dissolved itself
in 1893— but the nature of its aim and the character of its work
accomplished more, and in a shorter space of time, than any one of its
originators anticipated. But in order to appreciate the real value of the
labours of Arnold-Forster in relation to that movement, it is necessary to
remember things as they were in 1884 and as they are now in 1909.
An attempt to change the direction of public opinion as it was in
1 883- 1 884 towards things Imperial seemed then almost a hopeless
undertaking. Many politicians and publicists curtly dismissed the idea
as a ' silly fad.' Had it not been for the sagacity and courage of that
great man, W. E. Forster, who guided its counsels, happily combined
with the marvellous activity of his adopted son, Arnold-Forster — a first
honorary secretary of the league — the attempt which succeeded must
have hopelessly failed. To the memory of these two men belongs the

1883 47
honour of that achievement, and its measures should be apportioned by
reference to the results which that movement produced.
These may be summarised thus. Leading men of both political
parties at home and prominent representatives of the colonies were first
brought together for the definite and distinct purpose of proclaiming the
necessity for closer union between the several self-governing communities
within the Empire. This was phenomenal then ; and as a result the
attitude of both political parties towards the colonies changed. The
trend of public opinion was diverted into a new channel. By enlarging
the scope of the political purview and by creating a wider sense of
duties and responsibilities, British communities — geographically far
apart — approached each other with new sympathy and revived hope.
Then and thus was a new spirit of rational Imperialism born. All that
has happened since has been but the natural development of its
inherent power and a widening of the sphere of its influence.
To the energy, the extraordinary knowledge, and, above all, the
sincerity of purpose of Arnold-Forster the credit of the success of that
movement in 1884 is most largely due. While to-day on every side we
see the beneficent results, the conspicuous part he played in promoting
their originating cause ought not to be forgotten. — Yours obediently,
John C. R. Colomb.
Carlton Club."1

Later in this memoir reference must often be made to
the subject of Imperial Federation ; for the conception lay
at the root of all Oakeley's ideals for his country and her
future. " First build your castles in the air, and then lay the
foundations under them " was Mr. Ruskin's message, as it is
the substance of the " Master Builder's " philosophy. Mr.
Ruskin's words spoken to his students at Oxford were never
forgotten by Oakeley, and they give the key to much of his
work and thought. To help to build the firm foundations
necessary for the great structure of his national ideals and
vision was ever his desire, and was the thing at which he
aimed throughout his life ; whether he were writing books
to teach citizenship to children, or whether he were studying
problems of national economics, or questions of national and
Imperial defence.
In the summer of 1883 Oakeley accompanied his father
1 Sir John Colomb's death, which occurred very soon after this letter was
written, in the spring of 1909, removed another of that small band of men whose
services were given ungrudgingly to the cause of Imperial Federation from the
inception of its idea. His life was one of devotion to a high national ideal and
his political career was given to Imperial rather than to party causes.

48 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
on a journey to the East of Europe, which took them, after
visiting the Greek Islands, to Athens, to Constantinople, and
to the Balkan provinces. Mr. Forster's love of travel and
of studying for himself on the spot the social conditions of
other countries, had given to his children, as soon as they
were old enough to be his companions on these journeys,
rare opportunities of seeing a great part of Europe.
Oakeley shared his father's love of travel, and throughout
his life it was almost the greatest of his pleasures.
Hungary and the Carpathians had been visited once —
Switzerland and France often ; they had made a journey
through Russia and had visited the northern capitals in
1882; and in 1883 they made this Eastern tour, and
travelled in the Balkans. Amongst other experiences they
were hospitably entertained by Prince Alexander, who was
still occupying the somewhat shaky Bulgarian throne, and
were enabled to study on the spot, and with the help of
M. Stoiloff and other ministers, the conditions of education,
and the reforms which were being set on foot in the prin
cipality. Their experiences furnished the substance of an
article by Oakeley in the Nineteenth Century on the Balkan
Provinces. Besides his articles in the Nineteenth Century, his literary
work at this time included the political editorship of the
Statist, to him a very pleasant and congenial post. He wrote
the political leader that appeared every week in the paper ;
and it was only the pressure of other work that compelled
him in 1886 to give up a connexion and work that he liked
so much. The active life of the political world and of the House
of Commons could hardly have failed to make a strong
appeal to him. The appeal was, indeed, an almost irresist
ible one, and to share in the strenuous activities and oppor
tunities of the life in which his father was engaged was his
constant desire ; although his father's wise counsels dissuaded
him from embarking upon it too early, and until his way
had been fairly made in his profession. One or two invita
tions came to him from constituencies in 1 879-1 880; but
were declined.
In 1 88 1, his father, writing to thank a friend who had

THE LIBERAL PARTY 49
conveyed such an invitation from the Liberal party at
Oxford, says : —
" My DEAR H. — I have been carefully thinking over
your letter about Oxford and Oakeley, and I have talked to
him about it, and he agrees with me that we ought not to
entertain the proposal, tempting though it be on many
accounts. I feel that going into Parliament now would be
fatal to his professional success, though if he gets on at the
Bar, this might not be the case a few years hence.
" He feels himself that he ought to be earning his own
living, and though he would be a great political help to me,
I doubt whether in the present commercial depression I
could rightly face the additional expenditure. I can, there
fore, only thank you for your real kindness in the matter,
and beg you to inform your Oxford friends that I feel their
thinking of Oakeley at all as very flattering, and very
pleasant both to him and to myself."
A year or two later an invitation from Devonport was,
however, accepted, and, after addressing meetings in the
constituency, Oakeley was adopted as one of the two Liberal
candidates for the Borough. To represent a great naval
port was in itself no small attraction to him, and the kind
ness of his West-country friends, and their cordial reception,
made the time of his candidature a pleasant one. His
speeches dealt chiefly with questions of naval, military, and
colonial policy, very little with party questions.
But his position as a member of the Liberal party,
though it had come about naturally, and was the outcome
of inherited beliefs, accepted at first without grave question,
could not have lasted very long ; his allegiance was daily
becoming more strained. Perhaps he was almost uncon
sciously affected by his father's somewhat difficult position
in the party ; in any case, on the question of Home Rule,
Oakeley's separation from it must have come about shortly
afterwards. It actually came about on the question of the
Egyptian policy of the Government, and the war in Egypt
which led to the disasters of 1884, and to the sacrifice of
General Gordon.
In some of his first speeches, and in one of the last that
E

So HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
he made in Devonport, he deprecated that policy, and con
demned the conduct of the war. His articles in the Statist
were a strong condemnation of the want of a definite and
constructive Egyptian policy on the part of the Government.
He wrote at the same time to the Liberal Committee thank
ing them for the unvarying kindness and cordiality shown
to him, and definitely resigning his candidature.
" In one of my earliest speeches in Devonport," he wrote,
" I regretted our having set foot in Egypt. I regret it still.
But in the interval we have, it seems to me, placed ourselves
under the absolute necessity of undoing some of the harm
that we have brought about," and he concluded, " were I
your member, I should feel it my obvious duty to try and
persuade my constituents to adopt my views on a matter on
which I feel so strongly. As a candidate, I think my duty
is to avoid any step which may weaken or divide the party."
From the time when the Government resolved on the
abandonment of the Sudan, and sent Gordon to Khartum
to carry out the operation, their policy of hesitation estranged
many other Liberals, who, like Oakeley and his father, con
demned their delays, and their shrinking from responsibilities
and obligations because those obligations proved to be
arduous and costly.
When Gordon's life and our national honour seemed to
them alike endangered, they were unwearied in their efforts
to arouse public feeling before it should be too late ; and the
tragic death of Gordon came to them with all the weight
of a great and bitter personal grief.
In a letter, in which he explains the reasons which led
him to resign his membership of the Westminster Liberal
Association ; the Government's policy in Egypt, and the want
of any constructive Liberal policy towards the Colonies and
the Empire, are the points of difference that he dwells upon.
" I still hold very strongly what I have always been
taught to consider Liberal views ; but I cannot find anything
in Liberalism, as I understand it and have learned it, which
makes it a duty to support a Government which seems to
be unable to conduct the everyday business of the country
with success and dignity. At present it seems to me it may

THE LIBERAL PARTY 5'
only be a matter of time before this Ministry estranges the
Colonies and possibly fools away the Empire."
In letters written to me1 some little time later, but
before our marriage, he defines his position more clearly : —
" I do not think we need agree to differ about our politics
at all. I believe you are not a bit more radical really than
I am. Only I do not find a proper expression of my views
as to what is ' radical ' or ' liberal ' in any particular set of
formulas, still less in the set which for some mysterious
reason has for the moment become associated with the
so-called Liberal party. I believe that, apart from questions
of administration, which involve special and elaborate know
ledge, political matters generally should be approached from
the outside ; that a political problem should be dealt with
by the light of all the knowledge, the experience, the modera
tion, the forbearance, the romance which have accumulated
in a man's mind during his whole life. I believe that directly
you get to phrases like that elaborate lie, ' Liberty, Equality,
and Fraternity,' you are lost. I don't mean that there are
not principles in politics, but I do mean that they are not
special principles applicable by rule of thumb to certain
questions of legislation and administration. As to the main
principles of Liberalism, the perfect acquiescence in the
equality of all men until they show that they are more than
equal to their fellows, I am certain I go quite as far as you
do ; and unearned privileges seem to me detestable."
To the Same.
" With what you say about G  opposing his party,
I do not quite agree. To talk about supporting any parti
cular set of men just now, simply because they call themselves
the Liberal party, seems to me a mistake. It is a mere
truism to say that that party is kept together by no prin
ciple whatever ; and that there are scarcely fifty members in
it who, apart from the vaguest generalities, are agreed
either as to means or ends. To use a logical phrase the
1 Letters to Mary Story-Maskelyne.

52 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
term Liberal party connotes nothing just at present, except
the fact of sitting on one side of the House of Commons.
" Surely anybody five years ago, who could have fore
seen the amount of misery, and hopeless, pointless suffering
that the Gladstone Government was about to inflict upon the
world, and its absolute failure to do good, would have used
all his energies to prevent its coming into power. And so,
if G — — thinks that one particular section of the so-called
Liberal party is likely to do harm instead of good, I think
he is bound to try and prevent the harm being done.
" As for me, I wish the names Liberal and Tory were
both at the bottom of the sea, and then we could start
afresh, and begin to judge men and policies, not by virtue
of the particular catalogue in which they are placed, but by
the light of their conformity with honesty, reason, and
common sense."
Side by side with the question of Imperial federation,
and inseparably linked with it, the subject of the Navy was
becoming every year of more and more absorbing interest
to Oakeley. The growth of the Empire since our last naval war, the
responsibilities forced upon us by its magnitude, the new
problems entailed by the necessity of giving protection to
our Colonies, to our sea-borne commerce, and to the ships
that bring us our food, were equally Imperial and Naval
problems. His deep love for the Navy was a thing innate in him,
his knowledge of it was already a matter, not of second
hand information, but gained by constant visits to the ships
themselves in every stage of their construction and when
afloat. The worth of what he wrote and said about our
fleets lay in the fact that he had always been to see for
himself that which he spoke or wrote of.
An accurate memory, combined with great industry and
love for the subject, gave him by degrees a store of know
ledge that he acquired and used much as a great reference
library is collected and used, volume being gradually added
to volume, and every one being known to the owner. It
has been said that every one has an exceptional memory

LOVE FOR THE NAVY 53
for one subject. Oakeley's memory for ships and for every
detail about them seemed like a special sense or faculty ; it
was in truth a special faculty highly developed by a great
capacity for taking pains.
The history even of ships which had passed out of the
fighting line, the story of the names they bore, and of the
still older ships after whom they were called, had all entered
into his reading and into his imagination, and were never
forgotten. But the most valuable part of his knowledge was
that which he learned on board the ships themselves, making
himself as familiar with their construction and armaments as
he was with the walls and furniture of his house, and study
ing every detail of engines and machinery with all an
engineer's love of their mechanics.
The following letter may perhaps be quoted here, for,
though it was written at a later time, it is extremely char
acteristic of the way in which, all his life, he was accustomed
to learn his facts and get his experience.
To his Mother.
" I got back last night from a short visit to Plymouth,
whither I had been compelled to go on business.
" I need hardly tell you that I found my way to the
dockyard, and spent much of my time among the ships. I
also had a special experience which is of great value to me.
I went out to the Eddystone in one of the new torpedo-boat
destroyers. I had been in boats of the kind before, but
never under service conditions, and at sea. A portion of
the time I spent in the stokehold, a rather thrilling per
formance. You go down through a small steel trap-door in
the deck and find yourself in darkness in a small iron-walled
chamber with the dim figures of five grimy men moving
about in the narrow space. A fan is revolving at a high
speed above, and driving down a torrent of air, till the
pressure is equal to the weight of 3^ inches of water — some
thing very powerful, I assure you. Every now and then
one of the four furnaces is opened, and the whole place
glows fiercely while the fire is being stoked ; then darkness
again, the rushing of the fans drowning every sound.
Getting on deck again was a serious business. The moment

54 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
the hatch is opened there is a fierce upward gush of the
highly-compressed air, and it seems as if one were going to
be blown right up into the sky like the cork of a soda-water
bottle. I was dressed in high sea-boots, a borrowed coat
and a ' sou'wester ' tied under my chin. This last was lifted
right up above my head, and indeed nearly went overboard.
I need hardly say that I came up as black as a tinker, and
have had the greatest difficulty in getting the fine coal dust
out of my hair and clothes. But the experience was useful,
though not exactly pleasant. We steamed over 23 knots,
and those who do not know what a closed stokehold is like
under these conditions should not talk about it. The reason
that the stokehold is in darkness is that the oil-lamp will not
burn in the forced draught, and the Admiralty will not go to
the expense of putting in electric lights. This is a great
mistake. The work is very trying, and in action the situa
tion would be terrible. It is essential that the men should
have confidence in their chief and in each other, but such
confidence is scarcely to be maintained when the aids of
gesture, expression, and demeanour are all lost. I am going
to try and get this matter set right if I can."
His first article on " Our Position as a Naval Power"
appeared in 1883. Its text is furnished by Mr. Gladstone's
speech in 1878, which laid down the formula that "The
strength of England is not to be found in alliances with
great military Powers, but is to be found henceforth in the
efficiency and supremacy of her navy — a navy as powerful
now as the navies of all Europe."
The text is a striking one with its assumption of the
necessity of our absolute naval supremacy. The contention
of the article, supported by facts and figures, is that Mr.
Gladstone's estimate was too sanguine in 1878, and alto
gether inaccurate in 1883. That the relative strength of
our Navy as compared with the navies of other Powers was
not (in 1883) what it used to be ; but that, when we pass
from relative strength to actual efficiency for doing the work
entrusted to it, the want of available strength is in truth
alarming. Recalling the enormous extension of our Colonial
possessions and dependencies since the last occasion of our

OUR POSITION AS A NAVAL POWER 55
being engaged in maritime war, and summarising the gigantic
additions to our sea-borne commerce which have resulted
from the increase of our territory, he contends that, relatively,
the fleet of 1882-3 was far weaker than that of 1806. Yet
since 1806 the work which the Navy, and the Navy alone,
must perform has been increased literally a hundredfold, and
the conclusion of the matter is summed up briefly in the
plea to " Increase the Navy." x
" It will be answered that to increase the Navy requires
additional expenditure, and that the country is not willing
to add to its maritime budget. But this is not the fact ; or,
if it be the fact, it has not hitherto been proved to be so.
The question of the Navy has always been considered a
question outside the scope of party politics, and rightly so.
There is not a politician or elector in the country who is
not perfectly aware of the vital importance of preserving
an absolute superiority at sea in all events." *
" If those in authority can fairly say to the public : The
Navy is so strong and efficient that under no circumstances
could it fail to render the services required of it — the public
will be content, and will refuse to spend more money upon
it than it does now. If, on the other hand, this pledge
cannot be given, it is contrary to all experience to believe
that the country or Parliament would refuse any additional
outlay which was shown to be necessary to insure the
required degree of efficiency. The question still remains,
whether, even with the contemplated additions, the Navy is
likely to be sufficient as well as efficient. If it is not, we
are in danger of losing not prestige merely, not the barren
glory of an acknowledged naval supremacy, but the very
life-blood of our national existence. To fall short of an
absolute command of our ocean highways means that we
shall find ourselves face to face with war premiums of 50
per cent, the stoppage of our food supply, and scarcely less
important, the stoppages of our supplies of raw material.
Panic, disorder, suffering, starvation among our overcrowded
population will bring home to us with painful clearness the
error we make in neglecting to maintain a sufficiently
powerful, and, above all, sufficiently numerous Navy."
1 " Our Position as a Naval Power," Nineteenth Century, 1883.

56 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
The naval situation, which had seemed to some civilians,
and to many naval officers, to be grave in 1883, was
yet graver in the following year. No real increase had
been made to our naval strength ; our coaling stations
were still unprotected, our fleets were still unprovided with
modern guns, or with torpedo equipment. And though
many naval men knew and deplored the dangerous in
sufficiency of our fleets, nothing seemed likely to rouse the
Government of the day from their indifference, or to wake up
the country to a sense of the real danger that was being
incurred. Lord Northbrook, the First Lord of the Ad
miralty, actually made the famous declaration from his place
in the House of Lords in May 1884, that if Parliament
were to give him a supplementary naval vote of two
millions he would not know how to spend it, so complete
did he consider was the preparation for war made by his
department. The charge against the responsible authorities formulated
by Oakeley, and briefly put is as follows : " That successive
Governments, and more particularly the Admiralty officials
acting under the authority of those Governments.have exposed
the Empire to the greatest conceivable danger — a danger to
which it is at this moment liable. . . . That being charged
to maintain a naval force adequate to the paramount needs
of this country, they have brought us to a condition of
doubtful superiority to a single European power. . . . That
our ships are totally insufficient in point of numbers, and
inadequate in point of construction, while our guns are for
the most part utterly obsolete in any service but our own.
That, being the trustees of the great Colonial Empire won
by our predecessors, they have deliberately refused to take
ordinary precautions for its defence. And, lastly, that,
having at their disposal the finest material in the world,
they have failed to provide us with an adequate personnel
for manning the fleet in time of war."
Hardly three weeks after the publication of this article
in the Nineteenth Century} Parliament, which had been
repeatedly told that nothing more was required or would
be asked for the Navy, was asked to sanction an ex-
1 " The People versus their Naval Officials," Nineteenth Century, 1884.

OUR POSITION AS A NAVAL POWER 57
penditure of three and a half millions sterling in addition
to the ordinary vote, to make good deficiencies in H.M.
Navy. In February, an alarm arose of a possible war
with Russia. In the May following, a further vote of three
millions was taken; and both these additions were sup
plementary to a large increase in the ordinary naval
estimates. What had happened to rouse up the Government to a
sense of danger and to the deficiencies in the service?
Briefly, what had happened was this. " In the autumn of
1884 the accusations of the past were formulated, not as
hitherto in professional journals, in scientific meetings, in
private official remonstrances, but in a penny newspaper.
It was left to the enterprising and vigorous editor of a
daily paper to create a new departure in a matter of vital
and national importance."
What no professional remonstrances or appeals could
do, a vigorous agitation in the Press effected, and to Mr.
Stead, the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, this great
revolution in naval affairs was largely due. The part
played by the Pall Mall Gazette may be told in Mr.
Stead's own words.1

THE REBUILDING OF THE BRITISH NAVY
Mr. Arnold-Forster's Appeal
"At the beginning of the year 1884, the naval power of England
had sunk to its lowest point. It is difficult to-day, exulting as we do
in the consciousness of the restoration of our naval strength, to realise
the absolute despair which had fallen upon the best men in the British
Navy in the third and fourth years of Mr. Gladstone's Administration.
It was the second year of my editorship of the Pall Mall Gazette, when
1 Mr. Stead, in a letter to Oakeley, accompanying the Review of Reviews
for July 1897, said : " I am sending you by this post a copy of the new number
of the Review of Reviews, in which I tell the story of the beginning of the
rebuilding of the Navy. As it was you who started the whole thing, so far as
I am concerned, I have taken the liberty of saying so. I hope there is nothing
in the article to which you will feel disposed to take exception. May I, when
I am writing, ask you to accept two little Books for the Bairns, which
endeavour to inculcate the same patriotic lessons which are so admirably
enforced in your Citizen Reader, a book which I never pick up without a glow
of gratitude to you for having written it."

58 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
Mr. Arnold-Forster, to whose initiative in this matter the Empire and
the nation are deeply indebted, came to me, and in his brusque, abrupt
fashion asked me when I was going to take up the question of the
Navy. He then set forth roughly an outline of the actual position of
things, which, of course, I had often heard in a vague way before, but
which had never been brought forcibly home to me. I asked him to
leave his papers, and undertook to do what could be done. I at once
set about the fulfilment of my promise, and was soon overwhelmed
with evidence that Mr. Forster had in no way exaggerated the danger
of our position. It was evident that something must be done, and
done at once, unless our Imperial position was to go by the board of
Germany, who was just entering the field of colonial extension.
France was bitter and hot against us on account of the recently con
cluded Egyptian campaign. Little or nothing had been done to
consolidate our Colonial Empire, and it seemed difficult to exaggerate
the peril to which we were exposed. We depended absolutely on the
Navy, and the Navy itself was far below par. To realise this condition
of Imperial peril, and to devote every energy which, either personally
or journalistically, I possessed to remedy it, was one of those duties
which are instinctive, and for a month or more I lived and moved and
had my being in what may be called the world of the Navy. I am
fortunately dowered with a temperament that is almost absurdly
optimistic. To see a great evil or a terrible peril clearly, is a sure
prophecy that the time has come to strike a great blow against the
evil, or to ward off the threatened danger. But notwithstanding this
inheritance of buoyant confidence, I had some difficulty in making
head against the all-pervading despair which possessed the Service.
I well remember my first interview with the then First Sea Lord,
who received me kindly at the Admiralty, listened to me with a certain
sympathetic compassion, and assured me that it was all of no use.
There was indeed in the old Admiral's eye a certain feeling of in
credulous wonder at the supreme audacity of the young journalist, who
cheerily declared that if only he could secure his facts he would
compel any Government, even Mr. Gladstone's, to grant as many
millions as were necessary to restore the sea power of England.
' It cannot be done, sir,' said Sir Cooper Key, mildly but firmly.
' It is no use. I have done my best. We have all done our best, and
we have failed — utterly failed. Do you think that you could succeed
where all the Sea Lords have failed, and move Mr. Gladstone ? '
' Yes,' I said, ' I think I shall, if you will give me my facts.'
' But,' said Sir Cooper Key, bluntly, ' I have already given them
to Mr. Gladstone. We have all done everything short of resigning our
offices to awaken the Government to a sense of the deadly peril in
which we stand. But it is no use. Mr. Gladstone thinks of nothing
but Ireland and home affairs, and we can get nothing for the Navy, not
a penny.' One of Sir Cooper's colleagues, bluff old Beauchamp Seymour, who
was created Lord Alcester after the bombardment of the Alexandrian
Forts, was equally despondent, but expressed his despair in much more
blunt sailor-like language. He had been speaking of the extent to

THE REBUILDING OF THE NAVY 59
which the Navy had been allowed to run down. I said to him, ' But
if these things are so; in case of a war, say, with France, what would
aPnn tell you what would happen,' said Lord Alcester, grimly,
'within twenty-four hours of the declaration of war, Sir Cooper and I,
and all the rest of us at the Admiralty, would be swinging by our necks
from the lamp-posts in front of Whitehall, where we should be strung
up, every man Jack of us, by the nation whom we had betrayed, and
it would serve us right, too,' said he. ' But what can we do ? We
protest, we make representations, we threaten to resign— I really do
not know whether it is not our duty to resign outright, and declare
that we refuse to be responsible for a Service which we know to be far
below the safety level.'
These were two at the head, but when I went lower down in the
Service and consulted the admirals, commanders of the fleet, the
captains in active service, the younger men who were coming forward
to the front, and have since succeeded to chief command, I found
everywhere the same story. Optimist or pessimist, they all knew their
facts, and those facts were very bad indeed.
When 'The Truth about the Navy' in the Pall Mall Gazette
appeared, the effect which it produced was immense. The newspaper
press, with few exceptions, took up the subject, for it is notable that in
this last great Imperial work of the century neither the Commons nor
the Lords rendered any service worth speaking of. The work was
done from first to last by the Press. All that the Commons did was
to vote the money which the newspapers had taught the public to
demand. The articles appeared day by day until they were completed,
and were then reprinted in a pamphlet, called ' The Truth about the
Navy and the Coaling Stations.'
The net result of it all was that within three months of the
publication of ' The Truth about the Navy,' I had the supreme satis
faction of going down to the House of Lords to hear Lord Northbrook
stand up in his place in the Senate, and from the very bench where, in
the month of May, he had declared that the Navy was so perfect he
would not know what to do with ,£2,000,000 if he got it as a gift, he
declared that the state of the Navy was such that he must have at least
three and a half millions over and above the ordinary estimates of the
year. The change that was produced in public sentiment had no doubt
long been in preparation, but the publication of ' The Truth about the
Navy' was the spark which fired the mine."
In the conversation with Mr. Stead, which so aroused
Mr. Stead's interest in the subject of the Navy, Oakeley had
laid before him a rough schedule of the lines which he
thought the Pall Mall enquiry should follow. He also
wrote a preliminary article for the Pall Mall Gazette which
appeared in August.

60 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
In the autumn he approached some of the leading men
in the City, and the representations they listened to, and
the feeling aroused by the revelations in the Press, created
so deep an impression that a great meeting was held in
November in the City, at which Mr. W. E. Forster and others
spoke, which no doubt helped to bring about the change in
the attitude of Government. Oakeley would never admit
the use of the word " revelations " in connection with the
Pall Mall Gazette or the Nineteenth Century articles, or with
the speeches made at this time ; for he said that " though
many startling facts had recently been published, showing
great deficiencies in our scheme of defence, to talk of these
statements as novelties, revelations, or discoveries, was
absurd. They are the commonplaces of professional
literature, they are the common property of every com
batant officer, and are, and always have been, perfectly
familiar to the department at Whitehall. To the public, it
is true, they are new, and as it is now painfully evident that
the most effectual manner of rousing the Government to a
proper performance of their duties is by an appeal to the
crowd, it is necessary to make the best of the situation, and
to make the appeal as effectual and as cogent as possible,
for if the public knows little about the Navy, it cares much."
The following letter to me was written at this time : —
To Mary Story-Maskelyne.
" I hear that you have been told that I overstated the
case about the Navy, and that  said I made it seem
improbable, because I put it in such an extreme way. Now
I contend, on the other hand, that the case does not admit
of being stated in any way but the very strongest, and I
know quite well that one of the chief difficulties to be got
over is just exactly that easy-going way of saying that a
thing must be untrue because it looks so startling.
" But I believe it is only a question of time, and I, and
those who take up this naval business, have only got to go
on pegging away, and we shall at last get people to believe
that it is just the magnitude of the charges which makes
them so serious.

THE REBUILDING OF THE NAVY 6\
" There is all the difference in the world between stating
a case strongly and overstating it. If one's facts are wrong,
that is another matter ; but, if people will only pay attention
to accusations when they are watered down to suit pre
conceived ideas, there would be, it seems to me, little hope
of improvement. " However, my M., I don't know why I should have
bothered you with all this long justification ; for if only you
will approve — as you say you will — and will help me, I
don't mind about anybody else ; and I will, moreover,
appoint you as my special confidential Minister, charged
with the duty of toning down all my too ill-tempered
effusions. Only — you must leave me my facts ! "

CHAPTER IV
Marriage — Work at Cassell's — The Citizen Reader — The Death of
W. E. Forster — Mr. Gladstone and Home Rule — Darlington and
Dewsbury Elections — Books and Articles : " The Flying Watkin,"
In a Conning Tower, This World of Ours — Friendship of W. E.
Henley — Organisation of the Printing Trade — Our Home Army —
A Letter from Lord Randolph Churchill.
In the autumn of 1884 a great change took place in
Oakeley's life and work. In order to make our marriage
more immediately possible, he gave up the less certain
prospects that the Bar held out, and accepted a post that
was offered to him by Mr. Galpin, the senior partner of the
publishing firm of Cassell & Company.
Entering the firm at first as secretary to the Company,
he soon altered and increased the scope of his activity by
undertaking the entire management of their educational
department. A few years later he was asked to join the
Board, and became one of the directors of the company.
Our marriage took place in 1885. My father, Nevil Story-
Maskelyne, was for many years Member for the Cricklade
or Northern Division of Wiltshire. He was an old friend of
William Forster, and a friendship and affection of very long
standing also existed between him and Matthew Arnold,
dating back to their Oxford days, and to days but little
later when Poems by A. first appeared, and Nevil Maskelyne
was one of their earliest admirers.
We settled in London after our marriage, first in Onslow
Houses, and afterwards in Evelyn Gardens and in West
minster, spending always a considerable part of every year
with my father at Bassett Down, our old home in Wiltshire.
Oakeley threw himself with great vigour into his
new calling as a publisher. It was very characteristic of
him that, in order to know and understand his new trade
62

'THE CITIZEN READER' 63
thoroughly, he set himself at once to learn the art of the
compositor and printer. He used to exhibit with pardon
able pride a little book that was written, " composed," and
printed by himself. The special knowledge thus obtained
stood him in good stead some years later, when he had to
take a leading part in the adjustment of intricate technical
questions in the printing trade.
The education department, which was very small, and
which, indeed, hardly had a separate existence when he took
charge of it, gradually became one of the most widely known
and most successful departments at Cassell's.
The production of books for the use of English school
children, the best that he could devise and get written, was
the part of his work there that gave him real interest and
pleasure, and that fitted in with cherished ideas. To get
such books written, however, was no easy task, and the ideal
book for children is still a rare thing to find.
The first book of this kind for which he saw a great
need, and which he eagerly desired to see written, was one
which should teach to the children in our schools some of
their duties, responsibilities, and privileges as future citizens,
and show them something of how the country is governed.
No such book then existed. He had a very clear idea
of what it should be like, and though at first he intended to
get it written if possible by an expert, it soon became clear
that he had such definite ideas of the lines on which it
should be constructed, of the very examples which might be
used, and the illustrations which should make it attractive,
that it would be little trouble to write down the chapters
that he had already realised so vividly.
The Citizen Reader, which has since gone through more
editions, I believe, than any other schoolbook, was indeed
the expression of his own mind and thoughts. " It describes,"
as Mr. Forster wrote in a preface to it, " the principles and
purpose of our institutions and the machinery of our adminis
tration, and it tells children what ought to be the principles
which should actuate them as patriotic citizens. The last
aim is, without doubt, a difficult one. It is not easy to
fulfil it without affronting prejudices, and, indeed, honest con
victions. But I think any unbiased reader will admit that

64 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
there is little if anything in this book which will not be
accepted by men of all creeds and parties."
That the little book was so accepted by men of all
creeds and by the Press of both parties gave real pleasure
to its writer. But the praise which he liked best came from
the children for whom it was written, and nothing gave him
more delight than to hear, as he so often did, of children
who insisted that his books were " real books, not lesson
books " — books that they wanted to take home and read
for themselves, not only to be read in their class at school.
Men differing so widely as John Ruskin, John Bright,
Cardinal Manning, and George Meredith agreed in com
mending it with equal warmth. John Bright, writing from
One Ash, Rochdale, February 1886, ordered some hundreds
of copies " to distribute to the more advanced scholars in
the schools of this town and of the immediate neighbourhood.
I have read it with much interest, and I think it may be of
very great service, though," he adds, as though remembering
suddenly that he was in truth a good Quaker, " I must say
there is more of favour, almost of enthusiasm, in its dealing
with military and naval questions than I can unite with."
" Your Citizen Reader" wrote another strong and lifelong
Liberal, William Arnold, then the young and able sub-editor
of the Manchester Guardian, " strikes me as a happy thought,
very well carried out. It will do something to make young
England realise that there is such a thing as a Patria, and
in these days that is worth doing. The reaction from
Dizzy's Jingoism has produced an awful kind of anti-patriotic
cant which has become so much the thing among the
Radicals that it is one of the chief signs of Liberal ortho
doxy." From another point of view M. Paul Blouet (Max
O'Rell) wrote : — "May 1, 1887.
"Dear Sir — I owe you many thanks for kindly sending me the
Citizen Reader, perhaps the most useful little book it has been my good
fortune to read. Much as I admire the whole of the book, I cannot
help telling you that the chapter on 'Our Duty to Foreigners' is the
part that I prefer. If children were taught at school how to respect
foreigners, future generations would be greatly benefited. Cf. your
delightful book with the standard geography placed in the hands of the

'THE CITIZEN READER* 65
children of England, in which they are taught to believe that ' in
France one-third of the mothers are unmarried ' ! ! !
With renewed thanks for the pleasure you have given me. — I am,
dear sir, yours very truly, Paul Blouet (Max O'Rell)."
After the Citizen Reader had been in use for a year or
two in English schools, the Japanese Government sent an
order for some hundreds of copies for the schools in Japan.
More were presently required, and instead of repeating the
order, the thrifty Japanese had the book set up and printed
in Tokio in exact facsimile of the English edition, letter
press, pictures, advertisements, all being faithfully and
perfectly reproduced.
The preface to the Citizen Reader, written in January
1886, was almost the last work accomplished by William
Forster; for in September 1885 his long last illness had
begun. Hopes alternated with fears ; he rallied sometimes,
but his strength was unequal to the long strain, and the end
came on April 5th.
At a moment of great danger in the long illness,
Oakeley wrote to me : "It is a very, very bitter sorrow to
me, my M. I do trust that I may at least have learnt
from the great and beautiful spirit which seems slipping
away, to be able to follow, though at a long distance, the
example of his generosity and love."
The singular purity and uprightness of his father's
public life, his independent judgment, his deep love of his
country were calculated to have an enduring influence on
Oakeley's mind, and William Forster's private life, and
his relations to all those round him, were so lovable
and beautiful as greatly to deepen those influences and
impressions. Mr. Forster had always insisted on a man's right to
keep an independent judgment in political matters, and on
the duty of making even loyalty to party ties subordinate
to deep personal convictions. In the anxious weeks and
months of political crisis and change which immediately
followed his death, his example of straightforward loyalty to
his convictions helped many other men in making their
difficult choice between the claim of a political principle
which they believed to be a vital one, and the claim of a
F

66 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
great party and a great leader whom they had hitherto
trusted and followed.
A few hours after the funeral service of Mr. Forster in
Westminster Abbey, Mr. Gladstone rose in his place in the
House of Commons to explain the outlines of his Home
Rule policy. The months that followed saw the beginning
of the long struggle between Mr. Gladstone and the oppo
nents of Home Rule ; the struggle in which the old Liberal
party was so much injured and divided as to be for years
weakened by the blows it received, and in the throes of
which the future Unionist party was born.
During the preceding winter it had been generally
known that Mr. Gladstone was seeking for a solution of
the vexed problem of Irish government, and that he was
anxiously balancing the pros and cons of Home Rule.
Many considerations no doubt moved him, many schemes
were no doubt weighed. As Lord Morley has said : " We
know now in which direction the main current of Mr.
Gladstone's thought was setting," but until April the world
was still in the dark as to the scheme he would propose.
Writing in the month of January, Oakeley expresses the
anxiety that many were feeling : —
" I am so far in agreement with the new policy that
I believe under certain clearly defined conditions Home
Rule might be the best thing for Ireland ; and I admit that
it is only the proper fulfilment of Liberal principles to
permit the majority of the inhabitants of a country to
govern themselves. Thus far I am in agreement with
public sentiment in this matter. But at this point I confess
my reasoning ceases to follow the accepted course. Every
one appears to admit that any concession of self-government
to Ireland must be accompanied by adequate precautions
for the protection of honest and loyal men in that country,
... It is generally added that it will be very difficult, if not
impossible, to provide such protection, and there the matter
usually rests. Now I prefer to invert this order, and to say
that absolute and adequate protection must be the condition
precedent to the grant of Home Rule. If the former be
impossible, then the latter must go by the board. ... As
a Liberal and a believer in self-government, I would give

HOME RULE 67
Home Rule ; but as an Englishman and a member of a
great nation I would make the grant of this administrative
reform entirely subordinate to the higher and far more
important duties which we owe to ourselves and to all those
who have relied upon us."
The question of the guarantees to be given to the
loyalists in Ireland was to him the primary and absolutely
essential one — guarantees to the purchasers under the Land
Acts, to the constabulary, to the civil service, and to all men
and women who still desired to live under the rule of England,
and who had invested their property and undertaken their
life's work in Ireland.
" For all these classes," he writes, " I would demand
absolute and effectual guarantees. There is something,
however, more valuable than money, and that is life. We
are dealing with dreadful realities, and not with debating
society questions. If the public once realised, as we who
have seen the thing face to face have realised, the sordid
and dreadful details of the Land League crimes, we should
not have to plead as we do for the protection of honest men
in Ireland. " I want people to understand that in fact at this very
day there is existing within twenty-four hours' journey from
London a state of lawless and barbarous terrorism, brought
about, if Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues are to be believed,
by the operation of the very men to whom it is proposed to
hand over the government of Ireland. Such are the dangers
to be guarded against, such are the persons on whose behalf
guarantees are demanded. The question is — Will such
guarantees be insisted upon in the proposed settlement ?
Is it possible to rely upon them if they are obtained ? "
To all those who thought as Oakeley did on the Irish
problem there was only one answer to be given to these
questions when the provisions of the Bill were made known,
and that was a clear and definite one. The guarantees
offered seemed to them to be totally inadequate and illusory.
It is not wonderful that, feeling as strongly as he did, he
should have thrown himself with passionate ardour into the
long contest that followed.
The action of the eighty Liberals who voted against the

68 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
second reading of the Bill was followed by Mr. Gladstone's
appeal to the country; and the General Election of 1886
was fought on the Home Rule issue. Oakeley consented
to stand for Darlington against Sir Theodore Fry, who held
the seat with a majority of 1500.
At the beginning of the election contest he wrote : " We
had an excellent meeting last night ; Goschen made a good
speech and the meeting was thoroughly friendly. It is
very creditable to Darlington that it should have furnished
two meetings of over two thousand each on the same night.
I met John Morley at York, and he told me that he thought
he must come and ' look after me ' here, a compliment
which I appreciate. I expect to be beaten by 928 votes !
but I do not say this. I wish I had only got more time."
A few days later he wrote : " I do not in the least expect to
get in, but I am going to run Fry a good deal closer than
I thought possible at first. The workers are excellent ; Mr.
Backhouse might be my own father, he is so kind and so
helpful. I have just held my thirty-fifth meeting and I have
two more to-day."
When the polling day came the excitement of both
parties was great when it was found that the Unionist
candidate had come within 57 votes of victory.
" Mr. Bright tells me that he thought very highly of my
election address," Oakeley wrote just after the election was
over, " and that he read it carefully twice. I had a long
talk with him, and he is very keen about the Irish pamphlet,
which he had bought and read."
A letter from another honoured member of the Society
of Friends gave great pleasure to Oakeley at this time : —
" Dear friend," wrote John Bellows of Gloucester, " I have received the
enclosed from James Rutledge of Great Brook Street, Birmingham, with
a request that I will send it to thyself: evidently under the impression
that I know thee. I am sorry I do not : for I greatly admire the sound
ring of thy published letters on the Irish conspiracy, which would soon
be hopelessly at an end if there were many of the same mind.
But apart from this I have — I was going to use a strong word, and
say a great reverence for the name thou bearest. William and Anna
Forster were the means of my father and mother becoming ' Friends ' ;
for when I was a child they several times visited Bradpole, when
W. E. F.'s toys used to be taken out from the sanctum to which they
had been consigned when he put away childish things — for me to play

DEWSBURY ELECTION 69
with. He was eleven years old when I was there, I think. I recollect
that my father told me that he once came to him, one day while he was
at Bradpole, and said, ' William Bellows, this is my birthday ! ' ' How
old art thou ? ' said my father. ' I'm eleven years old,' was the reply.
How often I think of his noble spirit, now that he is gone from the
battle, in the forefront of which he would else be standing at this hour.
— I am thy friend, John Bellows."
Oakeley spoke on the Irish question in many English
constituencies, and in Scotland, in this year and the years
that followed. He went over also twice to address great
meetings in Belfast and Dublin. The problem of our
responsibility to our fellow-subjects in the north of Ireland
was a question on which he felt keenly, and on which he
often dwelt in speaking to English audiences. His strong
sympathy with Ulstermen in their attitude towards the
Home Rule Bill that so gravely threatened their position
and their liberty, is expressed in the following letter written
to his sister Florence Vere O'Brien : —
" Ulster has a splendid part to play, if only it is properly
led. The key of the whole situation is really in the hands
of the Ulster people. All they have to do is distinctly to
formulate their ultimatum to this effect : ' We positively
refuse to pay any tax, or to obey any law imposed or passed
by a Dublin Parliament, to the creation of which we have
never assented, and to which we owe neither respect or
obedience. If you want to make us pay or obey, try and
do it' Now it is a simple fact that there is no Minister in
this country (except possibly Gladstone) who would have
the folly or effrontery to try and coerce Ulster into abandon
ing the Union. No Ministry would last an hour which
tried it ; and no regiment in the British army would stir an
inch to carry out decrees framed by, or in the interests of,
Parnellite administration. Of this last fact I am now
certain. Ulster, therefore, has only got in the long run to
say ' We wont,' and there is an end of all the schemes for
her humiliation." He contested one other election that was in its nature
a " forlorn hope." A bye-election occurred at Dewsbury in
1888; the Unionist leaders were determined that, if pos
sible, no seat should be left unfought, and Oakeley under
took the contest, knowing beforehand how great were the

70 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
odds against making any great reduction in the Gladstonian
majority. The cheerful optimism that could survive even the
experience of a bye-election in Dewsbury finds expression
in this letter to his mother written the day after the poll : —
" We took up the battle in the most Gladstonian borough in
the most Gladstonian corner of England. We fought against
a very strong local man who had been nursing the place for
two years. I came here only a fortnight ago, quite unknown,
and unaided by any sort of organisation. In the face of all
this we have reduced the Gladstonian majority by 260, and,
what is much more important, we have added 1 200 votes
to the Unionist poll. . . . We have made many hundreds
of clear conversions, and every day we make more. This
place has never been properly taught or properly fought,
and the whole question has to be begun from the very
beginning. We have now put heart and hope into the
party, have aroused enthusiasm, and created an organisation.
If all this can be done in Dewsbury, what may not be
accomplished elsewhere? I can truly say that I do not
consider a moment of the time here wasted.
" As to the friendship, the sincere and unstinting help
I have had from every friend here, high and low, rich and
poor, I cannot speak of it too warmly. The contest has
indeed brought me into contact with an amount of generous
and ungrudging self-sacrifice, and has revealed to me an
extent of kindness and ready help which will always gild
the gloomy outlines of the material Dewsbury with a very
bright and golden light. I cannot tell you how much I
have to thank the people here for, and how sincerely grate
ful I am to them for what they have done, and the way in
which they have done it."
The Citizen Reader was followed by a similar book for
children, called the Laws of Everyday Life, which, though
it did not have the immense circulation of its predecessor,
passed through several editions, and won praise for the clear
description and easily understood examples that it gives of
the laws which govern our lives and which govern the society
we live in ; the laws of supply and demand, of work and
wages, of co-operation, trades unions, and of prices.

STUDY OF GEOGRAPHY 71
These books always necessitated work and reading, and
he was always eagerly searching for illustrations for them,
and for examples which should help to make the truths he
wanted to teach not only clear but arresting. His geography
book, called This World of Ours, was, I think, his own
favourite. Certainly it cost him much trouble and labour,
and he was proportionately pleased when praise was given
to it. He believed that the various branches of geography
cannot usefully be studied apart from one another, that
political, historical, and military geography must be studied
in relation to physical geography, that commercial and
statistical geography must go hand in hand with knowledge
of such questions as climatic conditions, that these can only
be understood when the use has been learnt of instruments
by which temperature, barometric pressure, etc., are measured
and that a map is not half understood without some know
ledge of the principles of map-making and a clear compre
hension of the relation between any given portion of the
earth's surface and the printed plan on which its geographical
values are recorded. When this book was written, these
ideas were comparatively new and unfamiliar, for the teaching
of geography had not then been vitalised, and given the
importance it has since acquired, owing to the illuminating
methods of Mr. Mackinder and other teachers.
The examples which illustrate every lesson and page are
drawn from sources familiar to English readers. The geo
graphical circumstances of our country made this compara
tively easy. " Washed by a great ocean stream, possessing
a climate which presents almost every variety of temperature,
with a geology which seems a compendium of the geology
of the world ; the centre of an empire which contains men
of every race and products of every kind ; with a history
crowded with incident, chequered by innumerable changes,
and yet continuous, England presents an ideal series of
object-lessons to the geographical student."
The lessons that are given on maps and their uses, on
the use of latitude and longitude and the simpler rules of
navigation, the vivid examples given of historical fact to
gether with geographical explanation, and such chapters as

72 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
those on " Geography and Human Life " and " A Lesson
from Bradshaw " are calculated to awaken fresh interest in
a reader's mind and to show geography in a new and
attractive light ; as a study, one of the most fascinating, he
always thought, that could be undertaken, — " one that can
be followed with pleasure and profit at all times and in all
places, which makes travelling a perpetual enjoyment, and
staying at home a perpetual opportunity." J
The study of geography that this book entailed impressed
deeply on Oakeley's mind the need that existed for an English
atlas that should be as perfect of its kind as science, ex
perience, and technical skill could make it. That it should
be not the atlas only of the rich, but should be published at
a price that should bring it within the reach of all, was his
great desire and ambition. With this object in view he
paid more than one visit to the principal German publishing
firms who were at that time producing the finest European
maps. He was eventually able to arrange for the adapta
tion and translation into English of Dr. AndreVs fine atlas.
Published at first as the Universal Atlas, it was after
wards taken over by the Times, and in enlarged and per
fected editions it became very widely known as The Times
Atlas. To every successive edition Oakeley gave much time and
thought. The beauty, clearness, and scientific accuracy of
the maps, the arrangement of the book, and the perfection
of its indexing won it widespread praise and recognition.
A fine English version of the German school atlas published
by Velhagen and Klasing was also produced in this country
under Oakeley's guidance and editorship, and was published
under the title The London School Atlas.
Besides his books he was writing articles from time to
time for the Reviews and for the St. f antes' s Gazette, and once
or twice for Murray's Magazine, then just started by his cousin
Edward Arnold. In this magazine his naval sketch, " In a
Conning Tower," first appeared. It was republished in
many editions and in five different languages, but it came
out first anonymously in Murray, and few experiences gave
Oakeley more amusement than going to a naval review a
1 This World of Ours.

'THE FLYING WATKIN ' 73
few weeks after its publication, and having " In a Conning
Tower " warmly pressed on his notice by his friends in the
service. He described joyfully how three naval men had
separately offered him a copy to read, how the supposed
author, a captain high in the service, had been pointed out
with pride by " one who knew," and how the homeward
journey had been enlivened by a fellow-traveller who in
sisted on reading portions aloud !
The sketch describes an action between two modern
ironclads. It pictures the terrible strain on the nerve and
judgment of the captain which only the strongest natures
will be able to endure.
" I've been to the manoeuvres off Ireland," wrote Mr.
Rudyard Kipling some years later, " reading your In a
Conning Tower with real appreciation. It ought to be read
by every one as I read it — with a battleship cleared for
action just cutting across the bows, and all hands ready for
business. But do you believe in rams as much as you did —
and if so, why ? I'm doubtful on this point, and, since my
experience in a destroyer's trial trip, incline to the subtle
torpedo." The type of ship represented by the Majestic of the story
was that of H.M.S. Victoria. After the fifth edition of the
Conning Tower had appeared the terrible calamity to H.M.S.
Victoria occurred. The blow of the ram and the damage
done to the two ships in the story corresponded very closely
with the facts recorded in the tragedy of the Victoria and
Camperdown. Amongst the articles contributed to the St. fames' s Gazette
at this time was one called " The Flying Watkin," which also
gave us some amusing experiences. Sensational accounts
of the great " race to the north " on two of our most im
portant railway lines had been filling the pages of magazines
and of newspapers. The special correspondent and the
interviewer had been busy, and their accounts of their
journeys to Edinburgh by the new expresses did not suffer
from lack of colour and picturesque detail.
" The Flying Watkin " was received with a burst of
enthusiasm by the long-suffering travellers on the railway
line that was here described, and our occasional journeys

74 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
on it were enlivened by hearing the article quoted by fellow-
passengers as a local classic so well known that further
explanation was unnecessary. That this anonymous con
tribution to an evening paper was read aloud at the Board
meetings of two at least of our great railway companies also
gave its author great amusement.
August 14th, 1888
A TRIP IN "THE FLYING WATKIN"
It was high noon as I stood on the platform at Gravesend Station.
There was a certain sense of bustle and agitation in the air, but
nothing sufficient to indicate that the " Flying Watkin " was about
to start on its marvellous journey to the west. The driver of the
engine was chatting unconcernedly with an acquaintance ; the fireman
was quietly mending the connection of one of the valves with a piece
of stout string ; the guard had not yet put in an appearance ; and
but a few of the passengers who were to share with me the risks of the
forthcoming journey had arrived.
There was time for me to look round and make a note of the
perfection which modern science has introduced into the appliances
for abridging time and space. I could not help feeling proud of my
country. The very train itself was an example of that English desire
to gratify every idiosyncrasy and to be independent of every hard-and-
fast rule, which so favourably distinguishes us from the hide-bound
pedants of the Continent. There were no fewer than fifteen vehicles
composing the train ; and such was the evident desire of the directors
to meet and to gratify every taste, that of this whole number only
two carriages bore the slightest resemblance to each other in height,
colour, form, or fitting. And indeed the resemblance between the last
two vehicles — which chanced to be a cattle van and a third-class
carriage respectively — may more fairly be attributed to accident than
to design. There was an evident determination to try all systems, and
to give the public the advantage of assisting at the trial.
The " Flying Watkin," as every one knows, is due to start at
12.15 J and as that hour drew near I could not help feeling amazed
at the calm confidence displayed by the officials as the crisis
approached. So confident were they of their powers that the hand
of the clock pointed to ten minutes after the hour and some thirty milk-
cans which awaited transmission still stood beside the empty van. Would
they be on board in time ? It seemed almost incredible. But the
excitement which I felt was plainly in no wise shared by the officials,
and what appeared to me to be a probability struck them in the light
of a certainty, for it was not till 12.15 that the loading commenced.
As the time for departure approached, there was naturally a certain
amount of commotion among the passengers, some of whom were,

'THE FLYING WATKIN' 75
like myself, carried away by the almost romantic nature of the journey
on which we were to embark.
In France or in Germany there would have been a display of some
kind, and the officials would have been the first to participate in
the excitement of the moment. But here we were in England, and
every man in the company's uniform felt that this was neither the
time nor place for any exhibition of emotion. The moment had
arrived, the hand of the clock pointed to fifteen minutes past twelve,
and closing the door of my compartment, I composed myself for the
coming leap into space. I had time to become thoroughly composed,
for I had forgotten that the milk-cans were not on board. Not even
the " Flying Watkin " can leave so valuable a cargo behind. However,
with the resolute enterprise which distinguishes our railway companies,
this difficulty is eventually surmounted, and all seems ready for an
actual start. It is now 12.20, and if the two gentlemen who are
consuming a final half-pint in the refreshment room can be induced to
take their places, we might be well under weigh. A short conversation
between the loiterers and the guard results in the former entering their
compartment, and the guard himself gives the shrill whistle which is
the signal for our departure. Then, with a cool collected air
characteristic of his profession, the driver puts over his lever and
opens the valves. The result is not immediately satisfactory, and I
must admit that the effect of our performance is somewhat marred
by the necessity for reversing the engine and setting back the train
before the wheels begin to revolve in the desired direction. Now,
however, we are fairly off. It is 12.25 and we are due at Northfleet
in six minutes. But we are not yet in full running trim, and the line
rises slightly between the two stations. Still even now we must be
doing a good twelve miles an hour, and if we keep this up we shall
have lost little time when we get to Northfleet. Unfortunately steep
gradients do not allow of high speeds, and it is 12.33 before we draw
up at the Northfleet platform — two miles and a quarter in eight
minutes. It is impossible to run trains at a high rate of speed and
to allow a long period for stoppages. Two minutes after reaching
Northfleet we are again en route and are soon dashing into the
tunnel which separates us from Greenhithe, our next stage, four and a
quarter miles from the starting-point.
The time is now 12.38. Between Greenhithe and Dartford the
engine has got well into its swing, and a plentiful supply of steam is
blowing off at the joints of half a dozen pipes. The rapidity of the
motion is easily discerned from the oscillation of the carriage ; and the
heavy slopping of the oil in the lamp-glass, with an occasional fall of a
drop of the fluid on to the floor of the compartment, tells us that travel
ling by the " Flying Watkin " has its perils as well as its pleasures. At
12.51 we are steaimng proudly into Dartford Junction ; but we have
a long spell still before us, and, like the hurrying train in which we
are borne along, we must abridge space and hasten to our conclusion.
Not a moment's time is lost in the next stretch to Crayford — one
mile and three quarters in five minutes ; but the South-Eastern is
accustomed to high speeds, and we make nothing of it. At this rate,

76 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
if maintained, we should reach Edinburgh within the week, and
should accomplish the shorter journey from London to Rugby within the
narrow limits of a winter's day.
We run through Bexley at a high speed. If the platform had
been longer, or if our brakes had worked better, we should not have
overshot the station, and been under the necessity of going back to
it. New Eltham, Eltham, and Lee are left behind with bewildering
rapidity; train leaving the last station at 1.30 exactly, barely twenty
minutes after time — sixteen miles and a quarter in ninety minutes.
At this point, however, there are, unfortunately, one or two delays,
owing to the presence of two passenger trains and a goods on the
line between New Cross and St. John's. The untoward incident
tends to reduce somewhat our fine running average, and we do not
get away from New Cross until five minutes past two. But our
engineer is not to be beaten ; there is a clear run between New Cross
and London Bridge. Now is the time for him to show what a South-
Eastern engine can do, and to keep up the reputation of the " Flying
Watkin." With his whistle in full blast he opens the valves to their
fullest extent, and with a maddening motion the train speeds along,
the pace rising, as I time it by the telegraph posts, from twenty
miles to twenty-five — from five-and-twenty to thirty ; and even now
the velocity appears to be on the increase. I must confess that for
the moment I hide my head in my hands, and it is with an extra
ordinary sense of relief that I raise it again as the gallant train draws
up unscathed at the London Bridge platform, having actually sur
passed the official requirements and gained half a minute upon this
extraordinary run.
From London Bridge to Cannon Street, and from Cannon Street
to Charing Cross the journey is probably familiar to many of your
readers, and, omitting the detentions, we barely lose more than the
ordinary ten minutes in our attempts to leave and enter the two
stations in question. At 2.15 exactly the "Flying Watkin" draws
up at the platform of Charing Cross ; having accomplished without
a mishap its wild rush through the heart of Kent, across crowded
Surrey, and into busy Middlesex. On a journey of an hour and a half
scarce thirty minutes behind its time, and the whole distance, no less
than twenty-four miles, accomplished in 120 minutes !
Your readers may be interested to know something of the loco
motive by which this fine performance was achieved. There is nothing
very remarkable about it, it being one of the ordinary South-Eastern
six- wheel, or bone-shaker type. It bears the date 1850, and has
many of the improved appliances which had been introduced up to
that date. The fact that an engine which, comparatively speaking,
cannot be called of the latest construction, should be capable of taking
the "Flying Watkin" is a proof of the accuracy with which the South-
Eastern directors foresaw the part which they were destined to play
in the railway development in the country. As I passed up the
platform I met Mr. M  , the well-known chairman of an important
line connecting London and Edinburgh. He had been a fellow-
passenger with me in the " Flying Watkin." " Good-day, Mr. M  "

LETTER TO HIS SISTER 77
said I ; "a wonderful performance, was it not ? " " Wonderful
indeed ! " replied Mr. M  with fervour, — " Marvellous I " " You
have nothing like this on your Northern lines ? " I suggested. With a
candour which did him credit, the chairman admitted that my
statement was correct. " But," said I, " you have great experience
of railway management ; you know what this sort of thing means.
It is wonderful, no doubt, but can it last ? Can they keep it up ? "
Mr. M  shook his head thoughtfully. " I cannot tell," said he ; " it
seems almost impossible that this sort of running should be maintained.
I may frankly own that we could not venture to do it for a week ; it
would ruin us. But then you must remember that we have not the
traditions of the South-Eastern. Years of practice have enabled them
to accomplish this feat ; their passengers have got accustomed to it.
And with such an organisation as theirs even the " Flying Watkin "
may be kept on the road for years to come ; but I must be going, for
I am dining in York this evening." I thanked Mr. M  ¦ for his
courtesy, and remembered that I too was expected that night at
Gravesend. It was getting late, and I was pressed for time. There
was nothing for it but to forego my intended trip by the return
"Watkin," and leaving the station, I walked quietly home.
In a letter to his sister, Mrs. Vere O'Brien, he writes
about Mr. Forster's Life, which was then just published : —
"April '88.
" I have had you very much in my thoughts just now,
for I have been reading your contribution to father's Life,
the proofs of which have been sent to me by Reid. I like
both what you say and the way you say it very much, and
my only regret is that there is not more of your handiwork
in the book. Not that you must suppose I do not think
the book excellent. I think the style simple and in per
fectly good taste, while the life itself and all the letters are
of supreme interest to me, and I think will also prove to be
so to a very large number of readers. To many I am
certain it will throw a new light upon father's life and
character. Much, of course, of the actual facts and cor
respondence will be new to us too, but will only be fresh
illustrations of his high and beautiful qualities which we
knew so well. I am sure many people knew and felt that
he was a greater man than nine-tenths of his contemporaries,
but could hardly have explained to themselves whence the
difference sprang. Now they will see that his life was all of
a piece, and that its level from beginning to end was far
higher than that of most modern English statesmen.

78 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
" What a wonderful thing a little singularity in the cir
cumstances of a man's early bringing up seems to be. It
may, of course, do harm only, but at any rate it prevents a
man becoming just like everybody else, and accepting every
convention without giving one genuine thought to what is
at the bottom of it.
" In father's case every bit of singularity worked, I
think, for good. But then it must be remembered that all
that was singular in his surroundings was also very dis
tinguished both morally and intellectually. Of course the
great and inevitable gap in the book, the omission which
makes Hamlet with Hamlet left out seem a complete and
finished work beside it, is the absence of all reference to
Mother ; to her part in his life, and to her influence over
his thought. You and I were always agreed, I know, that
it was the compound of the two natures, the mature wisdom
of two different strains of thought about high things, that
gave the unrivalled beauty and wisdom to their lives which
we saw so much of, and felt so often. That omission is in
evitable, of course ; but there it is gaping at one !
" I am writing a paper for Ted. Quite a new line for
me, for it is to be a work of imagination, and to be entitled
' In a Conning Tower.' It is intended to represent the
feelings of a modern naval officer going into action in one
of the new ironclads. It really ought to be written by
Victor Hugo, but that is out of the question. I have no
notion what sort of a ' job ' I shall make of it, but M. and I
are very busy with it. A flight into the realms of fancy is
a new thing for me, as you know, and I think I shall soon
return to my fact-grubbing habits, for I have in my mind a
paper on French protective duties and their effect on the
prices of food. It will be a very hard bit of work, but
Admiral Maxse has supplied me with a very valuable set
of statistics which a French friend of his has compiled in
answer to a set of questions propounded by me.
'' Little Mervyn is as bonny as a bird, and is thriving
wonderfully. M. says he has grown two pounds this month ;
at which rate I calculate that by the time he reaches
forty-eight he will weigh something over half a ton. This
is growth indeed !

W. E. HENLEY 79
" You know I always have a plan of keeping my intellect
sweet, and preventing my mind from being absolutely
fuddled away with newspaper articles, bad manuscripts, facts
about guns, outrages, railway rates, and what not. My plan
consists of having some piece of sane literature on hand,
which I can read at all intervals, in the train, while I am
dressing, and so on. Shakespeare is a great stand-by, and
anything which is a hundred years old in itself, or in its
subject-matter, serves the turn tolerably well.
" At present I am in the middle of a ' Walter Scott '
revival, and most satisfying and delightful it is. I have
finished Quentin Durward and Anne of Geierstein, and now
I am half-way through Guy Mannering. Cannot you well
remember reading this aloud with Mother ? It was one of
the novels I enjoyed most. As far as I know it is the
only famous novel where the hero is nearly fifty and a
father ! "
Oakeley began to write for William Henley in the
earliest days of the Scots Observer, and he wrote also for its
successor, the National Observer. He was one of the group
of friends whom Henley drew to himself by the attraction
of his singular gifts and great personality. Henley, no
doubt, made many enemies also, for it was impossible to
remain indifferent to one whose individuality was so
striking, and who was ever so keen and fierce a fighter ?
But how good was his friendship ! how vivid his talk ! how
unforgettable those nights, when we lost count of time, and
morning came, while Henley talked on ! At that time
Henley's speech gave a greater sense of latent force than
almost any that I have heard. The rapier-like swiftness of
it, his judgment weighed and balanced, the quick humour,
above all, the sense that he gave of the fulness and glad
ness of life ; and of a spirit undaunted by long suffering
or by the pain and sorrow it had endured. His friendship
was too memorable to pass over unrecalled, and Oakeley
cared for it too greatly.
The following is one among many of Mr. Henley's
characteristic notes : —

8o HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
"Stanley Lodge, Muswell Hill, N.,
November gfh, 1892.
" Dear A.-F. — I had seen the squib and enjoyed it. But 'twas
good of you to write, and I am glad indeed to get news of you, though
it's of the vaguest.
No : I ain't happy just now. I've lost a whole long year and
more, and I cannot be consoled. Influenza, an operation, influenza (or
something like it) again, and brain-fag all the time. There are times
when I wonder if I ever did anything at all, and especially if I shall
ever do anything again.
We think of clearing out of this, and going to house our nothing
ness at Brighton. 'Tis pleasant enough in the leafy moons, but when
the lights shorten, and the leaves come down, and the clay gives up its
damps, then — well — then you wish you were somewhere else. I don't
think you've ever seen it. Have you ? If you haven't, why not
see it ?
The good time that it was, that of the N.O., wasn't it? I would
it were ours again. The Bounder is afeard of nothing now. He and
the Rotter range unchecked and undismayed. It would be worth some
good man's while to turn us on again. If only I could get back a
little of my old self. However ! . . . — Yours always, W. E. H."
Many of the old numbers of the Scots Observer and
National Observer contain articles written by Oakeley, on
our ships or our armies, our coaling stations, or upon
questions of South African policy, and other matters affect
ing our overseas possessions.
The five years previous to 1892, when he entered
Parliament, were made very full by the extraordinary
amount of work and energy that he managed to concentrate
into his life. He was in sole charge of a large department
at Cassell's, and the keen interest that he took in the details
of their great business led him, in 1890, to take an active
part in initiating and forming the Printing and Allied
Trades Association — an association which included the
heads of the great printing-houses in London. Until this
association was made, no combined discussion or action had
been possible. Each firm acted by itself and without
co-operation. Shortly after its formation the necessity for
its existence was clearly shown. A strike was announced
by the leaders of the Printers' and Compositors' Union, and
a readjustment of the scale of payments in force in the
London district was demanded. The alterations asked for
involved the intricate study of a great number of very

PRINTING AND ALLIED TRADES 81
technical points, for the consideration of which time was
needed. The new association enabled the employers to take
the time that was essential ; they met as a united body ; the
concessions and alterations that were made were made by
all alike. A conference was arranged between the repre
sentatives of the Master-printers and the representatives of
the London Society of Compositors, and the masters and
men came finally to a permanent agreement.
To his Mother, zvritten December 1890.
" The thing which I fear is most likely to keep me in
London will be the Printing Association. We have a very
formidable piece of work before us, and at present we are
practically sitting every day. On Saturday morning I
called a ' chapel ' or meeting of all our compositors at
Cassell's ; and explained to them fully the meaning and
probable operation and effect of the new American Copy
right Bill. Of course the men listened civilly enough, but it
is very disheartening having to do with men who so distrust
each other, and who pass on this distrust to any one in a
position over them. I know that many of the men present
were convinced that my object in speaking and making this
explanation was in some way to play some trick on them,
to seduce them from their allegiance to their Union, or to
take some unfair advantage. Still it is absolutely necessary
for their own sakes that they should know the facts. It is
simply impossible to fathom their ignorance in respect to
their own interests, beyond the next pay-day. I found that
nine out of ten did not know what is contained in the
notices they have given. They have no idea what they
have asked, or why they have asked it. Their leaders have
succeeded in driving literally three-fourths of the book-work
out of London, and now they would get rid of the rest."
To the Same. "Christmas, 1890.
" I am very hard at work on the compositors' scale.
Our sub-committee sits every day for several hours, and we

82 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
have not got through all the clauses yet. But I am glad to
say the men's leaders are coming to their senses, and have
given up their original ' all take and no give ' attitude.
Not one compositor in twenty has the faintest idea as to
what are the demands which have been made on their
behalf, or why they have been made at all. We (Cassell's)
have had to make all arrangements for doing all our book-
work out of London. It is the inevitable consequence
which must follow the concession of the new demand, not
only in our house but in many others. I believe, from what
I hear, that the men are beginning to understand what a
dangerous game their leaders are playing, and that after
all we shall be able to come to some reasonable arrangement."
In the discussions that wereAheld, after much consulta
tion and debate, the new scale of prices was drawn up.
The settlement thus come to cost many weeks of anxious
and constant toil, but it was so carefully considered and
worded that it stood the test of time, and lasted without
alteration for ten years.
During these years Oakeley was writing often in the
Times. " I think that not a year has passed since 1872 in
which I have not seen something of manoeuvres by sea or
by land, at home or abroad," he. wrote at this time, and his
contributions to the Times include the " log " that he wrote
during the naval manoeuvres which he accompanied from
1887 onwards, and include also a series of letters on the
military situation, which sums up the conclusions he had
come to as to the condition of our Home Army.
These letters, written for the Times in 1891, and pub
lished in book form in 1892, were the result of information
given freely and constantly to him by officers of all ranks
and of all branches of the Service, verified by his personal
observation and study. No very lengthy or detailed
examination of these can be given here ; but it is necessary
to speak of them with more than the passing reference
which would be all that would be required were they but
the ashes of some old and half-forgotten controversy, con
cerning details and defects of military organisation, having
temporary significance, but whose importance has been lost
with the passing of time. The present value of these letters,

OUR HOME ARMY 83
written eighteen years ago, lies in the fact that the funda
mental principles that they dwell upon, and on the import
ance of which they lay stress, are the principles that
throughout his life he believed to be essential to all sound
military teaching, which governed all criticism that he ever
made on army affairs, and which formed the basis of his
own beliefs and policy.
" The greatest difficulty that we experience," he wrote
at this time, " in trying to convince others of the true con
dition of our Army is the impossibility of persuading them
that the absurdities which exist can really and truly be
perpetrated in the full view of an educated community. We
are met with the objection, ' Surely that cannot be so ; it is
too ridiculous to be true.' To which the reply must be,
' Go and see.' If only a Commission, composed of a doctor,
a business man, and a soldier, could be conducted round our
depots and garrisons, and an impartial report made of their
impressions after they had been shown the things that are
to be seen ; and still more important the things which ought
to be seen but which do not exist, I think the truth could
be made clear to the public."
" I make no pretension," he writes at the beginning of these letters,
" to produce startling revelations or to disclose secrets. The whole
point of my case is that the abuses of our Army system are perfectly
well known to every officer in the Service. ... I trust that no soldier
will find fault with what is here written merely because to him it is a
very old story — my object is to try and put before the general public
some facts with regard to our military arrangements which the soldier
knows and cares about, but which, as far as appearances go, the public
either does not know, or does not care about. It has been made a
matter of objection that I have had to use strong expressions and to
make grave charges. It is said, ' The thing may be bad but it cannot
be as bad as it is painted . . . our army system may not be perfect,
but it cannot be an absolute failure.' The line of argument is specious,
but in this case it is not entitled to prevail. Seven years ago strong
things were said about the Navy. Charges were made by outside
critics, and were indignantly denied or pooh-poohed by the officials.
What has happened since ? Thirty-two millions sterling have been
voted by way of a special grant to the Navy. Over one hundred new
ships have been added to the fleet. The system of dockyard adminis
tration has been revolutionised. The old Ordnance Department has
been destroyed and a new one created. Thousands of men and boys
have been added to the personnel. Either these heroic measures were
necessary or they were not ; assuming that they were necessary, what

84 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
condemnation could have been too sweeping for the officials who
allowed the accumulation of arrears which could only be wiped out by
such an effort ? The sum of recent achievements is but a partial
measure of previous deficiency.
The charge that was made seven years ago in respect of the Navy
was that it was glaringly deficient. The charge was true, and the proof
is to hand. The charge in respect of the Army is that it is glaringly
inefficient ; it will be for the public to judge whether the charge be true.
But to dismiss the charge merely because it conveys a very serious
indictment is not warranted by previous experience. I propose to do
my best to prove that at the present moment the condition of our Home
Army is radically and essentially bad. And further, I propose to
demonstrate that, given our present system and our present organisa
tion, it cannot in the nature of things be otherwise than radically and
essentially bad.
It is indeed most important that the public should clearly under
stand that our military weakness is due not to accident or ill-luck, not
to imperfect execution of a correct design, but that it is the natural
and certain consequence of a faulty and ill-considered plan. The first
point to which I wish to draw attention is the want of purpose on the
part of those who direct our Army. No one, high or low, has as yet
made up his mind what part the Army is to play — whether it is to be
utilised solely for home defence, or to take part as a contingent side by
side with Continental armies ; whether it is merely to provide rein
forcements for India, or whether it is to co-operate with the Navy in
aggressive warfare. It is difficult, no doubt, to arrive at any certainty
with regard to these points, or to organise a programme which circum
stances may not render useless. But we have hitherto made no effort
whatever to arrive at even a proximate solution of the question. Nothing
is more striking in the report of Lord Harrington's Commission than the
revelation of the total want of plan for effective action in the event of
war. We have no officer at the head of a general staff; we have no
scheme of combined operations between the two services ; and we have
no one with sufficient authority to formulate and give effect to such a
scheme. In the words of the report of Lord Hartington's Commission,
' There does not appear to exist sufficient provision by either Service for
the wants of the other ; little or no attempt has ever been made to
establish settled and regular inter-communication or relations between
the Services ; no combined plan of operations for the defence of the
Empire in any given contingency has ever been worked out or decided
upon.' It is a truism to say, that as long as we do not know the pur
pose for which the Army is maintained, it is impossible efficiently to
prepare it for the execution of its duty. It need hardly be said that the
recommendations of Lord Hartington's Commission have remained, as
the recommendations of most Army Commissions do, an absolute dead
letter." The necessity of a clear understanding and definition of
what should be the function of the Army, and of what is the

OUR HOME ARMY 85
purpose for which it was maintained, are emphasised in
these pages ; and so are the need for a closer and more
scientific co-operation between the Army and Navy, and
for a constant co-operation in their plans for the defence of
the Empire. No answer to such problems had been attempted
or formulated in 1890. It is unnecessary in 1909 to write
about the importance to both services of the General Staff
Organisation, or to dwell on the importance of the work of
the Committee of Imperial Defence, which was created to
supply the need spoken of in the report of Lord Harting
ton's Commission that is quoted above. In later chapters
I shall attempt to show what part Oakeley took in the
realisations of these ideas when the time came for the
establishment of effective Staff Organisation, and for the
creation of the Committee of Defence. The factors which
in later years came to be recognised as some of the most
important points of the organisation of the defences of the
Empire were the points on which he concentrates attention
in 1 89 1, and they underlie all his assumptions as to the
need of change and reform in the methods of the War
Office and Admiralty, and their preparation for war. The
letters go on to a more detailed examination of deficiencies
which seemed to him grave in our Home Army. They
lay stress on the need of more effective battle training to
make the Army able to achieve success in war, on the exist
ing recruiting system, on the quality of the recruits obtained
by its means, and on the actual condition of our cavalry,
infantry, and artillery. That this system for the recruitment,
payment, and treatment of our soldiers was not in accordance
with the common sense which we apply to our private
business concerns, and could not reasonably be expected to
produce good results, was the argument that he presses home
on his fellow-countrymen.
" To those who think that we ought to have no Army
I have nothing to say, except that I do not agree with them.
But to every taxpayer I wish to point out that, while to
have no Army and to pay nothing for it is reasonable, or to
have a good Army and to pay twenty millions for it is
reasonable, to pay twenty millions for an Army and not to
get one is not reasonable, nor to be endured."

86 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
" I have read your pamphlet with very great interest,"
wrote Lord Randolph Churchill, " and I agree generally with
its contents. I expect that the fighting efficiency of the
services at the present moment is much what you describe.
We have had largely increased expenditure without any
appreciable reform of administration, and I feel certain that
the prospects of such reform are extremely remote.
" Liberals and Tories have informed me that the House
of Commons would consider without any reluctance or dis
favour the scheme of reform sketched out in my memorandum
similar to the one in your pamphlet. But official opinion is
obdurate and puts it aside almost without argument. Under
these circumstances all we can hope for is a vigorous non
intervention foreign policy, and that Ministers who talk
about the ' ascendancy of England in the Councils of
Europe ' will have the sense and sanity to practise ' Peace
at any price.' I return you the pamphlet with many thanks
for sending it to me."

CHAPTER V
" We will not have Home Rule."
Motto of the Ulster Convention.
Belfast and the Home Rule Question — West Belfast Election — Stories
of the " Fighting West Division" — General Election, 1892 — The
House of Commons — Maiden Speech — The National Flag on the
Victoria Tower — A serious ice accident.
Oakeley's connection with the Belfast constituency, which
he was to represent for thirteen years in Parliament, began
some years before his election in 1892. He spoke several
times to Ulster audiences, and began to understand some
thing of the character of his future constituents, and to
realise how deeply they cared for principles which he
looked upon as of the greatest importance in political life.
His closer connection with West Belfast came about in
1890, wholly unsought by himself. Meetings to choose a
Unionist representative were held by the Conservative,
Liberal Unionist, and Orange bodies, and his name was
agreed upon as one acceptable to all parties. Such
agreement was not easily or lightly come to in Belfast ;
and though at first the idea of representing a constituency
which would entail such strenuous work, and which was
so distant from London, was not a welcome one, he finally
accepted the call, and consented to contest the seat that
was then held by Mr. Sexton. To try to win back this
seat from one of the leaders of the Nationalist Party,
who had taken so active a part as Mr. Sexton had done
in the sinister work of the Land League, was in itself no
unwelcome task.
The city itself, and the energy of the citizens who
had built up its industries and prosperity, excited his
interest and admiration, and he felt a real pride in being
called on to represent these Northern Irishmen who had
87

88 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
brought into existence the great linen mills, and other
thriving industries of the city ; and who had created their
docks, their harbours and shipbuilding yards in a situation
which, though rich in natural beauty, can originally have
offered but few facilities for these undertakings. The
ability, the self-reliance, and energy which have made Belfast
so unlike any Southern Irish town, would be remarkable
in any country and are phenomenal in Ireland.
The constituency of West Belfast was one which
differed so widely from any English or Scotch constituency
in its political circumstances and history, that some descrip
tion of it may not be out of place.
Belfast, which sends four members to Parliament,
returned Unionist members for the North, South, and
East divisions ; and these divisions were looked upon as
safe Unionist seats, the Nationalist minorities being too
small to make a contest in them worth while.
The Western Division was, however, in a different
position. When the Redistribution Act of 1885 altered
the representation of the city, it was realised that if any
of the four divisions were to be saved for the Parnellite
party, the West was the only one where this would be
possible ; and its boundaries were framed so as to include
the streets and blocks where the greatest number of
Nationalist Roman Catholic voters lived. In Belfast the
Nationalist-Catholic and the Unionist populations live, as
much as may be, apart from each other. In some parts
of West Belfast, when we first knew it, the dividing line
was very sharply marked, and "Sandy Row" and "Shank-
hill Road " were looked on as strong Unionist centres,
whilst the " Falls Road " was almost exclusively occupied by
Nationalists. There being no likelihood of turning either
of the other Belfast seats from their Unionist allegiance,
all the efforts of both parties were centred upon the
" Fighting West " division, with results that gave an
animation, not to say a fierceness, to its political contests
that were far indeed removed from anything we had ever
seen or heard of in English elections. The 1886 election
had resulted in the return by a narrow majority of Thomas
Sexton, one of the members of the Central Executive of

WEST BELFAST 89
the Land League and National League. The succeeding
years were spent by the Nationalist Party in trying to
consolidate their success, and to make Mr. Sexton's position
safe. Every house and every vote that either party could
secure in " the West " became of importance. Our elections
were said to be lost and won in the Registration Court,
but their results were determined by the efforts of the
working men, and, above all, of the working women of
Belfast, who quietly took the matter into their own hands,
and, at any cost to themselves, moved into each house
that fell vacant in our debateable land, and at last by their
determination converted the minority of 1886 into the
solid Unionist majority of 1892. The deep earnestness
of their convictions, the devotion which they showed, and
their resolution never to be forced into accepting a Home
Rule Government, made the basis of the strong and lasting
sympathy between Oakeley and his constituents. In June
1892, the life of Parliament was drawing to a close, and
the Home Rule policy of Mr. Gladstone was once more,
after five years of Unionist administration, prominently
before the country, as the chief question to be decided on
by the electorate. A convention of representatives from
every constituency in Ulster was summoned to meet in
Belfast in this month, and with a single voice Ulster
reiterated the determination of all her Protestant population
that she " would not have Home Rule."
" The proceedings were very impressive," Oakeley wrote
to his mother from Belfast after the convention. " The
old Primate (he is eighty-two) read the prayer loud enough
for all those round me to hear it. The singing of the
psalm was very moving, some of the speeches quite
admirable, Thomas Sinclair's by far the best of all. There
could be no mistake as to the tone of the meeting, the
emotion of all present, and the depth of feeling at the
bottom. Several times the great audience rose to its feet
and cheered, and it was always the plainest, and I think
I may say the strongest, statements that brought the
quickest response. But there was not a word of ' tall '
talk from beginning to end, not a word that a good citizen
may not say with a good conscience."

90 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
The general election followed in July. The contest in
West Belfast was a very strenuous and very exciting one.
The defeat of 1886 was still fresh in the minds of our
people, and no efforts were thought too great to ensure the
victory that they longed for.
Elections in Belfast were full of sharp contrasts, and
abounded in experiences that would certainly surprise and
startle any English agent or Member of Parliament. No
where else surely could such a combination be found of a
deep and passionate seriousness, the outcome of political
faith based, on both sides, on men's deepest religious
convictions ; with humours and situations, to us so strange,
so delightful, so wildly improbable, as those which enlivened
our contests in Belfast. Some of the scenes and incidents
that marked them, and which I noted down at the time,
were so unlike the ordinary experiences in an English con
stituency that they may not be without interest.
A lady who was canvassing for us came to tell me
that, calling at the house of James  to secure his
vote, she had found only a disconsolate woman, widowed
some months past, and full of tearful details about James's
end. As she passed down the street a little child ran up
to her laughing, and said, " You talked to my mither, but
my da was in bed." We met James  afterwards by
appointment, at his place of business. He told us that
he was a Protestant, his wife a Roman Catholic, and
he implored us to be sure and send for him on the
polling-day ; for on the last occasion, " when I woke in
the morning, I found the woman gone and the door locked
upon me, and, savin' your presence, ma'am, not a stitch of
clothes had the woman left me, only a pot of drink there
was by the bedside — she had taken even the blankets."
James's melancholy experience was repeated, and the rescue
party who finally took him to the poll, wrapped in a blanket
of their own providing, told me, with blushes, that the rescue
had been an exciting one, for the " ladies of the district "
had set upon them with pokers so effectually that a
complete change of nether garments had been rendered
necessary. " They were in strips, ma'am — they were
indeed."

WEST BELFAST 91
It is difficult just at first for the English mind to grasp
the meaning of the expression we often heard, " It was a
grand churchyard vote, it was that"; or our agent's
pathetic murmur, " I would not have minded their trying
to poll their own dead men, but they were polling ours as
well" — and indeed, in one of our elections, a Nationalist,
acting on this principle, not wisely but too well, recorded
his vote in the name of the Grand Master of an Orange
Lodge lately deceased.
The process is often ingenious. To poll the greatest
possible number, every Nationalist, dead or alive, must
record his vote. The Unionists watch the death-roll with
jealous care to prevent this as far as they can. Our agent
was visiting the houses in a small street. He knocked at
the door of No. 5. "Is Michael Devlin still living here?"
he asked of a little girl about twelve years old. " He is,
sir," she replied. The agent passed on and said presently
to a woman living in the street, " There seem to have been
no changes here at all." " There are not, sir," she said,
'' except that poor Michael Devlin was taken just six weeks
back." So the agent returned to No. 5, "Why did you
tell me your father was still living here, little girl," he
said, " when he died six weeks ago ? " " Ach, sir," was the
instant reply, " sure, I forgot." The agent was expected, the
vote was to be saved, and the lie was ready.
Very different from these Nationalist Catholics were our
supporters, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Covenanters, who
seemed to me to have stepped straight out of the pages
of Sir Walter Scott, and, strong in numbers and in influence,
the much-maligned Orangemen. How characteristic was
the description given to me by one of our " Orange "
friends of the excellent Protestant education that he was
giving to his son. "Brought up, Mrs. Forster, to follow
in the steps of the Rev. Hanna, Johnstone of Ballykilbeg,
and the Great Example." It seemed unintelligent to have
to ask who the Great Example might be, but the reply
for the moment was equally baffling. " Who, ma'am, but
Him on the White Horse ? " A little reflection led me to
understand that no reference to the " Revelations " was
intended, and that the Great Example was William the

92 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
Third " of pious, glorious, and immortal memory," repre
sented in every picture and on every banner, as riding on a
white charger across the River Boyne.
Many more stories of our Belfast election might be
told if space permitted. It would not be easy to give an
impression of the scenes of wild excitement and enthusiasm,
amid which the announcement was made of the Unionist
victory. The mountains that surround Belfast were lighted
with bonfires, and down the principal streets of the city for
two successive nights, bonfires blazed with impunity, in
celebration of the delight of our people in having won back
West Belfast " for the Union."
Harsh criticisms are sometimes passed by English
politicians on the uncompromising nature of the political
and religious beliefs of Ulster, and on the violence of their
expression. But the circumstances under which those
beliefs grew up can only be really understood by a study
on the spot of the surroundings, the history, and conditions
which have made the men and women of the north of
Ireland what they are. Of Oakeley's feeling towards
them some expression is to be found in his letter to his
mother written on the day after his election.
" Belfast, fuly 7th, 1892.
" DARLING MOTHER — The strain of this long struggle
is over at last, and we have won a great and memorable
victory. " The first person to whom my thoughts turn, and to
whom I must write is your dear self. I need hardly tell
you how far above all the scores of other telegrams I have
received from all quarters I value that short message from
Wharfeside. And then there is one other from the beloved
' brother and sister,' who send their message from Ennis.
" Certainly all this outside triumph, pleasant as it is,
would be nothing if it were not added to the love and
sympathy I get from you and from my family.
" I do not deny that I am as pleased as a schoolboy
to have won, simply for the pleasure of winning, and of
having got what I wanted. But I can truly say that the
uppermost feeling in my mind is that of the tremendous

LETTER ON ENTERING PARLIAMENT 93
responsibility and difficulty of the work which has been
laid on my shoulders. This is no ordinary constituency;
the people, men and women, have worked, and prayed, and
wept, and hoped for the victory which they have won.
I can never do all that I ought for them. But I do
believe that my knowledge of what these people are will
do me good, and help to make me something like the kind
of member of parliament which father would have wished
me to be, and which you would like to see me.
" Our victory is great above all expectation. The
people are mad with joy, but perfectly well-behaved. —
Your very loving son."
In the letter that follows, he wrote to his mother, as
he always wrote to her, with the perfect assurance of her
understanding and sympathy, concerning his most intimate
thoughts about the difficulties that he foresaw for himself,
and the responsibility that he recognised in the Parlia
mentary life which was now to begin for him.
To his Mother.
"Written at sea, off CHERBOURG, fuly 30, '92.
"... And now let me thank you, dearest mother, for
your letter, and let me say that what has brought me down
from the deck is the wish to write and tell you how very
dear you are to me, and how specially I shall think of you
on the 1st August, whether this letter reaches you on
that day or not. I cannot tell you what a difference it
makes to me, with my new responsibilities and possibilities,
to know that I have you to share the pleasure with me, and
to help me with the difficulties, which will be many. Some
of the difficulties will come of themselves fast enough.
Others will be of my own making if I do not take great
care. One temptation I think I shall get the better of,
that I mean of talking too much and too soon. In the
first place I don't deny that the idea of opening my mouth
at all in the House of Commons is a formidable one to me,
and I shall have to muster up all my courage whenever I
do face the ordeal. In the second place I am firmly

94 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
convinced that, save under very exceptional circumstances,
the positive duty of a new member, who has any regard for
his own interests, is to keep his eyes and ears open and his
mouth shut for many weeks, and it may be months, after
getting into the House. I am afraid I am more likely to
get into trouble over some of my other failings. I shall
have to try and avoid getting ' across ' with people who are
just as earnest and well - intentioned as myself. I shall
have to avoid being bitter, and above all ' smart.' Also I
shall have to overcome a failing which is not a vice, that
of getting flurried and annoyed by hostile speeches.
These are only a tithe of the pitfalls into which I
may tumble. And, alas ! human nature being what it is,
to be forewarned of one's own deficiencies is not always to
be forearmed against them. If that were the case indeed,
I should be a most exemplary person, for no one could
write a fuller and more accurate catalogue of his own
shortcomings than I. Still, if you see me visibly slipping
into any of the holes I have referred to, or into others, I
shall most truly welcome a warning note from you. I
think I have some advantages on my side. I have, or
should like to have, a great respect for the House of
Commons as an institution. I have a real and deep love
for the country ; and if I can see questions from a long way
off instead of losing their proper perspective and getting
' muddled ' by details and small issues, I think I can usually
get a fair idea of what is worthy or unworthy from the
national point of view. I have not ever yet suffered from
the desire to make money for the sake of making it, nor do
I think that I should become so wedded to Parliamentary
life as to be incapable of leaving it decently. These two
things ought to keep me fairly straight against temptations
to sell my opinions. Only, of course, I know that tempta
tions in the abstract are easily overcome, while, when they
present themselves in a concrete form, it is quite a different
matter. The terrible difficulty must be to know when to
make a reasonable sacrifice of private opinions, for legiti
mate party needs, and when to stand out and go one's own
way. I think the danger often is that men persuade
themselves too easily that duty to their party demands

LETTER TO HIS MOTHER 95
just what personal convenience and interest dictate. On
such points you will be my wisest counsellor. . . ."
"House of Commons Library, txth August 1892.
" My darling Mother — It is only fitting that my
first letter from this place should be to you. Certainly
every step I have taken since I passed the gate in Palace
Yard has brought back memories of the many occasions
when dearest father brought me through the cordon of
watchful guardians who made the approach to the House
so difficult to an outsider.
" My long familiarity with the House as a visitor has,
indeed, stood me in good stead, for not only do I know my
way about, but I have found a smiling friend in almost
every policeman. Nor is it wonderful, for it must now be
nearly twenty-eight years since I first sat up in the Ladies'
Gallery and heard a debate on the American Civil War.
Many a stormy and interesting scene have I witnessed in
the House since that time, and I am sure you can under
stand that I enter now in my own right with many strong
and moving emotions in my heart.
" I am writing this at half-past twelve, having come
down early to take my seat beside T. W. Russell. Where
one sits seems a small matter, but under present circum
stance it has some real importance. Opinion among the
Liberal Unionists seems to me to be rather divided as to
what is the right place for them to take. Personally, I feel
quite clear as to what is the right thing. Nothing but
the severest pressure of party discipline will make me sit
behind a Gladstonian Government which I have been
returned to oppose and destroy. However, for the present,
I propose to sit by Russell and Lea — what is good enough
for them is good enough for me."
In February 1893 Parliament met again. A recent
election in the county of Meath had been the occasion of a
contest between the Parnellite and Anti-Parnellite sections
of the Nationalist Party. The campaign on behalf of the
Anti-Parnellite candidate had been conducted by the priests
of the district, who threw themselves into the contest with

96 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
great energy and determination, and whose electioneering
methods gave rise to a judicial enquiry as to the legality
of their proceedings. The enquiry revealed a story of
intimidation and violence which was startling in the
extreme. The pulpit and the altar had only too often
been used in Ireland as a platform from which politics
were taught, and political action dictated ; but it may be
doubted whether such a condition of affairs as that revealed
by the Meath enquiry could be paralleled ; and that a
constituency so demoralised ought to be disfranchised and
the chief offenders punished, was the conclusion to which
many men on both sides of the House came. It was
decided to move an amendment to the address calling
attention to these disclosures.
It was moved by Oakeley in his first speech in the
House. As he concluded his speech, Sir Charles Russell,
then Attorney-General, wrote to him on a slip of paper,
" I shall have to get up and crush you presently, but you
have done well. My warm congratulations." In after
years he never forgot the sense of help and support which,
as a new member, and one to whom speaking always meant
a severe nervous strain, he felt in Mr. Chamberlain's presence
by his side throughout his speech ; he never forgot this act
of real kindness and encouragement, and often in after life
when he was tired or suffering, and was urged to go out of
the House to rest, he insisted on stopping to hear the
speech of some young member ; and told me that he would
like to feel he had been able to " hand on " the kindness he
had received to some other beginner.
In her letter to me, written on the following day,
Mrs. Forster says : " That the speech should have won
the praise of being both ' studiously moderate in tone and
full of facts and careful research,' is exactly what one could
most desire for my dearest Oakeley's first speech. How
truly glad I am, and how present to me, almost more than
anything, is the immense pleasure and interest and delight
it would have been to dearest father ! . . . Well, darling M.,
it has been a hard week to you both, and things are not
likely to be less interesting or exciting as the Session goes
on. . . .

MAIDEN SPEECH IN THE HOUSE 97
" I enclose to-day's leader in the  . It seems all
but incredible that any one pretending to something of
political knowledge, as the editor of a newspaper must do,
should write in such a random and reckless way. ' Only
give us a Bill — never mind what it is. It may ruin
England, or it may ruin Ireland, or it may leave us
quarrelling as hopelessly as ever, or it may be taken back
by military force by-and-bye. Anyway, let us have SOME
THING, and have done with the question.' Is not that really
what such an article comes to ? And the worst of it is that I
fear that, between ignorance and recklessness, such a feeling
as the article represents is really our greatest danger. And
then the plausible fallacy that every one wants Home Rule
of some sort for Ireland, and what sort does not matter, and
that those who are pleased to see an interchange of courtesies
between the Lord Mayors of Dublin and of London, are in
the same boat with those who want to have an independent
Ireland ! "
To his Mother, on the Occasion of the Second Home Rule Bill.
"The House of Commons,
xyth February 1893.
" Dearest Mother — Here I am waiting in the House
for the beginning of the proceedings, and the revealing of
this long withheld secret.
" . . . It is an immense relief to me to have got over
the ordeal of my first speech here, and to have got through
it, on the whole, well. People have certainly been most
kind to me. I had congratulations from very many quarters,
which have given me great pleasure. Balfour told me that
I had made a first-class speech, and Chamberlain, James,
Lord George Hamilton, and many others, spoke most
warmly. Among my opponents Sir C. Russell, Byles,
Dalzell, and Sir Charles Dilke paid me most kind compli
ments. I admit that I was very nervous before, but didn't
feel at all so while I was on my legs.
" I am sitting up in the Gallery nearly opposite the
Treasury Bench, so hope I shall be able to hear Gladstone
well. In an hour I shall know the whole plot, and you will
have heard it by the time this reaches you. H

98 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
" By the way, I must not forget to tell you that several
Radical members told me they entirely agreed with my
speech, but, of course, could not vote for it, as being a vote
of censure. C, to whom I have not spoken since he
deserted to the enemy, told me that he was so much struck
by the facts I had given, that he did not intend to vote.
He did, as a matter of fact, go home, and did not vote.
Sir Charles Dilke also told me that he had walked out, and
not voted.
"... Gladstone has just come in amidst loud cheers.
Now comes one of those odd intervals to which the House
is accustomed, occupied by giving notices of bills which
will never be brought in, and resolutions which will never
be moved. " Later. — Gladstone has just done. An eloquent perora
tion, but the whole speech as if the Government were ' riding
for a fall.' At least so it appears to me on the first view.
I don't think they mean to pass it, or expect to."
It may hardly be remembered nowadays that in 1892
the national flag was not flown over the Houses of Parlia
ment. The Union Jack, which now floats over the Victoria
Tower when Parliament is sitting, and which is so familiar
a sight to-day, was not there then, and the pole on the
summit of the tower was flagless, except on occasions when
the Queen was present, when the Royal Standard was
displayed. One of Oakeley's first " questions " in the House was to
ask the Government whether, following the example of other
nations, the national flag should not be flown over the
national parliament. The official reply given by the First
Commissioner of Works was to the effect that Westminster
being a royal palace, the Royal Standard alone could be
flown there, and that only when the Sovereign was present,
but in 1893 Mr. Shaw Lefevre gave a different reply.
There was, it seemed, no statutory objection which pre
vented the flag being displayed on the Victoria Tower, but
it would entail a cost which the Government was not pre
pared to face, and a further question elicited the fact that
the estimated cost amounted to an annual sum of twenty-
four pounds. This sum was not on the estimates, and the

AN ACCIDENT ON THE ICE 99
Government was not willing to incur the expense. The
laughter and the wrath that met this announcement reached
us, echoed in letters from distant parts of the Empire, and
from men whom Oakeley had never seen, who wrote offering to
subscribe the twenty-four pounds at once, and begging him
to transmit their offers to the Government. This, of course,
he refused to do. If the nation could not afford to put up
its own flag, no private individual had the right to do so ;
but at intervals for two years he continued to ask the same
question in the House. It was to Mr. Herbert Gladstone
that the honour of having put up the flag at last was due.
When he went to the Office of Works, Oakeley approached
him on the matter, and was invited to put the question
again in the House ; a favourable answer was given, and
the flag has floated there ever since when Parliament is
sitting. I was touched by the words of a working-man,
who, looking up very soon after Oakeley's death, from the
windows of our house in Westminster, to the great Tower
just above us, said to me, "You must like sometimes to
think that he got that flag flown there ; I always remember
him when I see it."
An accident, which might have had a tragic ending,
happened to us in the winter of 1892, a few months
after Oakeley entered Parliament. We had gone to Virginia
Water one December day to skate with our cousin Edward
Arnold and his wife.1 " Whilst we were skating near the
shore we suddenly saw that the ice had broken nearer the
middle of the lake, and that some one had fallen in. We
soon realised that it was Ted who was in the water. Oakeley
skated out towards the place, and saw him clinging to the
edge of the ice about 30 yards away from the strong
part. Some people were gathered there, but no very
practical steps were being taken to get him out. Taking
up one end of a ladder which lay near Oakeley skated
forward with the ladder in front of him, hoping to get
near enough to be able to slide it along to Ted, but when
he got a little way the ice cracked so badly that it was
clear it would not bear him any further ; so lying flat down
on his face, in order to distribute his weight, he crawled on
1 This account is taken from a letter of mine written at the time.

ioo HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
as far as he could, pushing the ladder before him. Minnie
and I watching, saw the ice give way, and saw Oakeley go
under. . . . The men who were standing there tried to
throw him a rope, but it was too short, and did not reach
him, and the ice broke away every time he tried to draw
himself out. ... By breaking the ice with his hands, he
made a sort of passage or channel, and worked his way
along till he got near enough to the rope to be able to get
hold of it. At last he drew himself up flat on to the
surface, and then was hauled along to the strong ice which
would bear, where he got on to his feet again. ... It was
a horrible time of waiting and watching. All this time Ted
was still in the water, a long way further out, and his
position seemed to be getting more and more desperate, for
he had been in the freezing water nearly twenty minutes.
" Another man had been trying to throw a rope to him,
but it was too short. We had sent for a longer rope, and
when this came, Oakeley knotted one cord round his waist,
and started again to creep out as far as possible towards Ted,
hoping to get near enough to him and throw him the longer
rope. But the ice would not bear him, and the men round
us cried out that it was sheer madness, that it was throwing
away his life, and that he should not be allowed to go any
farther ; only a boy of very light weight, properly roped to
the bystanders, could possibly go out safely. Oakeley
offered a reward of ten pounds, and a little lad of about
twelve years old, whose name was Richard Jefferies,1 volun
teered, and, as you know, succeeded. I hope it was not a
great risk — I really believe it was not — but it was a brave
thing to do, and the only chance that was left. We could
not bear to look when he threw the rope, for the fear was so
terrible that Ted would be too much exhausted to be able to
pull himself out ; but he managed to do it somehow ; and
then we started to get them both up to the little inn near
by, where we had sent to beg the people to get blankets,
hot water, and fires ready. Oakeley was in his shirt sleeves,
his clothes literally frozen on to him."
1 The medal and testimonials of the Royal Humane Society were given to
R. Jefferies and to Oakeley.

CHAPTER VI
" The misfortune and vice of our country is to think ourselves better than
other men, which I take to be the reason that we generally send too small a
force to execute our designs. Let us see to it that we do not now underrate our
possible enemies, and that we do not maintain afloat too small a force to insure
us against the evil that threatens." From a letter of Sir Cloudesley Shovel, 1702.
Parliamentary life and work — Naval questions in Parliament — The
condition of the Training Ships — The Chartered Company and
other South African questions in Parliament.
THERE is a real difficulty in telling the story of the active
years of a man's work and life in Parliament without
making it a record tedious to read, by dwelling too much on
efforts and achievements which pass away soon from our
memory, as all political things do ; or without, on the other
hand, passing too lightly and superficially over work and
objects that he cared for greatly, and for which he felt it was
worth while to give up the best years of his life. Some few
men in each generation realise with great distinctness the
reform or the policy which is for them the thing of all others
best worth aiming at and striving for. Such a clear realisa
tion gives concentration and intensity to their efforts, and to
the presentment of their case.
If their efforts are crowned with success ; and the policy
they have advocated is at last adopted, and becomes part of
the national policy, they must be counted fortunate in their
work, for their great object has been gained, and they have
helped to make the cause succeed on which their hearts were
set. The way in which their particular battles were won
will soon be forgotten and cease to have interest. But the
policy remains, and on the broad lines of it, by its soundness
and its advantage to the state the man's political record
will be judged. The spirit in which he did his work, the

102 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
sincerity that directed it, the point of view from which he
looked at great national questions, and viewed them in rela
tion to one another, these may have a lasting interest long
after the details of his efforts, his successes, or his failures
are forgotten. In the case of Oakeley's political life a comparatively
simple and direct story has to be told, and one in which
party politics have no large place, because apart from the
subject of the Union, he hardly ever spoke in the House of
Commons, excepting on the Naval and Military questions to
which he gave so great a part of his life.
There were also a few occasions when he put forward
some aspect of Imperial Federation, or spoke on some of
the problems of our South African colonies and depend
encies. The story could not be told at all without describing the
outlines of the work that he did for the Navy and for the
Army during the years of his life in Parliament. But it
can be told chiefly in his own words, for, as I have said,
writing was to him the easiest and most natural method of
expressing himself, and he wrote regularly and fully on the
subjects on which he spoke in the House, and with which
his mind was occupied. It can be told also in broad and
simple outline, without touching on personalities, or paying
overmuch attention to details whose interest has passed
away. It would be very badly and imperfectly told if it
did not show something of the spirit of sincerity and of
devotion to a high ideal which guided his whole political
life. Even those who were his opponents, and who objected
to the vehemence with which he expressed his beliefs, saw
in him a " brave fighter " whose courage no pain or suffering
could quench, whose sincerity was never questioned. A
devotion to great ideals so disinterested and single-hearted,
a courage and hopefulness that could not be conquered
even by mortal illness, are not qualities so common as to
pass wholly unnoticed and unremembered by a man's
generation. The remembrance of these and of other
qualities that those who knew him best recognised and
loved, are summed up in these words written by Mr. George
Wyndham : —

THE HOME RULE SESSION 103
" During the last few years I perhaps had a closer oppor
tunity than others for realising his courage and patriotism
and unselfishness. I do not think that any other ' fighter '
of our time combined so much conviction for his cause with
such deep personal modesty. His great courage and
wonderful unselfishness appealed to me, and if you will
allow me to say so, made me love him."
Oakeley entered Parliament at a stormy and critical
time in its history, when the whole attention of the House
of Commons was necessarily given up for two sessions to
the consideration of Mr. Gladstone's second Home Rule
Bill. The long fight over the Bill was carried on by the
small Gladstonian majority, and by the keen and excited
Unionist minority, compact and ably led, that had been
returned to Parliament to oppose and to expose the Bill.
The feelings of men on both sides of the House ran high,
and the stringent use of the closure, as it was applied to
clause after clause, and to the speeches even of the Unionist
leaders, produced a feeling of bitterness and exasperation
such as had been previously almost unknown in English
politics, and which was slow to pass away. In his frequent
letters to his mother, written during these debates, he tells
her of the condition of strain and excitement of the House
of Commons, and of the " moral violence of this shameless
closuring," by means of which the great constitutional
changes proposed by the Bill were to be forced without
discussion through the House. " The House is in a turmoil
of excitement and confusion," he writes in an interval
between divisions in July 1893. "As indeed it well may
be. Three clauses and a half creating a new Legislature
and a new Executive passed without explanation or dis
cussion ; Balfour closured in the middle of his speech.
There have been howling and cheering, interjections, shouts,
everything to make one hotter on this hot night. We got
them down to 15 on clause 6. Some honest Radicals
(eight of them) voting against the property qualification and
four walking out. The last division has taken up their
numbers from 35 to 36, Villiers having gone home. There
is, despite all the real excitement, a shade of unreality in
the whole performance, arising from the knowledge in every

104 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
one's mind that this Bill, whatever happens ultimately, will
not become law."
In these debates his intimate knowledge of the personnel
and past history of the Irish Nationalist organisations stood
him in good stead, and was often called into requisition, and
was freely acknowledged by the Unionist leaders.
On the other Irish questions which took up so much of
the time of this Parliament he spoke but seldom, but the
facts which he had taken so much trouble to acquire, and
which he knew with so much accuracy of detail, were always
at the service of the leaders of the Unionist party, and have
been freely and cordially acknowledged by them. Amongst
the political friends to whom he was at this time especially
drawn by reason of their defence of Unionist principles were
Colonel Saunderson, at once the keenest of fighters, and one
of the best loved men in the House, Mr. Atkinson, now Lord
Atkinson, William Ellison Macartney and Sir Edward
Carson, whose maiden speech in support of Oakeley's
candidature at Dewsbury will never be forgotten by the
Yorkshire audience that heard him.
The " Home Rule " session lasted through the autumn
of 1893, and the Bill was rejected by the House of Lords
in the month of November.
" You will have seen the accounts ofthe Ulster Assembly,"
Oakeley wrote to his sister of one of the great meetings of
protest held in Belfast in November. " It was a wonderful
success, all the more wonderful to those who know, as I do,
the materials for difference, and even for very sharp difference,
which were brought together by the Assembly. The success
of the meeting was due entirely to the self-restraint and
mutual forbearance of many men of many views. The
election of the Ulster Council was also a notable achieve
ment. An attempt was made to ' caucus ' the election, but
the bulk of the Orangemen had far too much good sense to
make such a mistake. They voted for the best men, and
nothing could have been better or more sensible. It was
pleasing to me to contrast the stately and inspiriting pro
ceedings in Belfast, with the bear-fight which was going on
on the same day at the Federation meeting in Dublin." This
letter goes on to speak of the subject which now occupied

INSUFFICIENCY OF THE NAVY, 1892-93 105
most of Oakeley's time and thought, namely, the condition
of the Navy, a question the gravity and importance of which
he felt at that time could not be overestimated.
" I am glad to say the House does not seem likely to
give me much to do this session ; the only chance of my
having to do anything before Christmas is if a debate can
be raised on the condition of the Navy. I cannot exaggerate
the gravity of the present situation, nor the danger to which
the country is exposed. The letters I get and the facts
I know are really terrifying.
" Sanguine speeches like those recently made by Lord
Spencer and Sir Ughtred Kay-Shuttleworth do infinite
harm ; they are incorrect and utterly misleading. On
Tuesday I am going down to dine and sleep at Chatham
to see Beresford. On Wednesday we have a special meet
ing of the Chamber of Commerce to discuss the condition
of the Navy, and the steps to be taken. In one way or
another I hope to be able to make people sit up. But I do
assure you that grave as is the danger which in my opinion
threatens the country from this Home Rule business, it is
far less than that which may be upon us any day,
owing to our neglect of ordinary elementary precautions to
preserve our control of the sea."
Improvements in the condition of the Navy, and its
state of preparedness for war, had been made in the years
that had elapsed since 1884, administrative reforms had
been carried out, our fleets had been reinforced, and the
personnel of the Navy had been added to.
Under the Naval Defence Act of 1889 the financial
position of the Navy had improved, but this Act, valuable
as it was, was inadequate, because it failed sufficiently to
take into account the fact that whilst we were building ships,
other European Powers were building in the hope of out
stripping us. Real as was the advance that we had made,
the efforts of France and Russia, who were anxious to out
distance us in shipbuilding, were gradually enabling their
dockyards to reduce the English superiority in ships and
equipment. The preparations of the French Admiralty
were being pushed forward with great energy, and Russia
was closely following in the steps of France.

106 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
That the British Navy was not so strong as it should
have been ; that our position in the Mediterranean was
gravely imperilled, and that we required more officers and
men, as well as more ships, were conclusions that were
forced upon all students of naval questions in 1893. Once
more the public and the House of Commons awakened to
the fact that our maritime supremacy was gravely threatened,
and that the Navy in its condition at that time would be
insufficient to fulfil all the duties which it would be called
upon to perform in the event of war. It seems almost as
though it were a necessary, although a most unfortunate
and extravagant feature of our system of administration,
that at intervals of time, generally about every five or six
years, the Government of the day should have to be recalled
to a sense of its duties with regard to the Navy, and that
the country should be confronted with the necessity of doing
in haste what it had omitted to do at leisure.
By means of articles, speeches, and letters throughout the
years 1892- 1893, Oakeley and others who thought with
him endeavoured to enforce their belief that, in the
essentials of ships, men, and guns, we were losing our position
of superiority. Lord Charles Beresford, writing in June 1893
and in the November of the same year, also preached this
lesson vigorously, and set forth a programme which he
looked upon as the minimum that would be required to place
us on an equality with our rivals.
Including vessels built, building and proposed, the British
Navy was, as compared to the combined navies of France
and Russia, at a disadvantage, to the extent of 9 first-
class battleships, 3 second-class battleships, 1 third-class
battleship, 8 armoured cruisers, and 9 coast defence ships.
The standard that was considered necessary, and that
was demanded by the reformers of the day was an ironclad
fleet equal to the combined fleets of any two powers which
might be arrayed against us ; whilst for our cruiser fleet a
higher standard was demanded, " seeing that we get our
food by way of the sea, and that alone among the great
nations of the world we are dependent upon trade routes for
our daily bread and meat." 1
1 H. O. A.-F. in an article in the Daily Graphic.

INSUFFICIENCY OF THE NAVY, 1892-93 107
" My hope is that, say four years hence, we may have
in ironclads, ship for ship, the vessels which France and
Russia will then have ready. A steadily pursued policy,
begun at once, of laying down ironclad for ironclad, and
two cruisers for one, will keep us always in our proper
position, and save us from the necessity of future agitations
and scares."
The weakness of our Mediterranean Fleet especially was
criticised by naval officers and other writers on the subject.
So long as our policy demands that we should remain in
the Mediterranean, it is clearly necessary that our fleet there
should be one of sufficient strength to be ready for any
emergency. That it was a dangerously weak fleet in 1893
was only too well known ; and its weakness was rendered
so grave by the unprotected condition of the Gibraltar
dockyard, that the state of Gibraltar seemed to Oakeley and
to many others to be among the most pressing and urgent
of naval questions.
" It is not a question," he wrote, " which requires technical know
ledge or a profound acquaintance with naval strategy for its compre
hension. On the contrary, the real point at issue is one which any
man of common sense can understand. Either Gibraltar is a naval
base or it is nothing. If it be incapable of furnishing a refuge and a
repairing station in time of war, it is not only useless but a most
dangerous possession, for it fosters illusions which the first day of war
must shatter to pieces. It is absolutely certain that it does not and
cannot fulfil the primary duties of a naval base. There is a dockyard,
but there is no dock ; there is an anchorage, but the anchorage is
totally unprotected. To attempt to carry on warlike operations at sea,
a thousand miles from a repairing base, is a folly — a folly which in this
case may easily lead to the destruction of our whole Mediterranean
fleet, and our downfall as a naval power. It may be good policy to
hold the Mediterranean, it may be good policy to withdraw from the
Mediterranean altogether, but to attempt to hold the Mediterranean
without providing the means of protecting and repairing injured ships
at Gibraltar is not a policy at all. It is a mere act of recklessness, the
outcome neither of reason nor policy."
Of our guns and torpedo equipment he pointed out that
53 per cent of our ironclads were armed with guns of a
model that had been abandoned by the other great Powers
twenty years previously, nearly a hundred of our vessels
being still armed with muzzle-loading guns of a bygone

i oS HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
generation. He showed also that the French torpedo flotilla,
which was kept always in readiness for service, with a
special crew attached to each vessel, was far superior in
organisation to our own torpedo service ; and he vigorously
supported Lord Charles Beresford's demand that faster
torpedo-boat destroyers and faster torpedo boats should be
among the additions to be made to our Navy. The question
of personnel was an equally important and pressing one,
and that a large increase in the numbers, both of officers
and men, was necessary, was a point on which all the naval
experts and writers of the day were agreed. Concerning
this shortage Oakeley wrote : —
"Although we are happily in a state of profound peace, and
although only a comparatively small portion of this fleet is in com
mission, nearly 90 per cent of all the executive and engineer officers
who are at the disposal of the Admiralty are in actual employment, and
if every reserve officer were available we should still lack 208 executives
and 180 engineers, nor have we any provision for filling up vacancies
caused by sickness or death. I say, therefore, without hesitation, that
the needs of the situation demand that the active list shall as soon as
possible be increased, until there are 200 captains, 320 commanders
and staff commanders, 1500 lieutenants, and 380 sub-lieutenants.
This would bring up the total strength of these ranks from 1508 to
2400. Lest any one should hastily cry out against the suggestion, I may
say that the total strength of the corresponding ranks of the active lists
(1892) ofthe French and Russian navies is 2690.
Similarly the engineers' branch should be increased until there are
200 fleet and staff engineers, 400 chief engineers and engineers, and
500 assistant engineers, or 1 100 in all ; instead of 726 as at present.
Makeshifts, save under the weightiest pressure of circumstances, ought
never to be employed instead of them. Yet to commission all our
vessels, which are not at present flying the pennant, we have in reserve,
including even those who may be sick or otherwise temporarily unavail
able, only 10.6 per cent of our whole force. . . .
In lieu of the 70,493 naval officers, seamen and royal marines
who are at present nominally available for service afloat, we need a
total of 90,000. France and Russia together have a total of 84,000 ;
exclusive of their enormous reserves, and of their marine infantry and
artillery. And in proportion as the officers of executive rank are in
creased, so should the numbers of the warrant officers be added to, for
the warrant officers are the salt of the navy. With fewer than 90,000
officers and men, we shall not, say in 1895, be able t0 employ the full
force of such fleets as we shall then possess ; and if we have ships with
out skilled and adequate crews, we shall only in the next war provide
our enemies with vessels to be used against us."

INSUFFICIENCY OF THE NAVY, 1892-93 109
When Parliament reassembled in February 1894 the
experiences of naval reformers in 1884 were repeated.
Their contentions were in each case strenuously denied by
the official spokesmen of the Government ; but in each case
the efforts of those who desired an increase in the strength
of the Navy were successful, and their demands were followed
by programmes of new construction and reform. In each
case the House of Commons and the country were assured
that the agitation that preceded them had had no influence
upon the production of the Government programmes.
The naval estimates of 1894 in many important
particulars, were considered by the reform party fairly
to meet the claims which they had urged, and to set out a
scheme of additions to the Navy which would be of the
greatest service if carried out. On one of the most important
points, however, the programme of the Government gave
them no satisfaction. Out of a sum of £771,000 to be
expended on the construction of the dockyard and mole at
Gibraltar, the sum of ^1000 only was put down on the
estimates as the amount to be expended in the year 1894.
It was difficult to understand, as Oakeley pointed out in the
House of Commons, why, unless it were for the purposes of
an advertisement, this vote should have been brought into
the estimates at all in this form.
Until the Gibraltar question was fairly and honestly
faced he contended that the safety of our Mediterranean
fleet and our supremacy at sea were gravely imperilled.
To his Mother. " Belfast, oth November 1893.
"... I have had little to do in the House of late, but
outside I have been far from idle. In the first place, I have
been busy with my book. Then I have been working hard
about the Navy — seeing people, arranging matters with the
Times, and completing my facts.
"Yesterday we succeeded in getting the Chamber of
Commerce to take the matter up, and we have appointed a
committee which I hope will prove both strong and active.
I have had long talks about the present state of things with

no HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
Balfour, Lord George Hamilton, and many others. Balfour
is admirable about it. He says I need never mind coming
to him about the condition of the Navy ; there is no subject
nearer his heart, and he will help us in any way that he
possibly can. From many men I should not value such
assurances a pinch of snuff, but I do value them very much
coming from Balfour."
Shortly after he entered the House of Commons Oakeley
was invited by the members of the Service Committee in
the House to join their number. This was an acknowledg
ment of his work on naval and military questions which gave
him great pleasure. I believe that, at that time, Sir Charles
Dilke was the only other civilian member, unconnected with
either of the services, who belonged to the Committee.
Oakeley served on it as long as he was an unofficial member
of the House, only leaving it when he became Secretary to
the Admiralty. In conjunction with Sir Charles Dilke, Sir
John Colomb, and others who held similar views of Imperial
defence, useful work was done in connection with the Army
and Navy Estimates in the House, and valuable discussions
were held in which the broad principles underlying all ques
tions of Imperial defence were gradually formulated. In
Oakeley's subsequent work on these subjects he remained in
close touch with these friends ; they worked together as far
as possible, and he owed much to their help and counsel.
In the autumn of 1893 when Oakeley was advocating
a large increase of personnel in the Navy, he became aware
that the deficiency of accommodation in our training ships
was so grave that room could not be found on them for the
full complement of boys allowed by the Navy Estimates.
Some of these ships were indeed crammed to overflowing,
and the overcrowded state of the Devonport training ships
was causing the greatest anxiety to those who realised their
condition. Oakeley went down himself to Plymouth, visited
the ships, and made a most thorough investigation of the
Impregnable. In the autumn session of Parliament he put
a series of questions to the Secretary to the Admiralty as to
their condition, and as to the sickness and mortality on
board. The reply given by Sir Ughtred Kay-Shuttleworth

THE TRAINING SHIPS in
was that : " No reports have been received by the Admiralty
from the medical officers as to cases of sickness or death
attributable to overcrowding." 1
Statistics as to the illness and mortality on board the
ships for the year 1893 were pressed for in Parliament but
were not given ; although the facts asked for could have
been obtained by any representative of the Admiralty
within half an hour of setting foot on board the ships.
The official figures which were forthcoming for the year
1892 showed, however, that in that year alone 30 boys
had died on board the Impregnable, whilst 150 were
invalided out of the service. The figures for 1893 were
not to be had, but it came to our knowledge that no less
than 8 boys died on board the Impregnable and Lion in the
first three weeks of February 1894. "The boys here are
dying like flies " wrote one who knew all the circumstances
and who was on the spot, " For God's sake do all you can,
and do it quickly." The overcrowding was indeed so
serious that but for the fact that 220 boys were laid up in
hospital, the ships could not have accommodated the full
number of boys voted by Parliament. In a letter to the
Plymouth papers in January 1893 Oakeley wrote —
" The boys in the Impregnable and Lion are the pick of
the class from which they come ; they are avowedly selected
on account of their good physique and sound constitution ;
they live in one of the healthiest parts of England ; they
are well-fed, and are or ought to be safeguarded by every
precaution known to sanitary and medical science. And
yet what do we find with regard to these two ships in 1892?
The Secretary to the Admiralty intimated that during that
year the health of the two ships left something to be
desired ; I rather think it did.
" The following table shows the death-rate in the
Impregnable and Lion as compared with other death-rates.
1 If this answer meant that a particular form of document, written on a
particular sized paper and known to an Admiralty clerk as a " report," had not
been received, the answer may have been technically correct. But if the answer
meant that verbal or written communications had not reached the Admiralty
expressing the opinion of the medical officers that the grave overcrowding of the
ships was resulting in sickness and death, the answer was not only misleading
but quite untrue.

112 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
The second table makes a similar comparison in the
matter of invaliding.
i. Death-rate per iooo on home station (between 15 and 25 years)
4.63 ; do., on board H.M.S. Britannia, 4.8.
On board the four other training ships, viz. Boscawen, Caledonia,
Ganges, and Vincent, 5.22; general death-rate of navy, 5.58; death-
rate on West African station (including Gold Coast), 8. 1 ; Impregnable
and Lion, 12.26, showing an excess in the death-rate of the Impreg-
?iable and Lion of 51 per cent over the West African station,1 121 per
cent over the general rate of the navy, 134 per cent over the other
four training ships, 157 over the Britannia, and 166 per cent over the
home station (between 15 and 25).
2. Invaliding rate per 1000 — H.M.S. Britannia, 6.6; home
station, 21.63; average for the navy, 26.21 ; four other training ships,
26.49; West African station, 40.54; Impregnable and Lion, 55.76;
showing an excess in the invaliding rate of the Impregnable and Lion
of 37 per cent over the West African station, no per cent over the
four other training ships, 112 over the average for the navy, 157 per
cent over the home station, and 744 per cent over the Britannia.
" I think you will admit that in face of these astounding
figures I had some reason to ask for information with
regard to these two ships. I am sorry that the particulars
with regard to 1892 should only come into my hands in
the beginning of 1894. I suppose I shall not have accurate
figures respecting 1893 until January 1895. Meanwhile,
however, I have seen enough with my own eyes to make me
certain that the two training ships are not adequate for the
work they have to do."
He wrote also on the same subject in the National
Review in May 1894 — "The Impregnable was shamefully
overcrowded. The boys' schoolroom, which is simply the
after cabin of the ship, would be condemned by any school
inspector and closed within twenty-four hours. It holds no
fewer than 460 boys, who sit jammed together in serried
rows. The result of the overcrowding was deadly sickness
among them. To say that the overcrowding was killing
the boys is not an overstatement. Many died of a combina
tion of pneumonia and meningitis, a combination which
medical men tell me is the direct result of the overcrowding
1 A champion of the official view who took up the cudgels on behalf of the
Admiralty in the British Medical fournal made the odd blunder of pointing out
that in the particular years taken for comparison, the West African station, bad
as its usual record is, had been abnormally unhealthy and dangerous.

THE TRAINING SHIPS "3
of human beings. There is no proper recreation ground for
the ship, hence it has been necessary to cover the deck with
a heavy awning to allow exercises upon the upper deck in
bad weather. In winter, when the awning is stretched and
the lower ports closed, as they have to be, the air becomes
foul and unwholesome, the ship ' sweats,' and the health of
the boys suffers."
The grave condition thus revealed had made a deep
impression on Oakeley's mind. The letter written to the
Plymouth papers appeared on 18th January 1894. Five
days later orders were sent down to fit temporary hammocks
and racks on board the Calcutta, a hulk attacked to the
Cambridge, and 300 boys were subsequently removed to that
vessel. On the 12th February another 300 boys were
drafted into the Black Prince, which was hurriedly called
into requisition.
The official answers given in the House were to the
unofficial mind so wholly misleading that questions had to
be repeatedly and urgently pushed home before the true
facts of the case could be elicited,
If this subject has been dwelt upon with some insistence
and at some length, it is because it was one on which
Oakeley felt deeply, and because his steady persistence in
bringing the facts before the public was eventually success
ful in getting the graver evils removed. A deep and strong
feeling was aroused in the House of Commons and the
country. The radical changes which had to be made in
the arrangements on board the training-ships, were proof, if
proof were needed, that reforms were urgently required.
The year 1895 saw the dissolution of Parliament and a
General Election. There had been many rumours of a
Nationalist candidate to stand for the seat in West Belfast.
At the last moment Oakeley was unopposed, but the prob
ability of opposition had the result of rallying all his friends
together, and of doubling their zeal and energy. It would
be invidious, where so many helped us so greatly, to single
out the names of a few, but the kindness we received was
never to be forgotten, so warm-hearted and so ungrudging
was it, and the committees of men and of women alike did
splendid and loyal service. I

114 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
The Liberal majority in the House of Commons was
swept away in this election, and Lord Salisbury's Govern
ment came back into power.
Under Mr. Goschen's administration of the Admiralty
much was now accomplished for the Navy that Oakeley had
pressed for in past years, and he gladly found himself able
to support and not to criticise the policy of a Board with
which he was so much in sympathy.
Oakeley's father had taken so constant an interest in
South African affairs, and especially in all that concerned
the native races of South Africa, that it was natural that
his son should inherit and continue much of that interest.
Mr. Forster's intimate knowledge, and his strong and
balanced judgment, made him a very wise and helpful
counsellor to those who wished to ensure that, in its dealings
with the native races, the Imperial Government should act
justly and generously, and should faithfully observe its
obligations towards them.
In South Africa during the last quarter of the nineteenth
century there were a number of very difficult questions
awaiting solution, all of which called for a definite and
consistent line of policy on the part of the Imperial Govern
ment. They were problems that both by inheritance and
conviction were full of interest to Oakeley ; and many of his
articles, written for Mr. Henley, for the Nineteenth Century,
and for the Times, were written on the questions of Delagoa
Bay, of Swaziland, Basutoland, and Bechuanaland, and later
on the subject of the Chartered Company. He spoke in the
House, and gave so much work for many years to these
South African questions that they cannot be passed over
without notice, although to give any full and detailed
account of each of them would involve a history far too
long and too complicated to be in place here ; whilst any
such account would of necessity fall far short of what
would be required by a student of South African problems
and history. I shall, therefore, only refer briefly to
one or two points which he believed to be of special
moment, on which he laid stress in writing and speaking,
and which seem also to have a general and permanent
importance, outlasting the time at which he wrote of them.

PROPOSED CESSION OF BECHUANALAND 115
Our relations to the chiefs and people of Bechuanaland, the
Constitutional question that was involved in the status and
position of our Imperial representative in South Africa, and
the general problem of the delegation of powers of govern
ment to chartered companies, may be taken as typical
questions of this kind.
A grave crisis in the history of the Bechuana people
in 1888, brought before the attention of this country and of
Parliament the question of the responsibility of the Imperial
Government towards them.
British Bechuanaland, a great and fertile province, whose
tribes were friendly to this country, had been repeatedly
raided and despoiled by marauding parties of Boers from
the adjacent Transvaal. A party in Cape Colony, in order
to secure peace and tranquillity, had been quite willing to
hand over the Bechuanas to the government of President
Kruger. The Bechuana chiefs, however, appealed to Great
Britain for protection and help, and, after many delays on
the part of the Home Government, Sir Charles Warren's
expedition was sent out in 1884, and at a great cost restored
order to the country, which was henceforward administered
as a Crown Colony and ruled by the Imperial authorities.
It was the earnest desire of the native population, and of
their chief Montsioia, that this rule should be maintained,
and their rights and their country safeguarded by Great
Britain. In the year 1888 the cession of British Bechuanaland to
Cape Colony began, notwithstanding the protests of Mont
sioia and the declared policy of the Imperial Government,
to be advocated by a large party at the Cape, who desired
to annex these territories, which were becoming prosperous
and valuable. Pressure was brought to bear on the Colonial
Office to induce the Home Government to accede to the
desire of Cape Colony, and to surrender the rights which
it exercised as trustee for the people of the United Kingdom,
at whose expense the territory had been reduced to order,
and had been administered through years of difficulty and
danger. Against this demand of Cape Colony it was pointed
out that British Bechuanaland was a possession of value to

116 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
the Empire ; and that by holding it we should keep open,
and in our own hands, an important highway to the interior
clear of the Transvaal.
But apart from these considerations of policy and
interest, Oakeley urged that the ill-success of Cape Colony
in its relations with native races and in its administration of
their territories, would make it a betrayal of trust were we
to hand over the Bechuanas, against their will, to a Govern
ment which had in the past mismanaged the Basuto and
their lands ; and which had forced the sale of drink on the
people of Kaffraria contrary to their expressed protests, and
to the infinite harm of their country.
A speech made in the year 1888 by Sir Hercules
Robinson, who was High Commissioner of South Africa
and Governor of Cape Colony, recommending the cession
of Bechuanaland, revealed very clearly the invidious position
in which the High Commissioner was placed ; and gave
force to the argument which Oakeley had long been urging,
that the double nature of this office might easily make it an
exceedingly difficult and questionable one. He pointed out
that as High Commissioner, Sir Hercules Robinson was
responsible to the Imperial Government for the welfare of
all our South African territories. As Governor of Cape
Colony he was bound to consider the special interests of
Cape Colony, and to act in accordance with the advice of
the Cape Ministers, who were representatives of the majority
for the time being in the Colony. It was natural to suppose,
and it was the fact, that the interests of the Imperial Govern
ment, and of the large native and English populations com
mitted to his charge, did not on all occasions correspond
with the interests of the majority in Cape Colony. When
these interests conflicted, as they did in such a question
as the proposed cession of Bechuanaland, the High Com
missioner was obliged to elect whether to do his duty as
High Commissioner responsible to the Imperial Govern
ment, or as Governor of Cape Colony responsible to Cape
Ministers. That the High Commissionership should be separated
from the governorship of Cape Colony, and that an Im
perial officer should be appointed, charged with the duty

PROPOSED CESSION OF BECHUANALAND 117
of administering the extra-Colonial territories in the interests
of their inhabitants, were the constitutional reforms that
Oakeley pressed for. The protests that were made in this
country — to which added weight was given by a speech of
Lord Goschen's — and the protests of the Bechuana people,
were listened to by the Home Government, in so far that
the administration of British Bechuanaland remained un
changed ; but the anomaly of the double office was not
brought to an end ; and when Mr. Rhodes held the High
Commissionership he combined with it the office of Cape
Premier as well.
The following letter, written in 1891, sums up forcibly
the situation as Oakeley saw it at that date : —
" Consider what are the offices which Mr. Rhodes fills, and what
are the responsibilities attached to them. In the first place, Mr.
Rhodes is Premier of the Cape Colony, and as such advises the
Governor of the Cape, who, as a constitutional Governor, is bound to
follow the counsels of his Minister in all matters within the Colony. But
the Governor of the Cape is Her Majesty's High Commissioner in
South Africa. It will be said that the High Commissioner, although
he is bound to follow the advice of his Premier qud Governor, can snap
his fingers at him qud High Commissioner. Unluckily this is not so.
By an incredible piece of blundering, the Colonial Office has made the
High Commissioner the servant of the Cape Minister. An addition of
,£2000 was recently made to the salary of the Governor on account of
his services as Imperial High Commissioner. The Colonial Office has
positively allowed the Cape Parliament to undertake the payment of
this sum. It is an old saying that 'who pays the piper calls the tune.'
If the High Commissioner does not happen to please the Premier of
the Cape Colony, the Premier can stop the High Commissioner's salary.
That is the plain English of the situation. But this is only the begin
ning of the complication. Mr. Rhodes is not only Premier of the Cape
Colony and paymaster of the High Commissioner, but he is also
manager of the largest mining concern in South Africa — a land of
mines, in which the mining law is still in a state of transition. At this
moment, I believe, the mining laws which may make or mar the
fortunes of every man who has an investment, or who holds land in
South Africa, are under review at Cape Town, and the head of the
Administration which will decide the ultimate form of these laws is the
manager of the De Beers Mine and the moving spirit of half a dozen
similar enterprises. But this is not all. Outside the Cape Colony lies
the great territory of Bechuanaland. Over this immense tract, nomin
ally under the control of the Imperial Government, the High Commis
sioner is practically an autocratic Governor. The High Commissioner
governs the Crown Colony, and we have already seen who governs the
High Commissioner.

118 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
Once more we go northward, and we come to the great area which
has been handed over to the tender mercies of the Chartered Company.
But who and what is the Chartered Company ? The Chartered Com
pany is Mr. Rhodes, its general manager, manager of the De Beers
Mine, Premier of the Cape Colony, and adviser to the High Commis
sioner. And when we ask, ' What is the Chartered Company ? ' the
answer is that it is a company organised for the purpose of making
money, and to which we have handed over just enough of our sovereign
rights to leave us entire responsibility for its actions, without the
slightest effective control over its policy. It may be urged that in the
Chartered Company Mr. Rhodes is only one among a number of
colleagues of equal power and importance. I have a great respect
for some of the directors of the Chartered Company, but I confess I
have no information which leads me to believe that they are qualified,
if occasion should arise, to take a line of their own, if that line does
not happen to be the one which is adopted by the Premier of the Cape
Colony. It will be said that the combination of these various offices and
responsibilities in the hands of one man is accidental, that Mr. Rhodes
is beyond reproach, and that he is able to discharge his many duties
without allowing public and personal interests to come into conflict.
Very likely in the present instance such a reply would be justifiable,
but I maintain that it is not fair to subject any man to the trial which
such a false position must in the nature of things impose upon him.
It is desirable that in matters connected with the administration of the
Empire there should not only be no grounds for suspicion, but that there
should be no room for it. It is possible that if the late High Com
missioner had been quite independent of the Cape Colony and of Cape
interests, he would still have expressed his approval of the terms of
the Rudd concession. But unquestionably the commendation would
have had more weight if it had not come from an official who spoke
under direct inspiration of Cape politicians, and who had a deep
interest in the commercial undertaking with which Mr. Rudd's name
was closely associated.
Again, it may be ideally right that the policy of the Imperial
Government should be stultified by the concessions of the enormous
land grants on either side of the projected Bechuanaland Railway. It
may be right that the control of the Crown Colony should thus by a
side-wind be transferred to the Cape Colony and the Chartered Com
pany. But the wisdom of the policy would, I think, be more universally
recognised if the Premier of the Cape Colony at one end and the
manager of the Chartered Company at the other did not happen to be
the same person.
With regard to Mr. Rhodes himself, it will be said that to object to
a Minister having a pecuniary interest in the country which he serves
is an absurd piece of purism, and that we should never think of apply
ing such a self-denying ordinance in this country. I admit the fact ;
but England is not Mashonaland. No one could object to Lord
Salisbury or Mr. Gladstone when in office plunging up to the neck in
railway or land speculations in the United Kingdom. They would

CHARTERED COMPANY GOVERNMENT 119
have no more power over the conditions which affected their enterprises
than any other shareholder. But if Sir John Lawrence, at the time
when all the Punjab lay at his feet, had headed a great North of India
Land Company, in which he held 10,000 shares, and out of which he
drew many thousands of pounds of profit, his conduct would have been
criticised, and a precedent — not, I think, without value at the present
time — would have been established.
I bear Mr. Rhodes no ill-will ; nor do I suppose that at this stage
it is possible to go back upon the past. But I do hold most distinctly
that the position which Mr. Rhodes occupies is a most unfortunate one
for himself, for South Africa, and for this country. He may say and
do everything that is right and wise. I am sure I hope he will. But
I want Englishmen to understand that when the Premier of the Cape
Colony speaks, the manager of the De Beers Mine, and of the Chartered
Company speaks also ; and that when the High Commissioner, the
autocratic ruler of more than half of British South Africa, performs
an administrative act, he performs it by and with the advice of the
Premier of the Cape Colony, the manager of the De Beers Mine, and
the manager of the Chartered Company."
On no constitutional question did Oakeley feel more
strongly than on the institution of Chartered Companies as a
method of carrying on the government of any part of the
Empire. The attacks that he made were made, not on indi
viduals, nor on any Chartered Company in its character as a
trading concern, but on a Chartered Company in its character
of delegate of the authority of the state. Long before the
" Raid " brought shame and disaster on the South African
Chartered Company, he had written and spoken strongly
about other actions of the Company which he thought
reflected discredit upon it and upon England ; particularly
its action with regard to mining rights in Lobengula's
country, and its transactions with President Kruger with
regard to Swaziland.
But independently of all such criticism of its actions,
independently of the fitness or unfitness of any particular
Chartered Company to carry out the task of Government
entrusted to it, he dwelt on the inherent objection that
he saw in government by such associations. In his own
words : —
" What is the true root objection to a Chartered Company ? Surely
it is plain enough. It is this : that a Chartered Company can only be
established by confusing two things which are absolutely irreconcilable
and ought never to be associated. I mean the prerogative of governing

i20 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
men on the one hand, and the desire of making money on the other.
The right to govern men is one of the very highest duties which can
be entrusted to a man or body of men. The pursuit of money cannot
be described in any such terms. It is not necessary to speak evil of
money-hunting ; every man in his station and degree is a money-
hunter — that is to say, he tries to earn money by the exercise of his
strength, his wits, his ingenuity, or his hands. There are millions of
honest men engaged in the pursuit, there are also, without doubt, a
very large number of men who are not all honest but very much the
contrary. How far the latter preponderate in the ' Kaffir Market '
and other South African enterprises is a matter of opinion. But let
it be understood once for all that against the Chartered Company
as a money-hunting corporation I have not a word to say. How men
make or lose their money is not a matter of national concern until
it becomes a subject of investigation in a criminal court. . . . What
matters to us very much is that men should not be allowed to couple
with their business of money-making, the right to govern any one of
Her Majesty's subjects, or to pledge the word and to involve the
honour of the Imperial Government.
That is, however, exactly the situation which the existence of a
Chartered Company creates. ' The greatest trust between man and
man,' says Bacon, ' is the trust of giving counsel.' In order that
counsel in matters of government may be faithfully given, in order
that that great trust may be honourably fulfilled, our people have
devoted 800 years of their history to building up institutions from
which every taint of self-interest, every private base motive should
be banished. That they have succeeded altogether no man can truly
say. Human nature has always its bad side, and the best efforts
often fall short of the ideal. But the hope and the ideal have always
been there, and century by century we have seemed to get nearer to
their fulfilment and attainment, till now it is a true boast that no
government in the world is so uncorrupt and so incorruptible as our
own, and that a British officer wherever he serves throughout the
world is a man whose word may be believed, and whose honour is
above suspicion. And yet, after all these centuries of effort, what
do we now do ? We deliberately hand over an enormous portion of
the empire to be ruled and administered not by the British Govern
ment, not by the officers of the Crown, not even by a Colonial
administration, whose acts, at any rate, are open to the free criticism
of a popular Parliament, but by a trading company.
It cannot be said that we are without experience in this matter.
Every one knows the history of the East India Company. From
beginning to end, or, at any rate, until very near the end, the curse
and danger of the East India Company was the ' private trade ' ; in
other words, the mixing up of the duty of government with the
love of gain. So long ago as the reign of James I. pregnant warning
was given on this subject to the directors of the East India Company,
and the warning holds good for all time. Let the value of a man's
shares at his bankers depend upon how he decides in a matter of
public duty, and there is an end of all assurance of good government.

CHARTERED COMPANY GOVERNMENT 121
Clive knew the danger, and spent some of the best years of his life
in fighting against it. . . . But despite all Clive's endeavours the
system was too strong, and the splendid history of the East India
Company was marred and defaced for ever by the gross corruption
which grew up within it. It is true that during the last thirty years
of its history, when it had ceased to be in any sense a trading
corporation, the East India Company was a noble example of what
Englishmen can do. But it was then to all intents and purposes
merely a branch of the ordinary administration of the Crown, governed
by strict rules, and presided over by imperial officers of the highest
character. Certainly the history of the East India Company is not an
encouragement to us to associate government and trade.
I believe that if it be necessary to add to our Empire, it is
possible to do so without having resort to associations of this kind. . . .
If it were impossible, then I still maintain that we are paying too high
a price for the advantage we hope to gain. . . . We are attempting
to combine two things which, on every principle of ethics and good
sense, should be eternally dissociated, viz. the government of human
beings and the pursuit of wealth. . . . We are finding out how much
mischief such a combination may bring about. I trust the lesson may
be sufficient to prevent our ever running the risk again." x
Oakeley's attitude towards the Chartered Company was
from first to last one of distrust, and where he distrusted he
distrusted vehemently, and could not perhaps sufficiently see
another side of the question to that which he saw so clearly
and forcibly. It should, however, be remembered that it was
never on small grounds of expediency and interest, and
never on any question of personal feeling or antagonism,
that he wrote and spoke strongly ; but always on broad
lines of imperial or national policy, on points where
he believed our national conscience or honour to be
implicated. After one of his speeches in the House of Commons he
wrote: "I know you do not entirely agree with my view about
Rhodes and South Africa, and that you would rather that
I had left unsaid, or perhaps said differently, some of the
things which I did say. Still you are quite right to say all
you can to me that is sympathetic just now, for of course
it is very hard fighting an uphill battle in which one has
little guidance. . . . One makes mistakes— many  but in
this instance I feel satisfied on the whole that, allowing
for all my errors, I have taken the right line. Therefore I
1 Article contributed to the Daily Chronicle, 1895.

122 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
am fairly cheerful, and your letter, being yours — and being
a very interesting and helpful one into the bargain — makes
me more cheerful and serene — (not at all unconscious
though, you may be quite assured, of the imperfections of
manner and accomplishment)."

CHAPTER VII
" I remember the black wharves and the slips,
And the sea-tides tossing free,
And the beauty and mystery of the ships,
And the magic ofthe sea." Longfellow.
Holidays and Playtimes — A Barge Skipper — The Four Brothers —
" Our Toys."
Oakeley could hardly have worked as strenuously as he
did, if he had not had in equal degree the capacity for
enjoying play. He threw just as much spirit and energy
into his children's games and plays as into his public work,
and he seemed to get more pleasure out of playtimes and
out of holidays than any one I have ever known. Many
holidays were spent in journeys abroad ; many other such
journeys were planned and carried out only in imagination.
His travels were very varied, and included every
European state (except, I think, Portugal), the only con
stant feature in them all being that they always somehow took
us to where ships and dockyards, or soldiers and manoeuvres
were to be seen ; and that they were always made as far as
possible by sea, in ships of every kind, from the little French
coasting steamers that work between Mediterranean ports,
to the big German liners on which we made our journeys to
Italy. Thus it happened that, often as we had been to
Genoa, we had invariably approached the city from its
beautiful seaward side and never from the land. We went
by sea direct to Bordeaux, to Genoa, to Marseilles, to
Gibraltar, to Bremen, and Kiel, and later to Malta, to the
Cape of Good Hope, and to the West Indies.
Our journeys had a way, as I have said, of taking us
123

124 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
frequently to places where dockyards, guns, or fortifications
could be seen, and as all roads lead to Rome, our paths had
a way of leading us to these centres of naval or military
activity. We would start with the intention of wandering
in the chestnut woods of the Apennines, and on from thence
to Italian cities of the Middle Ages, or perhaps of sailing
from one Mediterranean coast town to another, as we found
boats or little steamers to travel by. But the mountain
roads of the Apennines would lead us unexpectedly within
such easy reach of Spezzia that not to visit Shelley's home
(and incidentally the dockyard of Spezzia) would have seemed
a sheer waste of a golden opportunity, and when you sail in
the Mediterranean round the Gulf of Lyons, supposing your
heart to be set upon seeing the newest type of French battle
ship or cruiser, the beautiful harbour of Toulon simply cries
to you to come inside to anchor there, and to spend happy
days with friendly French naval officers, and in the stoke
holds of their men-of-war. Even the peaceful tourist-
haunted valleys and passes of Switzerland used to lead us
somehow to Thun at moments when artillery practice could
be most advantageously watched and studied.
" I have had splendid luck," he told me after one long
and successful day in a French dockyard. He had had the
good fortune to meet on the landing-stage Lieutenant  ,
a French naval officer, to whom we had been able to show
some little attention in London, and all was at once made
smooth and easy. Another day he came back laughing to
tell me that having been welcomed on a French battleship,
and an officer deputed to show him all that he desired, the
captain gave him a polite message to be conveyed with his
compliments, and with the assurances of his high considera
tion, to " Monsieur votre pere," promising to call upon
M. Arnold-Forster pere in the course of the afternoon to
have some naval talk with him. Oakeley said that it took him
some seconds before he realised that his "mien of youth"
had led to the mistake, and that he was supposed to be his
own son. The captain and officers who dined with us the
next evening at our hotel described the incident with much
glee to me, explaining that they had read " la brochure ' Dans
le blockhaus ' de M. Arnold-Forster," and other writings and

HOLIDAYS 125
speeches of his on naval subjects, and had expected him to
be a deputy of more advanced age and important appearance.
One very pleasant holiday voyage in May 1898 took us
to Gibraltar. Leaving behind him for a few weeks his
duties in Parliament, Oakeley carried out this long-planned
journey. He had always intended to go out some day to
visit the grave where his father was buried near the Rock.
And besides this special reason, his sense of the importance
of Gibraltar to our fleets in the Mediterranean, made him
most anxious to see for himself the actual progress that had
been made in the great works that were being carried out
under Lord Goschen's Admiralty administration, to see all
that was being done in the construction of the new docks
and mole, and to get a clear understanding of the general
plans, and arrangements for defence. We had many friends
there ; General Richardson was in command of the artillery,
and extended his old friendship with William Arnold to
William Arnold's son. He, and many friends in the
Grenadier Guards and other regiments that were quartered
there, made our visit a very full and interesting one.
" It was good of you to write to me as you did about
Papa's grave," Oakeley wrote to his mother. " To me the
sight of it brought many thoughts, and the thought of you
was first among them. In me the view of this honoured
grave can only stir a sentiment — as indeed it does very
deeply — but to you it would recall the memory of a known
and beloved personality. And so, not unnaturally when I
look at the inscription, and see the familiar name, and the
record of so young a life ; I think first of you whom I know
and love so well, who loved him and who wrote to him those
letters which I am certain must have been the greatest
treasure and encouragement that he possessed in his exile.
" We have really had a delightful time in Gibraltar, and
every one has been extraordinarily kind to us. I have
already been up the Rock twice, once with the Governor,
who lent me a horse and took me up to some of the batteries
which I particularly wanted to see. The views from the
top are splendid, with the fine outline of " Apes' Hill " and
the bold African peaks to the south, the curve of the Spanish
shore, and the mountain country inland to the north-east •

126 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
and to the west the sweep of the bay, the shipping, and
Algeciras, much nearer than it ought to be.
" I have been through the galleries, round the dockyard,
along the mole, in fact everywhere ; and I am sorry to have
to admit that only one conclusion is possible, namely, that
in its present condition the whole place is a gigantic ' white
elephant,' of no practical use, or at any rate of such small
value that our only raison d'etre for being here is to keep
the Rock from others who might not be hampered by the
conditions which make it so useless to us at present. When
the new harbour works and docks are completed the circum
stances will be altered to some extent, and the place will
have value as a repairing station for the fleet as long as
Spain is friendly or remains a tenth-rate Power, and is
either unwilling or unable to make a serious attack upon the
place. Of course I do not mean that the Spaniards or any
one else can ever take the Rock. There is not the wildest
chance of that, but to destroy the shipping in the harbour,
and to ruin the docks from the Spanish land, would be a
mere holiday employment for modern guns, if there were any,
which, happily, at present there are not.
" I sailed last Thursday in the first yacht race of the
season with Fawkes, who is Attorney-General here ; it was a
very stormy day, and the two big boats which competed
against us suffered serious damages, and had to put back.
We had the good luck to get over the course in fine style,
with nothing worse than a savage tossing and a very
complete soaking.
" On Saturday we crossed to Tangier on one of the
Government boats in a very heavy sea which flooded the
decks and compelled us to go at half-speed. Tell F 
not to believe the accounts she gets of Africa ; they are all
wrong. I expected on landing to be scorched by the
vertical rays of a tropical sun during the day, and to be
kept awake by the roaring of the lions ! As a matter of
fact we landed in a blazing storm of cold wind and still
colder rain, under a grey and gloomy sky, and at night it
was the braying of an ass, and a prolonged and exasperating
dog-fight, that interfered with my slumbers.
" However, despite cold and wet which lasted till I left,

GIBRALTAR 127
I was thrilled by Tangier. I am told it is not unlike
Damascus ; it may be, it is utterly unlike anything I have
ever seen till now. The narrow streets, the white- wal led,
flat-roofed houses with no external windows, the camels, the
mules, the donkeys, the dirt, the smells, and, oddest of all,
the people, made up a picture of Eastern life and the Eastern
world which I cannot describe half as well as a score of
books you have read, but which no book-reading has ever
enabled me to realise. You must see M  's pictures of
the place and of some of the strange people. Stately
Bedouins in long blue robes, Jews in black gaberdines and
skull-caps, ' Berberines,' villainous - looking horse thieves
whom everybody justly suspects, negroes as black as my hat,
Spaniards, and strangest of all perhaps, the ' Riffs ' from the
country to the east of Tangier, all of them, young and old,
wearing a short pig-tail on the right side of the head, cul
tivated and preserved so that the Angel of Death may have
something to snatch at, and be able to waft the owner up to
Paradise. " M  remains in Tangier to sketch, to explore the
country and the gardens, and to see something more of
Africa. Yesterday being the Queen's birthday, Gibraltar
was given over to salutes and to feux de joie. The firing of
the guns from the Rock galleries was a sight not to be
missed. The Spanish Governor for the first time for fifty
years did not come over. He pleaded the state of siege,
and I think that in view of the line we have elected to take,
he was quite justified in stopping away."
Oakeley certainly found much to see and to learn in
Gibraltar, and the knowledge that he gained at this time
stood him in good stead, and was of great service to him
when he became Secretary to the Admiralty and its official
spokesman in the House of Commons.
On the military as well as on the naval side he found
much to interest him. A series of his letters on army ques
tions had just appeared in The Times, powerfully backed by
The Times itself ; and from officers of all ranks and regiments
the writer met with cordial welcome and encouragement
In a letter to Mrs. Forster I wrote: "They welcome him
cordially here as one who has understood their problems

128 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
and difficulties, and over and over again the officers come to
tell me how much the appearance of the Army Letters meant
to them, how eagerly they watched for them day by day, and
how entirely they represent the soldiers' needs and views."
Besides Gibraltar, Oakeley managed to visit almost
every important dockyard in Europe. Everything con
nected with ships and the sea was full of interest to him.
When he was living in London he used to go down to the
river to watch the sea-going barges passing up and down,
bringing their loads of stone, cement, or hay to the busy
wharves in the city, or up the river to Battersea. Often, too,
he would go down the Thames as far as Greenwich or
Greenhithe, and, hailing one of the passing barges, would
sail in her up the Medway, or round the Essex coast. The
sea-going barge folk are a fine race of men, and we found
them very pleasant and kindly hosts. They are a hardy
people and admirable sailors. With very small crews they
work their flat-bottomed boats up and down the Channel
in all weathers, carrying their cargoes into the French har
bours, and up the Rhine. The Londoner who only sees
these barges with lowered masts, deep laden down to the
water's edge, creeping along, or towed in long procession up
the river by a panting tug, would hardly recognise them
when with their great sails spread they sail down the
" London river " and past the Nore. To Oakeley they
always seemed to be full of the romance of the sea, and he
longed ardently to possess a barge of his own, to live on it
and to sail it. We were warmly encouraged in the idea by
the wife of a Medway barge skipper who used to accompany
her husband, and who told us that if we ever lived on a
barge we should find life on shore " terribly cramped like "
after it. (There was much more truth in her words than
any one could have imagined who had seen the tiny cabin
in which she lived.) In the barge of our dreams, of course,
the great space of the hold, where the heavy loads of stone
and cement are carried, would be occupied by cabins, and
would give accommodation far more spacious than would be
found on many a big yacht. It was a long time before
Oakeley realised this dream and actually became a barge
owner. In 1896 our friend, Mr. Wyllie, R.A., told us of a

The Four Brother-,.

'THE FOUR BROTHERS' 129
barge planned and fitted very much on the lines we wanted,
which was for sale, and which, though old, might suit us
well. Mr. Wyllie, who painted many of his pictures from
on board his own sailing boats, entered into a partner
ship with Oakeley, and they soon became joint-owners of
this boat, re -christening her in honour of our children,
The Four Brothers. We were much more fortunate with
The Four Brothers than was Robert Louis Stevenson with
his famous Eleven Thousand Virgins of Cologne, and for
seven or eight years, long and delightful summer holidays
were spent on her. Her first voyage abroad with us was to
Holland. The Four Brothers, having sailed across the North
Sea, was tranquilly towed by a sedate and leisurely Belgian
horse up the Belgian and Dutch canals, until we reached the
broad estuary of the Scheldt, and made our way under sail
to the Zuyder Zee, whose wide expanse and shallow waters
suit a Thames barge so well.
Another year it was Lord Kelvin's suggestion that we
should start on our cruise from opposite the House of
Commons. He took a deep and sympathetic interest in
our barge, and urged us to have her ready at Westminster
Bridge on the last day of the Session, to weigh anchor and
to slip down the river and out to sea as soon as possible
after the House rose. In this way he said the sense of
making our escape from London and Parliament would be
emphasised. His plan certainly gave us to the utmost the
true holiday feeling, and it gave us also a beautiful experi
ence of London, its bridges, wharves, and Pool, seen from
the river at dawn on a summer's morning. Our roomy
cabins on The Four Brothers made her very comfortable to
live on, and Oakeley's great delight was to have his children
with him in all his cruises. His partnership with Mr Wyllie
was a most happy and successful one, and it was with manv
regrets that it was brought to an end, when in 1902 the
much-loved Four Brothers finally passed into other hands
We tned other boats afterwards-a schooner which he owned
for a time, and then a small steam yacht,-but the plealures
of a arge life still held our affections/and no oth r bo
ever pleased either of us as well.
For many years-until, indeed, he was forbidden by
K

130 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
doctor's orders to ride at all — Oakeley's bicycle was a
constant companion and pleasure to him. He loved the
long country rides when, as he said, the burdens of work
and the cares of business and politics slipped away from
him and were forgotten. The joys of the " open road "
called to him. To go forth on his favourite " Green Fly,"
with no very definite destination, to ride where the fancy
led him, and as the wind favoured his course, pleased him
always, and gave him a great sense of freedom.
In this way he learned to know, with a curious and
intimate knowledge, the highways, lanes, and villages of
southern England.
After a long all-night sitting in the House in 1896 he
wrote to his sister : " Our all-night sitting was tedious and
humiliating, as usual. But luckily the night was fine, and
the Terrace between four and five o'clock in the morning
was perfect. I got my bicycle down, and rode madly up
and down the long asphalted drive from the Speaker's Court
to the House of Lords. This did me good, and I permitted
certain choice spirits the privilege of riding my steed, which
they highly appreciated.
" My bicycle is really an enormous addition to life, and I
am devoted to it. I can run fifty miles and feel as fit after
it as before I started. I whirl through the land on my steel
steed, and I get over 1 8 feet of ground at a single turn of my
feet. The nearest thing to ' seven-leagued boots,' is it not ? "
" No, these are not our toys, these are father's toys," a
visitor was once told by our children, when he called and
found them deeply engaged with the engines, points, and
signals of a railway system, worked by electricity, and com
plete in all its details. Oakeley certainly never lost his
fondness for his toys, and the railways which he and his
boys delighted to plan and to work at Bassett Down and in
London, and the miniature building-stones with which to
gether they reared palaces, and built castles, railway stations,
and cathedrals, absorbed him for the time as wholly as if
the traffic arrangements of a great railway depended on the
smooth working of his lines and points, and the beauty of
London on the proportions of his stone buildings.

CHAPTER VIII
"Beyond the book his teaching sped,
He left on whom he taught the trace
Of kinship with the deathless dead,
And faith in all the Island Race." H. Newbolt.
A History of England— The children for whom he wrote— Letters
written to his mother— Private letters as a revelation of a man's
character— Mrs. Forster's death in 1899— The War Office, the
Army, and the Empire.
FOR Oakeley, as for his grandfather, Thomas Arnold, the
continuity of our history, the close connection of our
country's past with the present, were ideas constantly and
vividly realised, and they were reflected in all that he wrote.
Every city or town that he went to became interesting by
reason of its history. The roads that he bicycled on, the
names of the villages and streets that he passed through,
were links in the same story. His parliamentary life was to
him infinitely more picturesque and interesting than it is to
many, because of the fulness with which he realised the
'' storied past " of Parliament, its customs and traditions.
The stones of Westminster Hall and of the crypt of St.
Stephen's never ceased to thrill his imagination with their
association with six hundred years of our national life. " I
never fully understood the romance and wonder of the place,"
one of his colleagues said to me, '' until I heard him telling
to a group of children the stories connected with the spot of
ground on which they were standing." Although no great
historical scholar, he had, far more than many greater
historians, the gift of vivid seeing. To go with him to one
of the great battlefields of Europe, to Waterloo, to Leipzic,
to Dresden, or to Gravelotte, was to get an extraordinarily
graphic picture of the position and massing of the armies
that fought there. 131

132 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
He seemed actually to see the lines on which the battle went,
the movements and direction of the forces that were engaged,
the turn of genius or of fortune that decided the fate of the
battle and campaign, and for the moment the battle would
seem to his hearer as actual a vision as it was to himself.
In much the same way he seemed to be able to see and to
picture the lives of the men and women whose figures pass
across the stage of our history, the kings, churchmen,
merchants, and peasants — " English men and women, very
much like ourselves, who lived in the places in which we
live, who did their own work in their own day as we do
our work in ours, and who have left traces of their work in
almost all that we see, in our roads, in our buildings, in our
language, in our laws, in our names, our amusements, and
our customs." 1
It was in this spirit, and in the belief that men will care
more about their country and serve it better as better citi
zens, if they have a knowledge of its history, that he wrote
for the children in English schools the stories of English
history to which he gave the title Things New and Old.
He had a clear idea of the incidents and stories that he
wished to tell, and of the way in which he wished to tell them.
" To be told that the emperor Claudius or Severus
constructed a road from Londinium to Deva, is to be told a
fact which may or may not linger in the recollection of a
child until the day of examination ; but to stand on the
Edgware Road, and to know that you are standing on the
Watling Street whose stony pavement actually rang to the
tramp of the Tenth Legion, and whose straight course may
be traced over hill and dale, right through our midland
counties, from London to St. Albans, St. Albans to Dun
stable, through Weedon and Wroxeter, across the Severn to
Chester, is to put a bridge across i 500 years of time, and to
be one step nearer to understanding the meaning of the
continuity of our history.
" The story of English history is rich and varied as a
great romance. The Englishman who loves to study the
history of his country can, indeed, like the householder of
Scripture, bring forth from his 'treasure' — the rich store-
1 Preface to Things New and Old.

'A HISTORY OF ENGLAND' 133
house of the records of England — ' things new and old.'
Our history touches our daily life in a thousand places — the
form of an arch, the spelling of a word, the turn of a phrase,
the cut ofa coat, the direction ofa road, — all have their story,
if we can only read it." 1
The seven volumes of these stories were arranged to suit
the requirements of the school standards and the regulations
of the Board of Education.
The great success that they met with led him to embark
on the larger and harder task of writing a short History of
England, including in it some of the stories and chapters
contained in Things New and Old. To write a short history
at all is to be confronted at once with grave difficulties, for
it can only be written by leaving out very much that one
is unwilling to sacrifice, and to apply the title A History
of England to a single small volume might well seem
presumptuous. " The record of our national life," he wrote in his preface,
" is so full, so long, so crowded with incidents, that even
great histories, written in many volumes, by master hands,
can only illustrate and cannot exhaust the theme."
But he would not call his book by any such repellent
title as a " Summary " or an " Outline of English History," —
names which he felt excluded the idea of the romance and
interest that he wanted his book to convey.
The History was finished, after several years of work, in
1897. Chapter after chapter, as it was written, was read
aloud to our elder children. If his young judges were
interested, keen, and wideawake — well and good ! The
chapter was considered to be " passed " and approved by the
children's verdict. " If it does not interest the boys it is
simply a sign that it is badly told and must be written
again," he told me, when I mourned over the destruction of
a chapter in manuscript.
The history of the growth of English freedom and
English institutions runs throughout the book, and the
making of our overseas Empire is graphically told. Perhaps
most of all he enjoyed writing the chapters in which are
told the story of Elizabeth's adventurers — of the voyage of
1 Preface to Things New and Old.

134 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
the Golden Hind, of Hawkins, Frobisher, Drake, and Raleigh,
of the discovery of the New World, and the wonders and
treasures of the newly-discovered lands.
Those were the pages which he loved to write. But the
parts of his book that he was proud of, were the pictures
which he chose with such care to illustrate it, and, above all,
the " tags," or quotations, that he placed at the head of every
chapter. His wide and varied reading and his memory
helped him greatly in the selection of these, and he drew
them from all sorts of books, ancient and modern, from
" bulletins " and despatches, from the speeches of Cromwell,
Burke, and Sheridan, from our national poets, and from the
English Bible.
" How glad I am," wrote Mrs. Forster in one of her
letters to him at this time, " that you are getting near the
end of your book. That condensing a century in a hydraulic
press, as you aptly describe it, must indeed be difficult. But
your book has, so far, come out of the process full of life and
interest. ..."
"I well recall," writes Mrs. Evelyn Cecil, "the conversation I had
with Mr. Arnold-Forster about his History, . . . and the pleasure it
gave him to know what a joy his work had been to children.
We were most anxious to teach our girl and boy English history so
as to give them an intelligent interest, and not merely to produce a con
fusion of dates and battles in their brains. I despaired of finding any
suitable book until I became acquainted with Mr. Arnold-Forster's. I
first saw it being read by a child of seven to himself, so I gave it for a
birthday present to our eldest girl, and watched the result. I soon
found the success was complete. When I was about to read aloud, and
gave a choice of adventure stories or fairy tales, the answer was, ' May
I fetch my history book ? ' And even when read systematically in
lesson time to both children the volume lost none of its charm. It is
written in such clear and simple language that the words never required
a gloss, and over and over again I found the question a passage had
raised in the children's minds had been anticipated, and the explanation
followed, telling them exactly what they wanted to know. The book
has succeeded in making the growth of the constitution and laws of
England as attractive as her battles and victories, and it brings a
picture of the olden time and its manners and customs before the
children ; and yet the whole is kept in proper proportion.
I have deeply regretted that I cannot tell the author, as I did before,
that the Citizen Reader is as eagerly listened to as the History. I only
lately began it. . . . Again it appears to interest the children as much
as a story, only with the additional charm of reality."

INTIMATE LETTERS 13s
Our Great City, a book about London, written especially
for the children of London, and inspired by the same ideas
that made him write the History of England, followed the
History in 1900, and was the last book of this kind that he
was able to write. Other books were conceived and planned ;
one idea that attracted him greatly being that of a new
Citizen Reader, to be written after living for a time in
Canada itself, that should help Canadian children to realise
the glories, the possibilities, and the responsibilities of their
country and Empire ; but the pressure of public life and
work prevented the accomplishment of this idea, and it
remained one of those unwritten books which are ever the
best books.
An index to the work and writing that he actually
accomplished in these busy years will be found at the end
of this volume. All that he did and thought was told at
the time, in the series of letters written week by week to
his mother. They tell her about the business and tone
of the House of Commons, about the progress of the book
that he was writing, about the friends that we were seeing
from day to day, and often about his children, their lives
and character. These letters lie before me as I write, and
on them in her beautiful handwriting, are his mother's
notes of the special events that he had recorded in them
for her, the political interviews and conversations, or the
incidents of a debate that he tells her about ; with here and
there her special note of loving comment written on the
outside of some of the letters in which his great love and
tenderness for her had been outpoured.
Many of these letters, and extracts from them, have
been used throughout these pages. Many more could have
been used if space had permitted ; but, because of the
perfect intimacy and entire confidence that existed between
this mother and son, much that he wrote to her is too deeply
and personally intimate to be printed.
Indeed, one of the most perplexing problems that arises
in writing such a book as this, is the difficulty of deciding
whether or not to include some of these more intimate
letters. Letters not meant for other eyes, sacred in their
revelation of love and tenderness. And yet they, and perhaps

136 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
they alone, can reveal and explain that side of a man's
nature which he keeps turned away from the world, and
which can be known, if known at all, at most to one or to
two. In any biography or memoir much must always
be left unsaid, unexplained. The history of a man's vie
intime cannot be written, and a full half of his life must
be a private book, sealed to the world, to which it has no
right of access. His deepest and most vital experiences,
the hours which, when looking back on his life, he would
say counted for most in it, much of what he learned and
thought and suffered must always remain part of the
hidden life, that belongs to him alone.
The judgments that we form of one another, the picture
that we make, even of our friends, must be based on very
limited and partial knowledge ; whilst the judgments formed
by the public of the men who come in any way prominently
before it, have a still slenderer basis of knowledge and fact.
The general impression of the public is probably made up of
the sum of a number of very slight things ; an idea conveyed
by an anecdote or picture ; or by a newspaper article, the
generalisation perhaps of a journalist whose information and
opportunity for forming an accurate judgment may be as
slight as is that of the public. Opportunities for obtaining
a fuller insight and understanding are very seldom forth
coming. We know from the memories of men and women of his
time, and from contemporary memoirs, that when the
" Life " of Oakeley's grandfather appeared, the private
journals that it contained were a revelation to his generation
of the nature and depth of Dr. Arnold's character. During
his lifetime many men had thought of him chiefly as a
keen and ardent fighter for the great causes that he had
made his own, and had admired or disapproved his
passionate advocacy of his political principles. The
publication of these passages from his personal journals
revealed, as perhaps nothing else would have done, the
depth of the religious thought that was the inspiration of his
work, and the sincerity, beauty, and intensity of the under
lying spiritual life. In the same way it is possible that some
of a man's intimate letters, in so far as they touch on his

LETTERS TO HIS MOTHER 137
life and actions, and throw light on the beliefs that inspired
his work, and on the spirit in which it was carried out,
may be the only available means by which his character,
and the character of his work and public life, can be rightly
understood. By his actions and published words, it is true,
his public career must be weighed and judged. But with
a clearer and fuller knowledge of the man himself, mis
conceptions are often removed, and quite another side of
his personality revealed to us from that which has been
generally seen and recognised ; and this knowledge may
perhaps only be learnt, after his lifetime, from some of his
letters in which he speaks without reserve to those who
stood to him in the most intimate of human relationships.
It is in this belief that the letters that are given here have
been included. "Christmas, 1894.
" I thought of you all a great deal on Christmas Day,
and pictured you to myself in that dear familiar dining-
room. No gathering can ever recall fuller and sweeter
memories to me than the Fox How Christmas party. To
me you have always been, and are now, and always must
be, dearest mother, the central and most beloved figure ;
and it is round you that all those dear memories of loved
and honoured faces that are gone, group themselves. . . .
The brightness, and the goodness, and the wisdom of
many of those I am thinking of are substantive positive
things which I live on with all their essential qualities
of goodness and wisdom still remaining as possessions to
us who remember them. ... As for me, I see too many
things clearly with my intellect which I do not hold or
grasp with my soul at all. ... I know that it is so, and
you know it ; but my love for you goes very deep into
my heart, and it is as true a thing as there is in my
composition. That I can write to you now, after so
many are gone, and that ere long I trust I may see
you and talk to you, is a mercy and a privilege for which
I believe I am truly and properly grateful ; but only do
not fear that the value of what you have been to me, and
are, will ever go out of my life. I treasure far too well
even memories which mean much less to me, to let this

138 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
slip from my possession. I shall see you soon, I hope.
Before Parliament meets, I must come down to you."
" 31st fuly 1895.
" My DARLING MOTHER — I write a line to give you my
love on your birthday. I am sending you my most precious
possessions on Friday. It is my most heartfelt wish that
my dear boys may have the privilege of being near you,
and seeing you often, and that being so, I think they could
not be better bestowed than at the little house in Burley.
As for me, I shall be greatly disappointed if I do not get
down for at least a day or two, and hear the ' pattering
of the little feet of all the cousins ' there, which Willy,
with Francie's pretty verses in his mind, tells me I may hear
when I get to Wharfeside.
" You are still to me, dear mother, the best and wisest
guide, and friend in the world, and your birthday is truly
a red-letter day in the calendar of my individual life. — I
am, your very loving son,  ."
To his Mother. On the Letters of Matthew Arnold.
" 9 Evelyn Gardens,
yd December 1895.
" .... I have read a good deal of the two volumes
of letters.1 I am indeed absorbed in the book, giving all
my spare time to it, though that just now does not come
to much. The more I read, the more pleasure I get from
the reading. With each page it becomes more clear that
these letters are to be read and valued, not for the
peculiar style, or even the interest of one letter, but for the
truly beautiful picture they give, taken as a whole, of what
was a noble life. It is beautiful, this fine equable clear
spirit keeping its way fixed and unperturbed through the
troubles of the world. The thing is not new to us, nor to
us a revelation at all. On the contrary, it was our privilege,
who knew Uncle Matt, to understand what a sweet and
beautiful nature he had ; and that is why I think we all
like to see the letters published. But to some of us the
knowledge came rather later on, when we were capable of
1 Letters of Matthew Arnold, published 1895.

LETTERS TO HIS MOTHER 139
understanding and judging, and these volumes are very
welcome, because they extend so widely the knowledge we
had, and confirm so amply the opinion we had formed.
" Then how interesting are the echoes all through of the
thoughts which found their highest expression in the poems.
Truly, the poems were the natural outlets of a fine spirit,
and in perfect harmony with the life of the man. Never
were poems less open to the charge of being manufactured.
So at least it seems to me.
" Again, dear mother, it is with peculiar interest that I
note how the letters which move and attract me most, are
almost, without exception, letters to you. This is natural,
for, apart from the fact that the mere fact of their
recalling my thoughts to you places them first in my
esteem, there is the fact, written plainly on the face of
the letters, that when he wrote them he knew and felt
that he was writing to an intellectual equal as well as a very
beloved sister ; and thought and style are his best, — true
and without ' pose.'
" How can you wonder that after reading this book, and
dearest father's life, not to speak of your own dear letters,
and my knowledge of the lives of those who are gone, and
those who are still with us, I should look, as I always
have looked, on that generation of my family as one of
men and women whose like I shall never see again ; and
who me give a sense of power and nobility and distinction,
which I find nowhere else, and which is still, and must
always be the inspiration of almost all the good that is in
me, or can ever come out of me.
" Once more with regard to the letters, as a book, there
are too many — not for my taste — but for art's sake. But I
am almost reconciled to that now ; so much is good, so
much is very good. George Russell's preface, too, which I
had not read when I wrote to you last, I like thoroughly.
It is true, appreciative, and not too ' heavy ' in touch at
any point."
In reply to this letter Mrs. Forster wrote : —
"... All that you say about Uncle Matt's letters
delights me — it is truly and beautifully said. Yes, the book

140 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
is indeed the picture of a beautiful and noble life uncon
sciously painted by himself — and it is true as you say that,
though so simple in its details, you see his poems in it.
" It is sweet to me that you all feel such pleasure in his
dear letters to me. It was a great effort to me to let them
be published. Indeed I had almost decided not, till I found
how you all wished it — Flo and Mary especially — and now
I am glad that I did. He was indeed a loving and
beloved brother ; and the days when we used to walk on
Loughrigg together — he talking of, and repeating his
poetry — and much else — come back to me. Farewell my
dearest ; you can never tell me too much of your own
history — even if it were not your own history and Mary's,
outside events are most interesting to such hermits as we
are." To his Mother. On the Ottawa Conference.
"9 Evelyn Gardens,
x^thfuly 1894.
"... I have been very pleased with the result of the
Ottawa Conference, but wish we could have had fuller
reports. The delegates seem to have acted with a very
wise and commendable caution, but their spirit throughout
has been admirable. I see nothing but good in the whole
meeting, and I hope great things in the future. Is it not
significant that these representatives of the great Anglo-
Saxon Colonies should have sailed past the United States,
to do their work at Ottawa, and that not one word should
have been said about the neighbouring Republic in the
whole course of the proceedings ? There has been much
talk in the past about Imperial Federation being incomplete
without the United States. I do not sympathise with this
view at all. The States are now inhabited by a mixed
population, including, I believe, twelve million Germans
and Slavs, as many Irish, and as many negroes. Now that
the Colonies are beginning to realise that, as members of a
United Empire, with the temperate regions of the world in
their hands, and with the great treasure of India as a
common possession, they may be greater, richer, stronger,
and more homogeneous than the United States ; I think

LETTERS TO HIS MOTHER 141
the danger of any hasty movement in the direction I have
referred to is past, or is rapidly passing.
" On all sides I see signs which encourage me to believe
that our Federation idea is growing fast. How I wish
dearest Father could have seen the transformation in tone
and opinion which has been effected, since he first gave the
weight of his name and character to the movement, and
thereby made it a matter of practical politics."
To a dear friend who had acted as his secretary.
" My DEAR A. — I am sending you a small Christmas
present in the shape of a writing-table. It seems to me an
article in harmony with ' secretarial functions. . . .'
"If only the parcel bore with it the sum of my obliga
tions to you during the last two years, no van in London
would bear the burden. Take it, therefore, as an outward
and visible sign of a very real inward emotion. I cannot
tell you how much your friendship, your help, and your
everlasting and inexhaustible patience and affection have
meant to me. I often feel, and the feeling saddens me
when I am alone, that I go through the world too richly
endowed with the sympathy, friendship, and love of men
and women far better than myself, to whom I make and
can make no adequate return, and of whose goodwill I am
most unworthy. It is a great and precious privilege. (There
is no treasure in life like it. As to you, I am not going to
quarrel as to whether you are good, bad, or indifferent, I
know you won't allow me my opinion, whatever it may be.
But I know what it is. I shall say, though, that your friend
ship is of infinite value to me, and that the day I forfeit it
would be one of the darkest in my life. — Yours always  "
For his mother's birthday in 1897 he writes : —
" Royal Southern Yacht Club,
Southampton.
"... I have to thank you, dearest mother, for many
acts of kindness this year, as in all other years, but, most
of all, I thank you for your letters, which you never fail to

142 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
send me, and which are some of the greatest treasures and
comforts that I have.
" There are many secrets, which — by the way, are no
secrets — that I should like to learn from you ; but in all
your letters there is one lesson which I read perhaps more
plainly than any other — which I would more willingly learn
and practise than any other — that every year, dear mother,
if I may say so to you with great respect, you seem to have
learnt in greater perfection — I mean the will and the power
to find out the best instead of the worst in everything and
every person. I know I do not do it, I wish I did, and I
often hate myself for not doing it. You do — and that is,
among a host of other reasons, why your letters are so good
for me to receive, and why it is so well worth your while to
write them. I feel the lack of that spirit in myself very
much ; the more so, because I can see the Tightness of it,
and the beauty and value of it, as plain as I can see any
thing in the world. I don't expect you know how uniformly
your letters give me a little corrective to my stupid acidity,
and how often you set my point of observation on the
bright side of a man or a situation, instead of on the dark
side. That I am not much more crabbed and evil-speaking
than I am is due to you. The first and most obvious moral
of all which is, dearest mother, that you are never to think
time wasted in writing even the shortest line to me ; and
that your view of men, women and things is very precious
indeed to me."
In October 1899, in the month which saw the beginning
of the South African War, and the first engagements near
Ladysmith, Oakeley's beloved mother died. Her last ill
ness, at Malvern, in the house of her sister, Mrs. Cropper,
was so brief that there was but a very short time in which
to realise its gravity before the end came to the beautiful
life that had so blessed others, and that had been so rever
enced and loved. Some idea of the relationship that existed
between her and the children of her adoption will have been
gathered from her son's letters. And in them is reflected
to some extent a picture of her which, though it is very far
from being complete, may serve to give some impression of

^fc

LONDON FDWARTj ARNOLD 1910

DEATH OF HIS MOTHER 143
the beauty and power of her life and influence. This cannot
be described better or more fitly than in these words of her
sister, Miss Arnold : — "Fox How, October 22nd, 1899.
" My DEAREST Oakeley — I think very much of you,
and of your special share in this great sorrow. I know how
deeply, how passionately, you loved your precious mother,
and how terrible will be the loss to you of her perfect sym
pathy and understanding of the difficulties and anxieties of
your public life, and of her wise and gentle counsel, as well
as the loss of her tender affection for you and yours.
" It will always be a happiness to you to think of the joy
it gave her to think of your happy family life and of her love
for dear M. and your children, and that they will always
remember her.
" Of late years your political career and interests have
been to her naturally the closest tie with the interests she
had shared so long. One cannot say of her whether she
was the better Christian or the better patriot — the two were
blended in so wonderful a fashion. I have never known
any woman with such a clear intellectual grasp as she had ;
what she knew she knew, and with all her strong, almost
passionate feeling, this intellectual clearness gave her a
fairness and moderation of view which made every thought
and opinion impressive.
" Oh, my dear Oakeley, it is a blessing past words to have
known and loved her, to have been loved by her, and to
have her precious memory as an inspiration and abiding
presence in the years to come. My love to dear M., who
has been so true a daughter to her. — Your loving,
F Arnold."
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's description of another beauti
ful Englishwoman might have been written of her. " Full of
that pure, unquestioning, simple, yet profound and practical
religion, which if it has passed away from amongst us, has
left behind it undying influences, and examples much easier
to reverence than to follow or surpass."
In the summer of 1900, when the South African War

144 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
had been going on for nine months, a short series of letters
on some of the lessons taught by the war were written
by Oakeley. They were published in September of that
year, under the title, The War Office, the Army, and the
Empire, and Lord Rosebery contributed a preface to the
volume. These letters were written with the object of
stimulating interest in the problem of national defence, and
of awakening the country to the dangers, which Oakeley
believed threatened the country, unless some great changes
were made in our military organisation.
If no great space is devoted to this book it is not
because it was without importance at the time, or that the
lessons it teaches have lost their value, but because the
identical problems that it deals with have to occupy a large
space in later chapters, and to dwell on them at length here
would involve unnecessary repetition.
The book was written because he believed that certain
lessons were to be learned from the war that was in progress,
and that unless they were learned before the return of peace,
we, being " an easy-going people and experts in the art of
forgetting," there would, as soon as peace returned, be only
too many persons and too many influences engaged in the
task of inducing the public to forget.
To the war and the lessons that it taught, especially to
its exposure of the defects of the existing army system, the
greater part of the book was devoted.
The arguments that he used in 1900 were precisely
those which, when in office, he steadily urged upon his
colleagues and upon Parliament. A brief summary of what
he most desired to bring home to his fellow-countrymen in
1900 may be compared with the principles that he after
wards tried to enforce, and to which he remained constant
to the last day of his life.
The early lessons of the war to which he drew attention
in The War Office, the Army, and the Empire may be thus
very briefly summarised : —
"1. No sufficient provision had been made by either Service for the
wants of the other, and no combined plan of operation for the defence of
the Empire had been worked out.
It is true that the navy co-operated with the army, much to the
advantage of the latter, but no one can pretend that the despatch of

LESSONS OF THE WAR 145
naval guns to Ladysmith at the last moment, and the robbing of the ships
of their complements in order to add to the number of the infantry on
shore, was part of any combined plan of operations for the defence of
the Empire. Still less can it with any reason be suggested that 7000
men were withdrawn from India, and that every one of the colonial
garrisons, Aden, Malta, Gibraltar, Mauritius, and Halifax, not to speak
of Cyprus and Egypt, was deprived of its troops in pursuance of any
organised plan for the defence of the Empire. There could have been
no such plan, for it stands to reason that in any war, except the par
ticular one in which we happen to have been engaged, such transfers
could only be described as criminal folly.
In a war with any European Power, so far from being able to take
7000 men from the garrison of India, we should be compelled at the
outset to despatch 20,000 men to that country, not to reinforce the
garrison, but simply to bring it up to war strength. In the same way,
the Colonial garrisons would have required troops from home, and it
would have been out of the question to look to them to supply reinforce
ments. Nor does it require any special knowledge to perceive that in any
war, other than one with a small inland Power, such as the Transvaal,
the withdrawal of the crews of the sea-going ships would have been a
step that would have called for the impeachment of the First Lord of the
Admiralty who sanctioned it.
The present war, therefore, has taught us that we have made no
sufficient provision for the co-operation of the two Services, and that we
have as yet no plan for the defence of the Empire in any given con
tingency. 2. The war has taught us beyond doubt that — Our military organi
sation is not suited to the needs of the ?iation, and that whe?i put to the
test it is bound to fail in doing those thi?igs which may reasonably be
demanded of it. The proof of this is at this moment before our eyes.
We have become engaged in a war with two small African states. In
order to carry it to a successful conclusion we have had to utilise every
man of our available army, and to call into existence an irregular or
supplementary force of no less than 60,000 men, who have all been
raised, or made available, since the war began, and whose services were
neither contemplated nor reckoned on in any scheme made by the War
Office. For the purposes of bringing the war in Africa to a conclusion
the force thus raised appears to be adequate. But at home what do we
see ? We see absolute chaos. We see nearly 400,000 men all ready
to serve, but without organisation, without equipment, without even the
weapons necessary to enable them to take the field.
3. Another lesson the war has taught us. It has taught us that we
cannot despatch any efficient body of troops from this country in an
emergency without either destroying the whole regimefital system at
home or calling up the reserves. It is sufficient here to point out that
when our troops were fighting for their lives against a superior enemy
in Natal it was not found possible to despatch one single complete
battalion for their relief from the entire establishment of 108,000 men
maintained in the United Kingdom. In view of the fact that sudden
L

146 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
emergencies are the rule and not the exception in the history of this
country, it is obvious that the lesson which has just been referred to is
one which we ought to lay to heart. We ought to make up our minds
that in the future there shall always be a certain force of all arms
instantly available for despatch in any emergency.
4. We have relied greatly on the reserves, and have been justified
in doing so. But the war has taught us, what indeed every one who
had really studied the question knew before, that our reserve was, and
is, a reserve in 7iame only, and that when war came we should have to
use up the whole of the army reset ve, not to supplement the regular army,
but to fill up the places of inco?npetent men, for whose iipkeep the country
paid, but whose services it did not receive in time of war. It is enough
here to point out that when the whole army had been mobilised, 80,000
men of the First Class Army Reserve were found to have taken the
places of 100,000 incompetent soldiers; in other words, that we had
returned to the precise position which the country occupied in the
Crimean War, when we had a first line of undoubted excellence, and
behind it nothing but a crowd of unorganised and incompetent recruits.
5. The war has also taught us what, indeed, everybody who had ever
given any consideration to War Office problems at all, knew perfectly well,
namely, that in maintaining a large force of militia and volunteers at home,
without any of the organisation or equipment necessary to transform a
crowd into an army, the War Office was squandei ing public money,
trifling with the nation, and exposing the countty to the gravest dangers.
Every year the absurdity of our arrangements was pointed out by all
sorts and conditions of men, by experienced soldiers, by militia and
volunteer officers, and by Members of Parliament. Every year with
perfect regularity the doubters were assured that all was well and that
their alarms were groundless. Directly the war came the inevitable
happened. It instantly became evident that the militia and volunteers,
as they existed, and as the War Office had chosen to make them, were
not available for war purposes. In consequence, all sorts of hasty
schemes are now being prepared in order to do in a hurry what ought
to have been done at leisure. Guns are being made by the hundred,
the volunteers are to receive special training, the militia — wonder of
wonders ! — are to receive stores and equipment. In a word, playing at
soldiers is to cease, at any rate until the public ceases to be trouble
some. 6. That the supply of artille?y, both horse and field, was totally
inadequate, and that the guns for both these branches, and also those
assigned to the garrison artillery, were insufficient in numbers, and in
some important respects unsatisfactory in quality.
7. That the absence of any proper field training of officers at home
would be certain to lead to disaster in war.
8. That the absence of any organised staff during peace time, would
prove a grave disadvantage in war.
9. And, lastly, that ihe War Office would be compelled, under the
stress of war, to attempt to do in the face of the enemy those things which
it had refused to do in time of peace, and which it had declared to be
unnecessary or undesirable.

LESSONS OF THE WAR 147
In the small compass of this book only a fringe of the
question could be touched upon. He wished to show that
the Empire was in great need of a better organised defensive
system, and that, so far, little had been done to organise its
resources upon any reasonable basis for the purposes of
defence. And it was not in the Army alone, he pleaded,
that a radical change in our method is necessary. He
believed that the need was equally great for a more modern
organisation of the business arrangements and the government
of the Empire.
" Unless we do, as a nation, take some steps to put our house in
order we shall suffer probably as we never suffered before. Fifty
years ago Europe was run on feudal lines, and Great Britain was
just inventing the free-trade, go-as-you-please system which, for a time,
achieved such success. The system was then as far ahead of the
Continental one as the Brown Bess was ahead of the arquebus, and
for a time we left all competitors far behind us. Then came the turn
of the Continental nations ; they, too, changed their old system for a
new one, but, starting later than we did, they took a better road. They
began to organise themselves on a scientific basis, and the result is that
they are rapidly leaving behind a nation like our own which has no
scientific organisation at all. They in their turn will soon be as much
in advance of us as the magazine rifle is in advance of Brown Bess.
Until we realise the necessity of scientific organisation, until we accept
Lord Rosebery's advice to organise the Empire on a business footing,
the danger which threatens us will remain and will daily increase."

CHAPTER IX
" Half her land was dead with drouth,
Half was red with battle :
She was fenced with fire and sword,
Plague on pestilence outpoured.
True, ah true, and over true,
That is why we love her.
For she is South Africa,
She is our South Africa — Africa all over."
Rudyard Kipling.
South Africa during the war— The Land Settlement Commission— A
South African journey — A telegram from Lord Salisbury.
In the spring of 1900 a letter reached Oakeley from Major
Shute of the Coldstream Guards, then serving in South
Africa, suggesting that it would be well if some steps could
be taken to render possible the settlement in South Africa
of soldiers whose term of service was about to expire, or of
volunteers, yeomen, and others who desired to remain in the
country after the war should be over. How far off we were
from the end of the war is now a matter of history, but it
was certainly not known or guessed in May 1900.
Other letters on the same subject came to him. Many
men would be willing, it was said, to remain in the country
and to make it their home if fair terms could be arranged
beforehand. He summarised some of these letters in a letter
to the Times, quoting Major Shute's recommendations, and
he communicated the suggestions made by his correspondents
to the Colonial Office. It was becoming daily more apparent
that, among the many problems that would have to be faced
whenever the war ended, there were few questions of greater
importance than the possible development of British colonisa
tion in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony, and it
seemed likely that many of the difficulties — military, social,
and political — that would confront the Government, would
148

LAND SETTLEMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA 149
lose much of their gravity if a considerable addition could
be made to the number of men of British blood settled upon
the land in South Africa.
That the difficulties in the way were many and great,
Oakeley saw very clearly. Even the men who belonged to
the class most adapted to a settler's life would at first have
practically no knowledge of the peculiarities and difficulties
of South African farming. No settlement would be possible
without carefully planned irrigation schemes, carried on
either by the Government or by private Companies work
ing on a larger scale than had hitherto been attempted.
It seemed possible that the best training school for settlers
would prove to be the Mounted Police Force, which
would certainly be required to maintain order, and that an
option of settling on the land might be given at the end of
a man's police service. Mr. Wyndham stated in the House
of Commons in July that the War Office considered it likely
that some 15,000 men would wish to settle in South Africa ;
of these a certain number might be absorbed in ordinary
civil employment, and a considerable number would be taken
into the military police force.
Early in August it was decided by the Secretary of State
for the Colonies to send out a Commission to enquire into
the whole question of settlement in South Africa ; and
Oakeley was asked by Mr. Chamberlain to go out as its
chairman. He was to be joined there by two other
members, one to be a soldier, and the other to be chosen
on account of special knowledge of the conditions of South
African farming. Time was considered to be of importance,
and Oakeley was instructed to go out without any un
necessary delay. I was allowed to accompany him, and in
little more than three weeks' time we were ready to start.
Mr. Arthur Loring, who had been Mr. Forster's private
secretary, and secretary to the Imperial Federation League,
came out with Oakeley in the capacity of secretary to the
Commission. We knew, at this time, that in all probability a General
Election would take place in the autumn, and our absence
at such a time was naturally a matter of somewhat serious
consideration. The people of Belfast were so loyal, how-

150 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
ever, and so earnest that their Member should be free to
undertake any Imperial service that he should be called upon
to do, that they insisted that he should dismiss this anxiety
from his mind, and that his election should be left for his
constituents to manage for him. They carried out their
promise most effectually, and watched over his interests so
well that the idea of contesting the seat was abandoned
by the Nationalists, and in October we had the great
satisfaction of receiving by cable the good news that his
return had been unopposed. Thoughts of Belfast being
much in my mind, I remember how puzzled I was when,
on landing at Cape Town, after the long journey in the
Carisbrooke Castle, a telegram was handed to us containing
the message — " Cordially welcome you to South Africa. —
Roberts, Belfast," and how Oakeley laughed when, thinking
over the names of his constituents and committee in Belfast,
I asked him, " But who is Roberts ? " It sounded, no doubt,
like Lord Coleridge's famous question ; but there were plenty
of people besides myself who had not, before September
1900, realised the existence of the South African Belfast,
where Lord Roberts and his army had halted in the course
of their march to Pretoria.
The work of the Commission began almost immediately
in Cape Town, where Mr. Southey, the second member of
the Commission, joined us. His wide knowledge of farming
and irrigation in the colony gave him an experience and a
standing that were of the greatest value.
The military member, Brigadier-General Plumer, whose
help Lord Roberts promised, would have been equally valu
able. He telegraphed expressing his willingness to join
as soon as he could be set free ; but, owing to the con
tinuance of severe fighting in the Transvaal, and to the
fact that General Plumer was constantly engaged in active
operations, it was found impossible to spare him from the
front. The Commission sat at first in Cape Town and carried
on its work there for some weeks. Sir Alfred Milner gave
his active help and sympathy, and the evidence of Ministers
in the Cape Government and of many experts, both on the
agricultural and on the military side of the question, was

SOUTH AFRICA 151
heard. Later, when the Commission travelled to the north,
they found that much of their work had to be prosecuted
under very unfavourable circumstances, owing to the pro
longation of the war and the recrudescence of active
hostilities in districts which appeared to be pacified at
the time when the Commission was appointed. There was
not a little truth in the comment that Oakeley made in one
of his letters written in September — " The ' annexation ' of
the Transvaal at this moment seems to me rather like
' annexing ' a Bengal tiger that is still at large in the
jungle." Although the Commissioners were able to visit Pretoria,
Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Maseru and some other centres,
many districts to which they had intended to go, were
forbidden them on account of the active hostilities still in
progress, and there interfered with a great part of the long tour
of inspection which would have been made in the Transvaal
and Orange River Colony. Before leaving Cape Colony
they paid special visits to different parts of the country, to
see the fruit farms, plantations and irrigation works in which
capital and intelligence had been applied to the problems of
cultivation, and which furnished examples of what could be
accomplished in these directions. Amongst other places in
the Colony, they visited the George and Knysna districts
for the purpose of inspecting the large tracts of land that
belong to the Cape Government.
This journey was one of great interest, taking us due
east across the southern end of Africa. The railway
brought us as far as the edge of the Karroo and we left the
train at Prince Albert Road, and made the rest of the journey
in Cape carts, first crossing the desolate plain of the Karroo
where no grass or trees grow, and only the low mimosa bush
with its great white thorns flourishes among the stones.
The various stages were so arranged that farms could
be visited and Government land inspected. From Prince
Albert we went over the mountain passes of the Zwartberg,
across forty miles of veldt, through weird-looking forests of
prickly-pear trees, their grim aspect relieved by their brilliant
cups of orange flowers, to the little town of Oudtshoorn lying
in a rich valley given up to the cultivation of orange gardens

152 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
and ostrich farms. Beyond Oudtshoorn, there was another
long day's journey across bare veldt, swept with fierce dust
storms, where on one stony hillside we watched a party of
baboons climbing. Then down the Montagu pass to the
plains and to the town of George. The descent is one of
the loveliest things imaginable. You leave a bleak and
stony wilderness behind and make a sudden plunge into the
tropics. On the steep rocky cliffs of the pass, great tree ferns
grow, and in the little clefts and gullies there hang masses
of maidenhair and climbing ferns. Trees of eucalyptus and
oak make a thick shade, and when I left the cart to gather
flowers, I came back with my arms full of pelargoniums,
feathery sprays of a Michaelmas daisy, and spikes of
scarlet salvia, with great ferns. George, with its wide, tree-
shaded streets and pretty houses, has an air of prosperity
which is rare in South Africa, and looked to us like a
peaceful sleepy English south-country town. Beyond
George the virgin forest stretches in a thick belt some eighty
miles long and twelve miles broad, though broken by open
veldt here and there. The forests are Government property,
and the elephants that still live in them are carefully and
strictly preserved. They are rarely seen except by the
forest keepers, nor did we see the forest monkeys that we
were told abounded. The road through the forest passes
through kloofs, at the bottom of which a river of black peaty
water stands in pools. The road winds up the side of steep
ravines and at every turn becomes more beautiful. All the
trees are evergreen, giant yellow-wood trees towering amongst
them. A strange greyness pervades everything, for from
nearly every bough there hang masses of beard-like lichen,
trailing down in long strands of whitish-grey, giving it a
weird and ghostlike effect. Great creepers like bare twisted
ropes hang from the summit of the trees ; these are " baboon
ropes " or lianas, and other prettier creepers cover and
clothe the trees, and make a dense and impenetrable
tropical-looking undergrowth.
Two days later found us driving down the long valley of
the Knysna river, and on to Knysna village itself, where
Government land, and farming and forestry had to be seen.
On the way we found rich treasures of new flowers, for even

SOUTH AFRICA i 53
the veldt was enjoying its short blossoming time, and in
places it was carpeted with tiny iris, and in other places with
many kinds of heaths, proteas, orchis, watsonias, Cape blue
bells and africandas, in great variety and profusion.
Knysna harbour ought to be the best harbour and finest
anchorage along this coast, but a small bar at its mouth seals
it up and renders it useless. The Police Magistrate took us
out in a boat to the Knysna Heads where the estuary and
harbour meet the Indian Ocean. The boat was manned by
little coloured convicts, a friendly conversation going on
all the time between our host and the crew, whilst a constable
sat in the bows, revolver in hand. Much of the ordinary
labour on the farms and gardens is done by the convicts, and
they seemed to be leading both a happier and a more useful
life than if they were shut up within prison walls.
From Knysna two long days of driving brought us
down to Mossel Bay, and to the s.s. Norman, in which we
made the journey back to Cape Town. We were met by
telegrams from Pretoria from Lord Roberts, desiring
Oakeley to go north and to join him as soon as possible.
Sir Alfred Milner was already on his way to Pretoria.
The work of the Commission in Cape Colony was now
completed ; Mr. Rhodes met the Commissioners in Cape
Town on their arrival, and gave the evidence that he desired
to lay before them. Mr. Rhodes's views on land settle
ment in the Transvaal were explained in his evidence, and
were set out more fully in a memorandum which he now
sent privately to Oakeley, which was afterwards published,
to which he refers in the following letter, written in
November 1901.
"Dear Mr. Forster — I received your Land Report
here and suggestions for settlement in South Africa.
" The longer the war goes on, and the dogged animosity
of the Dutch towards our rule is made so clear, the greater
the necessity arises for future permanent peace, of a settle
ment of our people on the land mixed with the Dutch.
" I note you have published my Minute to the Governor
on Irrigation Settlements, but not the one to yourself on
Occupation of Dry Farms. At the time, I think I asked

154 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
you to consider it confidential, but the question is becoming
so serious that any personal trouble must be waived if a
public perusal of my ideas would help English thought in
the right direction.
" The fault of the Irrigation Colonies is that they
must take considerable time to form, and therefore the
letter to yourself contains, I think, the most satisfactory
suggestion. " I dread not the war, but the return of all the prisoners
to the land, with their feelings embittered against us and
with mistaken views. The only chance is to mix our
people with them on the land, and this necessitates the
immediate settlement of our people on the land of the
Transvaal to mix with the returning prisoners. I have
no fear of there being sufficient good land in the market.
I think, therefore, to help the cause, it would be well to
publish my letter to you.
" I write to ask if you thought it would be better to
issue it as an extra Appendix to your Part II. Documents
Appendices. Otherwise, I could send it to one of the
papers, but I thought I would write you first. I think it
would help ; and to my mind, for permanent peace in Africa,
it is the only solution.
" Kindly reply to me at the Savoy Hotel, Cairo. — Yours
truly, C. J. RHODES."
I too went to see Mr. Rhodes before I left South
Africa. " Your husband and I have met," he told me, " and
we got on together very well." " Do you know, Mr. Rhodes,"
I said, " that he has said strong things about you — bitter
things, sometimes ? " " Yes," he said very slowly, " I believe
that I have read all that he has said and written ... but
we have met . . . and I liked him " — this with emphasis
 then a pause — " and I believe he liked me."
After a little he began to talk about Oxford, and I
quoted some of those lines of Matthew Arnold's that haunt
one's memory.
"Beautiful city— so venerable, so lovely, so unravaged
by the fierce intellectual life of our century, so serene ! . . .
Adorable dreamer . . . Home of lost causes, and forsaken

CECIL RHODES i5S
beliefs, and unpopular names, and impossible loyalties!" He
made me go on to the end, his face lightening a httle as he
spoke of Oxford. He talked very openly and freely, but
very sadly, telling me of his illness and suffering. He
looked very ill and desolate, I thought ; but when he began
to speak of the changes and chances of his life, his ta k
became extraordinarily dramatic, and seemed singularly
expressive of his intense vital energy.
Before I left Cape Town he told me more about his
views on Land Settlement and irrigation, and asked me to
note down the ideas that he had been explaining, so that
Oakeley might be fully in possession of them.
He embodied these suggestions somewhat later in a
memorandum which he sent to Oakeley, and which is
referred to in his letter.
As soon as Mr. Rhodes's evidence had been given to the
Commission, they were ready to leave Cape Town ; I said
good-bye to them and returned home to England, and
the Commission with Major Shute, who had joined them,
started on the slow journey northwards to Bloemfontein
and Pretoria, broken by many halts, and interrupted by
the stern necessity of " tying up " for the night and only
travelling by daylight. Passages from Oakeley's daily
letters to me will tell the story of their further experiences
in his own words. " Train between Bloemfontein and Kroonstadt.
" The country we have been going through to-day is a
succession of very wide plains, covered with more or less
burnt grass, and with a few isolated hills all round the
horizon. At every station there is a camp, and a more or
less elaborate entrenchment. I am now looking out on
to an artillery encampment, the first we have come across.
(Name of the place Wet River, population nil, products nil,
attractions nil.) In this river there is actually a certain
flow of muddy water, as there was also in the Modder,
which we crossed shortly after leaving Bloemfontein. Three
spans of the big girder bridge at Wet River were blown up
by the Boers. We crossed on the newly finished wooden
trestles. The shattered girders lie by the side.

156 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
" The boys would be interested to see the wonderful
'mirages' over the plains. Again and again I see great
lakes, sometimes the sea. All the details are quite plain
and I can even see the stakes sticking up in the shallow
water, the deep channels farther out; the wooded islands
in the distance. Like everything else in this country,
these delights are all a sham and a disappointment. One
thing is real though, and that is the meercats, of which we
see scores scampering over the dry ground near the railway.
They look like squirrels with their long bushy tails. I
should rather like to bring one home. We have been
travelling all day over the line of Roberts's advance on
Pretoria. There was not much fighting, you will remember ;
but there was some, as the occasional well-tended graves by
the side of the railway serve to remind us.
"P.S. — Landscape just now animated by I dead cow,
i do. sheep, i tin can, empty." "Pretoria, 3rd October.
"By six o'clock we had reached Elandsfontein, the
junction for Johannesburg. Here we were in the very
middle of the Rand, and the big iron buildings at the
mines were all lit up like Lancashire factories. The station
was busy, a train of trucks was taking the Essex Regiment
down south. They are really marvellous fellows these
' Tommies.' They had come through a three days' journey
from Krokodils Poort ; they were going on they knew not
whither. They were dusty, they were tired, and they had
little to eat, and nothing but bad water to drink. They
were in open trucks, and were sitting and lying on the floor.
The day before they had all got a thorough ducking, and yet
they were all as cheerful and good-tempered as men could
be. I was unwise enough to make some compassionate
remark about the ' pleasures ' of travelling in a truck. I
found I had made a great mistake. This was real luxury ;
they had been marching for many miles, the railway
travelling was a real treat, and the trucks were fine. Truly,
Tommy is a wonderful, and in his way, a very noble
person. " To-day, Wednesday, I have paid two interesting visits,
the first to Lord Kitchener and second to Lord Roberts.

SOUTH AFRICA i 57
Lord Kitchener received me in the most friendly way, and
his manner was very civil and agreeable. He talked at
length with me about the work of the Commission. I told
him my enquiry had led to my obtaining much information
about soldiers requiring occupation otherwise than on the
land, and I thought that the information, if tabulated,
would be of considerable use to the military. He agreed,
and asked me to furnish it to him, and I shall see him
again. " I then called by appointment on the Chief. He was,
as always, most kindly and friendly. He too agreed that
my information would help the soldiers, and asked me to
prepare it. He is very strong as to the necessity for
settlement, thinks great sacrifices should be made to
obtain it. He fully saw my point about the reservists.
He thinks he has now practically got the authorities to
sanction the discharge of reserve men here, free from
liability save for South Africa, and hopes they may extend
the same indulgence to men actually serving with the
colours, but near the end of the term. He declares he can
let me have a definite statement this afternoon. I trust
he may. " I was pleased when he asked me about my Army
articles. He had seen two or three of them which General
Hamilton had ; he particularly wished to see the whole set.
I have sent him the first seven which I had with me. He
will get the book in Cape Town." " October 26th.
" We had a pleasant ride to Fort K  , one of the
Boer fortifications at the top of a hill about five miles from
the town. From the top of a hill we had a splendid view
of Pretoria and the country round. The gunner in charge
of the fort pointed out all the interesting features of the
landscape, the positions of the British and Boer guns, the
line of the British advance, and of the Boer retreat ; the
pass through which the Delagoa Bay line and the Pieters-
burg line respectively pass.
" Seen from a distance Pretoria looks well. There are
shady trees in the streets which give the place a green and

158 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
gentle appearance ; the hills are well shaped, and blend into
one another ; and altogether the country looks more civilised
and natural than anything we have seen since leaving Cape
Town. " I can't say, however, that life in the town is very full of
charm. No one is allowed in the streets after dark without
a pass, the carriages all go home then, and everything is as
quiet as the grave. The living is frankly vile, the meat barely
eatable, the drink only bad whisky and indifferent tea. A
wretched lunch at the Club costs five shillings. Oranges,
when you can get them, are a shilling apiece ; the Cape
papers come only once a week, and in fact everything is in
a very uncomfortable condition.
" Yesterday, Thursday, was the day of the ceremony. I
received a card which entitled me to view it from the balcony
of the Government buildings, so that I saw everything very
well. The function began at 4 o'clock. The scene was the
Public Square, which was bordered with troops, and by a
moderately sized crowd of soldiers and civilians. The pro
ceedings were opened by the entry of Lord Roberts and his
staff to the sound of ' God Save the Queen,' the Royal
Standard was hoisted, and the troops presented arms. Then
General Maxwell, Governor of the town, rode into the middle
of the Square, and seated on his horse read out the Annexa
tion Proclamation. I hope that it is not only those who
heard it who will be bound by it, for I don't believe any one
in the Square had the slightest idea of what the gallant
General was talking about.
" When we had annexed the country, and given three
cheers for the Queen (very good cheers too) the presentation
of Victoria Crosses and other Decorations to ten favoured
recipients took place. There was not much pomp about the
business. The ten khaki-coated heroes stood up before a
most unmistakable kitchen table, partly covered, but by no
means concealed, by a Union Jack. Then each man in turn
walked up to Lord Roberts, who, seated on his horse, pinned
on the Decoration, and shook hands with the ' decore.' After
that the ten had to clear out of the way as fast as they
could and they accordingly made their way back across the
Square so to speak • promiscuously.' It was all very right

PRETORIA 159
and genuine no doubt, but as a ceremony and spectacle the
thing was very ineffective.
" Then came the March Past. This was fine and stirring.
I have never seen troops under similar circumstances, and
the sight of these war-hardened men in their discoloured
uniforms swinging past their Chief was moving enough I
assure you. It was specially moving to those who knew
something of each regiment, its past history and its recent
fortunes. Two battalions had been brought into Pretoria
specially for the occasion, these were a battalion of the
Gordon Highlanders, and another of the 60th Rifles. Lord
Roberts told me he had selected them because they had had
the heaviest losses. Out of 70 1 of the Rifles — so the Chief
told me — 600 were Reservists. The two battalions of the
Gordons have lost 60 officers killed and wounded during the
war. In the battalion which was present there were only
four of the original officers. That is a fine but sad record.
" The Royal Artillery led the March. They were as good,
as workmanlike, and almost as regular in their movements as
I have seen them at home. The guns as well as the men
were of course all dirt-coloured. Among them was a big
5-inch gun drawn by a team of 20 oxen. The Composite
Regiment — the Household Cavalry that is — looked well ;
but, alas, their beautiful black horses, after doing very well,
were cut off by the starvation march on Bloemfontein, and
only two of the original number remain.
" The Guards were represented by the Grenadiers and
Coldstreams, and splendid they looked. I expect I should be
right in saying that taking them as they are now, they have
no equals among the infantry of the world. They are as
smart in movement and drill as they are at home. This
they owe to their regimental pride, to their excellent N.C.O.s,
and to their strict discipline. They have indulged in a little
vanity of dress ; for the Grenadiers — a white plume in their
soft broad -brimmed hat, and the Coldstreams a red one.
Altogether, I think the Coldstream was the finest battalion on
the ground, and the Guard of Honour furnished by them was
splendid. " The Guards were followed by the Gordons, the 60th, the
Canadians, the Volunteers, the Seaforths, and by companies

160 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
from several other battalions including the Leicester, York
shire, Yorkshire Light Infantry, Norfolk, Hampshire, and last
but not least the Wiltshire. I don't know whether the
whole of this poor dear battalion is here, but I am certainly
going to hunt up what there is, and try and find a Wroughton
man. " It is sad in one way to see how a plume, a snap of colour,
or any other distinction draws a cheer from the crowd. It
can't be helped, of course, but it must dishearten battalions
which have borne the burden of the day to pass unnoticed
and unacclaimed because they have no mark to distinguish
them. Certainly a little style in uniform is a great gain.
The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in their kilts with
khaki aprons, their slouched hats with a big white feather
in the side, and their pipes wailing and skirling in front of
them, made a splendid show. They looked like a regiment
of Dugald Dalgetty's time. Of course everybody cheered
them." "Pretoria, October 28th.
" I have just said good-bye to the Lytteltons. . . . How
I wish our Commission had come to such a satisfactory stage
in its labours as the Concessions Committee has. But it is
not easy to see how we are to make progress. Honestly, I
cannot see that I am to blame for this. I set to work, as
you know, the day after I arrived. To this day I have never
had a sight of my military colleague. He is at the present
moment fighting with Paget about thirty miles to the north of
this place, and Lord Roberts tells me he cannot possibly now
be spared. A very right and proper decision, but not a con
venient one for the Commission. Then again, we are
charged to report upon the quality of land in various parts
of the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony, and to
ascertain the price at which it is to be obtained. But it is
ill selling the bear's skin until the bear has been caught — and
the bear is not caught. Far from it. Every day brings
accounts of fighting in every direction. . . .
" I told Lord Roberts how matters stood when I saw him
last Wednesday. He told me that if I brought him a list of
the places we ought to visit, he would mark on it those

SOUTH AFRICA 161
places to which we could safely proceed. ... I prepared a
list immediately. ... In the meanwhile I am doing what I
can in the way of taking such evidence as is available here,
but my principal work is closed to me. Of course, if I see
no prospect of getting on, I shall throw the thing up, make
my report as best I can with the material I have, and come
home, but I am very loth indeed to do this, and shall not
give up or give in while there is a chance of being able to
carry out my whole mission." " ist November.
" I have received delightful letters from you ; I fear
greatly, however, that a long letter from you describing your
visit to Grootschuur and your talks with Rhodes must have
gone astray. The letters which have reached me were eight
days on the road, and we know that the Boers got hold of
the mail-bags last week and burned their contents. Bad
luck to them !
" I am not and cannot be satisfied with the progress of
my work. It is not my fault that more cannot be accom
plished, but the unpleasant fact remains all the same. As
you know, it is part of our business to inspect and report
upon land in various parts of this country ; but I have now
received from Lord Roberts the definite statement that we
can be allowed to go nowhere save to the railway stations
at Middelburg and Standerton. As, therefore, I am not
prepared to spend the rest of my natural life in South Africa,
I must alter my programme to suit the situation. Our
present plan is to go to Johannesburg on Friday to see the
valuable market gardens in the neighbourhood, and on
Sunday to Bloemfontein. We shall then drive across the
corner ofthe Orange River Colony to Maseru in Basuto Land,
where Sir Godfrey Lagden will put us in the way of
obtaining all the information that we require respecting the
land of the ' Conquered Territory.' My idea is to proceed
from Maseru to Middelburg — and if time permits to return
to Cape Town via Natal.
" It is not easy to make plans in advance with any
certainty as to being able to carry them out, but if this
programme proves to be workable we might possibly be
back about the 23rd December. But don't count on this.
M

1 62 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
Much as I long to be back, I shall not go away from this
country as long as I think I can serve the cause of the
Mission by stopping. ... I have not yet heard from home,
and unless and until I have some idea as to what the
Government intend as to purchase, pre-emption, or confis
cation, I am and shall remain in a difficult position. I am
glad to say I have been able to get through one piece of
work which I think will be of real use. I have, at Lord
Roberts's request, made out a careful report for presentation
to Lord Kitchener showing the total number of Government
posts likely to be available for Reservists. When he gets
this (and I am sending it in to-day) he will be able to
telegraph direct to the W.O. that so many men can be
employed, and to ask whether they will sanction the discharge
of that number. I have suggested to Milner that I should
make an interim report dealing with the employment of men
otherwise than on the land. This I am in a position to do
if he approves." " Johannesburg, November 4th.
"... The first part of the rainy season has begun in
earnest. Thirty-six hours' continuous downpour turned all
the red dust into red mud, and made the so-called roads into
swamps. The veldt is beginning to look green again, and
the stream beds, so long dry, are bringing down a fair amount
of water. ... I lunched with Lord Kitchener the day we
came away. He was very friendly, and talked freely with
me about Army matters generally. He, like most other
soldiers, takes the lowest view of our W.O. organisation, and
spoke to me of the horror with which he first discovered the
kind of machine he was expected to work with in South
Africa, coming to it as he did after such a long experience
of the Egyptian Army which he did so much to create ; and
the organisation of which was of course just what he wished
it to be. He also spoke strongly of the need for a heavy
long range field-gun and for a better rifle than the Lee-
Metford. ...
" I have just heard of some of the new appointments —
— Lansdowne to the F.O., Selborne to the Admiralty!
Good I "

SOUTH AFRICA 163
" Train between Rhenoster Kop and Kroonstadt,
November 8 th.
"... Our days at Vereenigen were busy and well
spent. ... We left Vereenigen yesterday, finding our own
saloon waiting for us on the siding. While we were waiting
I found my way to a little shanty occupied by several
N.C.O.'s of that very fine Battalion, the ' Fifth Northumber
land Fusiliers,' the old Fighting Fifth. They were a
splendid set of men, and I was pleased to learn how much
they valued the restoration of their ' gosling green ' facings ;
a change for which I worked so hard.
" It is only two or three miles from Vereenigen which is
in the Transvaal, to Viljoen's Drift which is in the Orange
River Colony ; the great bridge over the Vaal connects the
two places. The restoration of this bridge is a great feather
in the cap of our engineers. The bridge was composed of
immense girder spans, supported on tall stone columns.
The Boers had blown up one of the spans, and with the
appliances available this could not be replaced. But our
Engineers were equal to the situation. They slid the
unbroken span along till it filled up the blank space. Then
it was comparatively easy to build out a wooden structure
from the bank to complete the length, and so the trick was
done. " It was while the train was wasting time at Viljoen's
Drift that I was met by a man on the platform with a
telegram in his hand, and wanting to know if I could tell
him where Mr. Arnold-Forster was. I owned up and took
the telegram. I opened it without any interest or anticipa
tion, thinking it was a message from Bloemfontein in reply
to our enquiries about transport. You know by this time
what it was about. You will believe that I was surprised
and pleased when I read this —
'Clear the line — Army Telegraphs, Johannesburg, 6.10 p.m. — reed.
6.44 p.m. Arnold-Forster, Esq., Viljoen's Drift. 5th Nov. H. 1054.
Following received for you through Cape Town: begins — "Will you
undertake office of Secretary to Admiralty representing the Department
in the House of Commons ? Selborne is your Chief. Salisbury " — ends.
You can reply through A.A.G. Army, Capetown, or me, as you like, but
I should be glad to know this has reached you. — LORD Kitchener.'
" I have written another letter to you about this message

1 64 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
and have told you how greatly it surprised me and how
much it pleased me. Honestly at first I almost thought it
must be a hoax, but reflection convinced me that to joke by
means of the W.O. telegrams in a country under martial law
was too solemn a thing to be undertaken by the most
frivolous or the most malicious. Then came the reflection
that the telegram was two days old, that I had sent no
answer, and that in the meantime perhaps some more ready
and accessible person had been offered and had accepted the
post. The fear haunts me still, but I can't think they would
give me up so soon, knowing how far afield I was, and that
I was on Government service.
" I brought the telegram into the saloon, and told Arthur
that I had good news, and that a man I was very glad to
see appointed had been sent to the Admiralty. He asked
who the lucky man was, and I told him that it was the
Chairman of the L.S. Commission. They were very pleasant,
and yesterday evening, when we were anchored for the night
at a dismal little wayside station called ' Koppies,' they
drank the health of the Parliamentary Secretary to the
Admiralty with much goodwill. ... At this same desolate
little station we heard that a party of 80 Boers were
some four miles off and that a party of mounted men with
two guns were going out after them that night from the next
station, Rhenoster Kop. The expedition had not returned
when we passed Rhenoster at 6 o'clock this morning."
From Bloemfontein the Commission rode across country
by way of Thabanchu, which is near the Basuto Land border,
to Maseru, where they were kindly welcomed by Sir Godfrey
Lagden, and greatly helped by his experience. From Maseru
Oakeley wrote to me : —
" A message has come through from General Hunter to
say that the Boers are out in force with 1100 men and 5
guns, on the road between here and Thabanchu, and that I
cannot return by that route. So we have had to make up
our minds to a long journey of 200 miles through Basuto
Land to Aliwal North. The Boers have got hold of our
mails and burnt them. There should have been at least
two mails for us and all the papers which I particularly

SOUTH AFRICA 165
want to see. . . . Barring the absence of news from you,
things might have been much worse ; we might easily have
been ' held up ' ourselves, our horses, papers, and baggage
taken, or have had to halt for many days in one of the
out-of-the-way little military posts. ... I have been able
to make substantial progress here with the draft of the
Report." Their long journey was successfully carried out, and
they reached Cape Town without further difficulty or
hindrance. The work of the Commission had been seriously inter
fered with by the war. Still, much valuable information had
been collected, and the Report gave the summary of their
conclusions on the various points which had been referred to
them — on the nature and amount and prices of land avail
able, the best methods of obtaining such land, and the irriga
tion that would be necessary. On the question of military
settlements the Commission found itself unable to recom
mend the formation of " Military Settlements " as such, but
drew up careful suggestions as to the encouragement and
assistance to be given to men able and willing to settle
upon the land, and the obligations that might be imposed
by the authorities in return for assistance given. The
portion of the Report, however, that gave immediate and
practical results was the interim Report, which, by per
mission of the Secretary to the Colonies, Oakeley drew
up on the employment of soldiers, otherwise than on the
land. Lord Kitchener's prompt and able co-operation
enabled these recommendations to be adopted and carried
into effect immediately, with the consent of the War Office
authorities. Information was collected and tabulated respecting all
soldiers desiring to remain in the country as Government
servants — in the police, in the postal service, in Government
offices, on the railways, and in private occupations and
trades. The Bureaux of Information suggested in this Report
were adopted by Lord Kitchener, and were found to work
successfully by giving information to soldier settlers as to
the possibilities that were open to them, and the districts in
which they could hope to exercise their trades or professions ;

166 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
whilst they gave to employers the means of ascertaining
whether men of the stamp they required were available.
Oakeley reached Cape Town in time to sail for home by
the Briton, and on his arrival in England immediately
entered upon his new duties and work at the Admiralty.

CHAPTER X
" Mother of ships whose might,
England, my England,
Is the fierce old sea's delight,
England, my own." W. E. Henley.
Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty — Lord Selborne and his
Board — The Death of Queen Victoria — Navy Estimates, 1901 —
Letters.
The spirit in which Oakeley entered upon his new work is
expressed better than it could be by any words of mine in
the letter which follows — a letter written to me when he
had just received the news of his appointment : —
"Train between Kroonstadt and Bloemfontein, O.R.C.,
8th November 1900.
" My DARLING — I wonder if I am right in thinking of
you this day as setting foot once more in England ? If wind
and sea have treated you as I would have them do, you will
be at Southampton at this very hour. At the worst, you will
be well within ' soundings,' and the Lizard will be astern of
you. Long before this reaches you, you will, I trust, be at
home and happy with the boys to look after you. . . . You
will have heard my good news too ; that is to say if, after
all, my good news does not turn out to be too good to be
true, and if nothing interferes to illustrate the ancient
proverb of ' the slip betwixt cup and lip.' Truly, it was a
wonderful surprise to me to be greeted at a wayside station
in this distant land by a telegram from the Prime Minister
offering me, without conditions, the one post in the adminis
tration of the country which I should most desire to occupy,
and the one, moreover, which seemed to me twenty-four
hours ago more hopelessly out of my reach than any other.
167

168 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
But I need not tell you, dear one, that twenty-four hours
ago one post seemed just as far out of my reach as another.
I can say with absolute sincerity that not only have I never
sought office, or laid myself out to obtain it, but I have never
regarded it as in any way my due, and I have never for one
moment expected to obtain it. Others will not believe this,
but you know that it is literally and absolutely true. I
know it to be so. I have always felt that neither what I
did, nor the way I did it, could possibly commend me to
those who had the making of Governments. My manner
I regretted often, but it is a thing hard to change. My
work as a critic and a teacher I thought was good work.
I was proud to do it, and to win some measure of success in
it ; but I have always thought it was the kind of work which
would close doors to me and not open them. I must say
that all these reflections make the offer which has now come
to me the more welcome. Could there be a pleasanter post
for me than Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty? to be
my own chief in the House of Commons, with a chief whom
I personally greatly like, and with whom I know I can work,
in the House of Lords. But indeed I think I can work with
all the Admiralty officials, naval and civil. Most of them
I already know well ; all those I know I like. Moreover,
I start well equipped in one respect. Of my own knowledge
of naval things I think little ; it will make work easier
perhaps, it will certainly make it pleasanter and more
interesting. But I don't put its value higher than that.
But one qualification I possess which I do value. I start
with a knowledge of naval men, a most profound respect for
their integrity and ability, and with a regard almost amount
ing to affection for the Service and its traditions. How
different might the situation have been had I been selected
for another office. To whom I owe this promotion, who
put such an idea into Lord Salisbury's head, I cannot
imagine. " One regret there is, namely, that my beloved mother
did not live to see this appointment bestowed on me. It
would have given her infinite pleasure. She loved the Navy
like the good Englishwoman she was, and she would have
rejoiced to see me in a post so honourable in itself, so con-

SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY 169
genial to me, and so little calculated to lead me into strife or
contention. While the loss of her love, sympathy, and guid
ance is bitter in this, as in every other undertaking of my
life, I have a consolation which makes me very happy. I
believe there is no post in the public service which your
father would more gladly see his son-in-law occupy than
that which has been offered to me. His own interest in the
Navy has never flagged ; and moreover, he will, I am certain,
rejoice over my being set to work with such gentlemen as
the naval officers are, and occupied with matters about
which he and I are so sure to be in agreement. I feel so
strongly that the appointment will give him pleasure that
I shall write to him directly on that assumption. If, and
with only a flimsy telegram to hang my speculations on,
I must preface all I say with an if, if, I say, all goes
smoothly, and I return safely home to find my new work
waiting for me, we shall have many pleasant things to think
of and talk over."
It was indeed literally and exactly true that never during
the course of his Parliamentary life did he think of or expect
to obtain office.
He was deeply convinced that, for a man not rich in
worldly goods, political life could be lived happily with
dignity and freedom only if he framed his life in entire
independence of all such thoughts. " It would unconsciously
influence our lives and our judgment," he said to me once ;
" one's independence of thought would suffer, and I would
rather that you should never dwell on it, never talk of it,
never, if possible, even want office for me."
In a letter that I wrote to him on my journey home
from South Africa on the Dunvegan Castle, I find this
brief account of one of many such talks that I had with
Sir Redvers Buller. The General was depressed and often
gloomy, and, to divert his mind from the many anxieties
that were pressing upon him, " I suggested that he and
I should make up the ideal Cabinet and the Government of
our choice. With pencil and paper we have been creating
rival Governments, and criticising and destroying each other's

170 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
paper creations.1 He looked up at me from this Govern
ment-making play and said, ' I wish A.-F. would be in
this Government ; he ought to be, but I tell you he is a long
sight too honest for Governments. He won't ask for any
thing for himself, will he ? He ought to be in the War
Office, but they would kill him there ; he couldn't survive
them.' A pause. ' The Admiralty would be the best place
to put him in.' I laughed, and told the General that when
he took to journalism you would take to ' looking for ' or
expecting office ; and that when he went on to the staff of
The Times you would perhaps be put into a Government —
but he put you into his paper Government all the same."
The following letter to Mr. J. R. Thursfield was written
immediately after Oakeley's arrival in England : —
" xoth December 1900.
" DEAR THURSFIELD — I found many kind letters await
ing me on my return home. Most of them I believe my
wife has acknowledged on my behalf, but there are two
which require special and early acknowledgment from
myself; one is from my old master at University, the Dean
of Westminster, the other is from yourself. It was a great
pleasure to me to receive your letter. You know quite well
the value I attach to your opinion and guidance in naval
matters. I imagine there is no one else in the country
who has the exact combination of technical knowledge and
literary faculty that you possess.
" I am under no illusions about my new post. The work
will be very hard and very responsible, and indeed almost
too much for me. The want of any official experience will
greatly add to my difficulties. But I start with one real
qualification, and that is a most sincere regard and esteem
for the naval officers, and an immense belief in their prac
tical good sense and power of getting things done. I
imagine that as a secretary and a subordinate I shall really
have very little initiative, and that my duty will be to state
as lucidly as I can the views of others. But were it other
wise I assure you that I am not in the frame of mind which
1 (The composition of Lord Salisbury's new Government, which was actually
formed at that time, was unknown to us until we landed at Southampton.)

DEATH OF QUEEN VICTORIA 171
would allow me to put my own ideas into competition with
those of my colleagues. For the present I have everything
to learn, for though I certainly know more about the Navy
than the first man in the street, I have no knowledge com
parable to that of any ordinary naval officer. My first
ambition is to be of service to the Navy, and my second to
assist Selborne in every possible manner, and to make his
task easy, and his tenure of office at the Admiralty a success.
As for you, I know you too well to suppose that you will
not from time to time ' talk to me for my good.' It would
be very bad for me if you did not. Only let me ask you to
remember that whatever mistakes I may make, they will not
be errors arising from any want of love for the Service, or
respect for its traditions. I repeat that I shall probably
have very little to do beyond recording other people's
opinions, but as far as I have any influence, power, initiative,
or authority, I hope to devote them all to one purpose, and
one purpose alone, and that is to preparing the Navy for war,
and enabling it to succeed when war comes. — Believe me,
yours very sincerely, H. O. ARNOLD-FORSTER."
Oakeley's feeling about the naval service has already
been spoken of ; his admiration and affection for it and for
its traditions made the work of the department that he was
entering the most interesting and the most congenial that
could have been given to him.
The new Board of Admiralty under Lord Selborne was
formed in November, and Oakeley returned from South
Africa in time to take his seat on it, before the beginning
of the New Year.
In January Queen Victoria's long reign ended. Oakeley
was glad all his life that he too had been, " even for a short
time, and in a humble capacity, a Minister of the great
Queen," for his father's deep personal devotion to her had
been met by the Queen with a great trust and confidence ;
and in the letters which she wrote to Mr. Forster week by
week when he was in office, and in the sympathy which she
gave to him throughout his life, she showed her confidence
in his character, judgment, and loyalty.
The first official ceremony in which Oakeley was called on

172 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
to take part was that stately and most touching one, when,
escorted by the ships of her Navy, the Queen's body was
brought across the waters of the Solent, and taken thence by
Portsmouth and London to its resting-place at Windsor.
The Board of Admiralty, which now entered upon its
work, had been immediately preceded by Lord Goschen's
Administration. Lord Goschen's own capacity and experi
ence were great, and were widely recognised. The general
feeling of the House of Commons was expressed in Oakeley's
first speech as Secretary to the Admiralty, when he spoke
of Lord Goschen's great services to the Navy, and of his
record of service as of " peculiar and almost unique experi
ence in the House. He served for eight and a half years as
First Lord of the Admiralty in the House of Commons, and
during every one of those years he added to his accumulated
wealth of experience in regard to naval matters. I believe
I am correct in saying that no civilian Minister, who has
had the honour of administering the affairs of the Admiralty,
more completely gained the confidence of the naval service
than Lord Goschen. I believe he understood to a most
remarkable degree the feelings of all those serving in the
Fleet, and I believe no Minister was ever more jealous for
the preservation of those privileges, and regarded more
carefully those feelings."
It is easier to speak of his admiration for one who, like
Lord Goschen, has passed " beyond these voices," than it is
to speak of the cordial and happy relations that existed
between him and the Board of which he became a member ;
of his relation with his chief, Lord Selborne, with the Naval
Lords whom he served, and with Mr. Pretyman, then Civil
Lord, whose close friendship, dating from this period of joint
work at the Admiralty, was so deeply valued by Oakeley.
Nine years later, Lord Selborne wrote to me of this time :
" No one knows as you do how wholly his life was given for
his country, and how unsullied it was with even a thought of
self, or with anything untrue or mean. I know something
of the truth, for never did a man have a more loyal or
capable colleague than I had at the Admiralty, and I
should like to express to you now the lifelong gratitude
I owe to him for what he did to help me there."

QUESTIONS IN HOUSE OF COMMONS 173
The three years of work at the Admiralty were busy
and happy ones. The knowledge of the Navy that he
already possessed made it comparatively easy for Oakeley
to acquire the general and detailed information needed by a
representative of the Admiralty in the House of Commons.
It helped him to avoid errors, and it gave to his expositions
of estimates, and to his speeches, in the course of debates, a
clearness that arose from the fact that the things about
which he was speaking — the men, the ships, the guns — were
concrete and actual things, personally known and familiar,
and not, as they so often are to speakers in the House,
merely abstract nouns, items in a Blue book or report.
In his experience as a private member he had so often
found that very misleading official answers were given to
questions in the House, that he resolved never to give
answers which he had not written himself, or corrected and
carefully considered in the light of all the information that
could be supplied to him. In the Admiralty, and later at
the War Office, he kept strictly to this rule. Perhaps only
those who know how much easier it is to an overworked
Minister to give a reply as it is supplied ready-made by his
Department, can fully realise what a difference it may make
if such a rule is faithfully observed. His pleasure was great
when a severe critic of the Administration said in the House
that Oakeley's answers to questions were always notably fair
and honest.
Without dwelling too much on the details of the
questions of Naval Administration that were discussed in
Parliament in the years 1900-3, the main outlines may be
given of the policy followed by the Board of Admiralty, the
main criticism that it had to meet, and its defence. And
before the close of this chapter of his life, I shall try to
show briefly which were the questions that interested him
most of all, and which greatly occupied his mind during
his tenure of office. Towards the consideration of certain
problems the whole training and bent of his mind naturally
inclined him ; and to them he gave much of his thought
and work.
Amongst these questions were the need for a more
complete organisation for war throughout the Empire, and

174 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
the necessity for the creation of a special body to whom
the problem of the defence of the Empire as a whole, and
the effective, scientific, and economical utilisation of its
resources in time of war, should eventually be entrusted.
For in the lack of co-ordination of the resources of the
Empire for defence and offence, he still saw our greatest
need and our greatest danger as a nation ; and he urged
that the consideration of this problem was by far the most
important that is entrusted to any Prime Minister or
Government. These ideas that he had long dwelt upon and advocated,
were gradually becoming familiar ones, and were beginning
to crystallise into shape, and to find a place, not only in the
creed of students of Military and Naval history, but also
in the beliefs of thoughtful politicians and statesmen. The
contributions that he made to this crystallising process, out
of which so much has grown since then, may be told at the
close of these chapters ; and something also may be told of
the work that he did on one or two subjects that were of
special interest to him, in which his work and writing has
since borne fruit.
In the House of Commons in 1901 the principal criticism
of Admiralty policy was directed to the question of the new
works that were in process of construction at Gibraltar, and
secondly to the relative strength and equipment of the Medi
terranean fleet.
On some more detailed points of administration the dis
cussion also turned ; on the urgent question of the arrears
and delay in shipbuilding in the dockyards, and also on the
vexed and much-debated question of the type of boiler to be
selected for the ships of the Navy.
The Gibraltar question was raised in the House in a
motion which was brought forward, advocating the suspension
of the works that were in progress on the western side of
the Rock, in favour of a new scheme of works, docks, and
harbour, which should be commenced on the opposite or
eastern side of Gibraltar ; a site which it was contended
would not be exposed to the fire of artillery from the Spanish
mainland, a fire which might make the present harbourage
untenable.

GIBRALTAR 175
The Admiralty's reply was to the effect that, desirable
as it would undoubtedly be to have a protected anchorage
and dock accommodation on the eastern side, very formid
able difficulties stood in the way ; that it was estimated that
such works would probably not be completed in fifteen years,
and that it would be out of the question to keep the Fleet
for such a length of time without any protection from torpedo
or other sea attack. The safety and efficiency of the Medi
terranean Fleet demanded the immediate provision of dock
accommodation, which even in time of peace was urgently
required. The Admiralty had always recognised the fact that the
western side of the Rock might be exposed to land fire ;
but this fact did not in their estimation outweigh the compara
tive advantages of the western harbour that was now
approaching completion.
The length of time before an eastern harbour could be
completed, the amount of money that would be required for
the undertaking, and the necessity for immediate protection
from torpedo attack and from fire from ships on the western
side, made it clear that, though an eastern harbour would be
doubtless an additional strength and advantage, it could not
be treated by the Admiralty as an alternative.
A considerable amount of criticism was also directed
to the alleged want of preparedness of the Mediter
ranean Fleet, its relative insufficiency, and its weakness in
cruisers, and some added importance was given to the
charges that were made, by the statement that they voiced
the opinions of distinguished officers of the Mediterranean
Fleet. This criticism was not directed so much against the
general standard of strength at which the Navy was main
tained, anxiety on that head being fairly met by the state
ments that were made by Lord Goschen and Lord Selborne,
which were generally regarded as being satisfactory ; but was
directed more especially against the relative weakness of a
particular fleet, and the whole question of the arrangement
and distribution of the Navy was freely brought into the
discussion. On this point the Admiralty had the right to say,
unhesitatingly, that on the question of the distribution of

176 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
ships, and the comparative strengths of the different fleets
and squadrons, the Admiralty, and the Admiralty alone,
have all the information which can enable a right judgment
to be made. They, and they alone, know what are the
general calls of the whole Empire on the services and ships
of the Navy, and the Admiralty alone can decide what is the
proportion of its war strength at which the Mediterranean,
or any other squadron, ought to be maintained in time of
peace. Changes were being gradually carried out in the composi
tion of the Mediterranean fleet to bring it up to a more
modern standard, and to make it more homogeneous.
When the Estimates for 1902 were introduced in the
House in the following February, and the debate turned
again to the question of the ships in the Mediterranean, the
Secretary to the Admiralty was able to point to changes that
had been effected, to additions made in the strength of this
and other squadrons ; and also to the list of new ships
which would shortly be ready, which as they became avail
able would take the places of, or supplement, ships already
attached to our fleets, or those which are in reserve at home
or abroad. At the conclusion of the same speech, he spoke of the
vigilant interest that he believed the country ought con
stantly to take in the affairs of the Navy, and of the
necessity that he saw for continual progressive changes and
reforms in its service.
" There has been a feeling of anxiety," he said, " with regard to the
condition of our Navy. I think it is absolutely inevitable that this should
be so. At a time when the outlook is as perplexed as it has been during
the last year or two, when we have given such great pledges to fortune
by the transfer of our troops over the sea, it is not only probable, but
certain that men will ask themselves whether our great arm, which alone
enables us to undertake this enterprise, is as strong as it should be. I
welcome that feeling of anxiety; it would betray a very unfortunate
attitude of mind in the country if that feeling did not exist. . . .
I believe that the Navy has two classes of enemy — those who say
that the Navy is all wrong, all rotten, and not to be depended upon in
time of war, and, the other class, more dangerous, and, I believe, more
numerous, who say that the Navy is all right and that we need not trouble
our heads about it. There is no human institution for which we can claim
that perfection, and if there were, I am perfectly certain that institution
would never be the Navy of this country. Circumstances change from

NAVY ESTIMATES, 1902 177
day to day, the dangers which threaten us vary, if they do not increase,
from day to day, and the Navy which is not perpetually adapting itself
to the circumstances of the hour, and trying to bring itself abreast of the
efforts of others, is a Navy which is not even standing still, but is going
back. I believe that criticism is needful. I do not think that in the
Admiralty, as I happen to know it, stimulus is much needed. If I may
be permitted I would say to those Hon. Members with whom I have so
often had the honour of collaborating in this great common cause, that
having some small part in the administration of this great department
there has been no cessation of my activity and of my hope. On the
contrary, I would say that many of those subjects on which we worked
together are now in process of accomplishment.
Heavier armaments are being put into existing ships. A new and
stronger type of destroyer is being created. It is admitted that the
submarine is the reply to the submarine, and that this class of vessel
cannot be regarded merely as the weapon of the weaker power. Ocean
trials of ships with the rival boilers have been carried out.
The spirit which should animate and does animate the Board of
Admiralty with regard to the preparation of the Fleet for sea may
be expressed in one phrase — the preparation of the Fleet for war.
The Navy has no raison d'etre at all, except as an instrument to be
used in war. Any one who touches even the fringe of the administra
tion of that great service must feel haunted by the idea that all this
will be tested one day. When the guns are shotted, when the war
heads are on the torpedoes, when the sound of firing is heard in the
Channel and losses are reported, and when men's hearts fail them,
that is the time when all this will be tested, and I truly believe
that that is the conviction which is in the mind of every man who is
concerned in the administration of the Admiralty. If it were not so
we might feel hopeless enough as to the safety of this country in time
of war. I do not pretend for a moment that the ideal of which we
are all in pursuit, and which we shall never attain, has even been
approached as nearly as some may imagine. In a Navy like ours, where
all has grown up by degrees, where many appliances must remain which
were appropriate to the days in which they were created, but are
less appropriate to the day to which they have survived, there must
always be a certain proportion of our material, a certain number of
our appliances, which are not what we desire them to be. But, I
believe that by pruning, as we have been pruning on an almost
unparalleled scale, the unprofitable elements of our Fleet; by perpetually
practising in peace those things which must be done in time of war ;
by appointing those officers to commands in peace who will have to
exercise authority in time of war, and by appealing on every occasion,
when we feel that we are not strong enough, to the ready support of
the country, which we shall always receive, we shall be doing all we
possibly can to prepare the fleet for that day of trial which we hope
will never come, but which we all feel will be fateful and critical to us
when it does come."
The principal work of the Board during the autumn
N

178 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
of 1 902 was the formation of the " New Scheme of Training "
for the Navy, which was introduced in the winter of 1902-3.
This subject is dealt with at some length in the following
chapter ; the questions of the intellectual equipment of the
Services, and of Imperial Organisation for Defence, being
also dealt with separately in Chapter XII.
The Secretary to the Admiralty, in introducing the
Estimates in 1903, and in his other speeches in the
House in that year, naturally devoted much of his attention
to these subjects, and on them the principal and more
serious debates turned. The magnitude, however, of the
Estimates that were asked for, and the large increase in the
principal votes, called for explanation, and led to some
discussion, " I have to present to the House," : he said, " Navy Estimates of
a magnitude, I believe, unparalleled in peace or war. I do so as
the official representative of a great department ; but I do not forfeit
my position as a private citizen ; and as a citizen I cannot help sharing
the regret, which I am sure every member of the House must feel,
that the bitter competition and rivalry among the nations continues,
and makes this enormous, unproductive expenditure a necessary
burden. I think we shall all agree in feeling that if the word of
power could be spoken which would call a halt, and cause the
discontinuance of the rivalry among the nations of Europe, we and
they would benefit in the highest degree. Perhaps I have said more
than I ought to say as representing the Admiralty on this subject ;
but I desire to make it clear to the House that which is my
opinion, and I believe that of every member of the Board of Admiralty,
that we take no pride in, that we profess no exultation over the
magnitude of these Estimates ; and I think that the depth of our
feeling in the matter may be taken as the measure of our conviction,
that these Estimates, large as they are, are necessary in the circum
stances in which we live ; and the only way in which we hope to
commend them to the House of Commons is by proving, as we can,
that the money voted so lavishly in the past has been satisfactorily
and effectively expended for the purposes for which it was voted, and
by showing that the money which may be voted will be so expended
in the future. That is, I think, the only satisfactory justification
we can put forward for this enormous expenditure ; we must prove
that it is necessary ; we must show that it has been, and will be, well
spent. I know that the system has not been tested. It is true, as
is often said, that the expenditure and policy of the Admiralty have
never been put to the test and trial of a great naval war. I am sure
it is the fact that the Board of Admiralty are under no illusion as
1 Speech on Introduction of Navy Estimates, March 1903.

NAVY ESTIMATES, 1903 179
to the depth and the intensity of the responsibility that rests upon them ;
and I can assure the House that the spirit that prevails there is not
alien to that existing in the country. They are united in the endeavour
to meet future exigencies and deeply conscious of the responsibilities
they have to bear.
The total vote shows an excess over the vote of last year of over
£3, 000,000 sterling. The personnel, which is of the first importance,
shows an increase of 4600 over the vote of last year, and the votes
by which we can best measure the amount of actual addition to
the strength of the Navy — votes 8 and 9 for material, shipbuilding,
guns, and gun-mountings — have been increased by no less than
£2, 000,000 sterling, or if we add, as we ought to add, the appropria
tion of grants-in-aid, the gross increase is ,£2,271,224."
The criticism of the Opposition was naturally directed
against this large increase, especially in regard to the
vote for new construction ; and Mr. Edmund Robertson,
speaking for the Front Opposition Bench, lamented that
Peace Conferences seemed to have met in vain, since
our naval expenditure, which in 1898 amounted to twenty-
three millions, now amounted to thirty-four and a half
millions. The increase was, indeed, unhappily large, and the
burden of such an expenditure great. But the cardinal
fact that lay behind these estimates, that alone justified
them, and that made them necessary, was expressed in the
speeches of Sir Charles Dilke and of the Secretary to the
Admiralty. They pointed out, in reply to Mr. Robertson
and other critics, that our expenditure upon the Navy
depended, not upon our desires and aspirations, but on the
actions and programme of the other great Naval Powers.
No pause or cessation could safely be made in our naval
preparations, unless it could be made consistently with the
action of those Powers.
There had been no such cessation in the maritime
preparations of other countries ; they had shown, on the
contrary, an increased activity ; and the paramount duty
of the Admiralty was, therefore, to be in a position to
guarantee the country against attack and defeat by any
combination of Powers with which we might reasonably
expect to be at war. Whatever sum was needed to make
sure of this result must be demanded, and to ask for or to
vote a lesser sum would be an act of folly.

180 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
The House of Commons acquiesced in the reasoning.
" We have got through our Estimates with lightning speed,"
Oakeley wrote on July 3. " Instead of dragging on till
midnight, as they usually do, they were over by six
o'clock ; I have now got every single Navy Vote with
out Closure, a record since the new supply arrangements
came into force. The fact is not in any way to my
credit, but is simply due to the hot weather, the interest
taken in things other than the Navy, and, perhaps, to
the apathy of the House of Commons about the Service.
Nevertheless the result, to whatever causes due, is most
satisfactory." Before closing this chapter and passing on to the New
Scheme of Training, the subject of which occupied much
of the time of the House of Commons and of the Board
of Admiralty, and to which the next chapter is devoted, a
few of his letters written to his sister, Mrs. Vere O'Brien,
during his first year at the Admiralty are given here : —
" Admiralty, fanuary 23, '01.
" Here we are with our flags drooping at half-mast, our
hearts in our boots, the flashes of the Park guns throwing
red streaks upon my window, and their boom coming heavy
through the fog. Here we are all in black — a blacker
London you never saw — all men and all women really
mourning, really grieving with honest human grief over the
loss of our dear Queen ; and grieving, too, many of them,
over the evils which her death may bring upon the country.
And yet, and yet ! Well, I have just been swearing myself
in at the House, and as I took the book, among a batch
of others, I opened it, and my eye lit on the passage which
faced me. It was the first sentence of the first verse of
the eleventh chapter of the Romans, and in that passage
I found an exact expression of my own current of thought
and feeling at this moment. Look up the passage and you
will see.
" I say to you, as I have said to Francie, that in my
judgment we all want a tonic. We are getting naturally
into too low a condition, and it is doing us harm. We
have, Heaven knows ! plenty to alarm us, plenty over

LETTERS 181
which we have a right to grieve, and about which we must
feel anxious. But we are a great people still, sixty millions
of us, with one speech, one past, and one literature. We
are not going to fall out of the front rank like a leaf falling
from a tree. Not at all. Let us think of our assets, of the
tremendous advantages we have if we have sense and resolu
tion enough to profit by them. Other nations, too, have
their troubles, many and great, but of these we never think.
Therefore, think I, the time has come to say Sursum Corda,
to take heart of grace, to cheer up other people and our
selves ; and I honestly believe that every man or woman
who, according to his or her opportunities, does this now,
will be deserving well of their country.
" You know my favourite incident and event in all history
is the vote of the Roman Senate after Varro's rout.
"... And so, dear, with all blessings and good wishes,
and with the assurance that I love you as well under King
Edward as I did under Queen Victoria — I am your loving
brother, H. O. Arnold-Forster.
" God save the King ! " "Admiralty, tith December 1901.
"It is 2.15. I am sitting at my desk with all the
electric lights burning, and a thick, dirty fog blocking up all
the windows. You will observe that I have no very pleasant
objects to contemplate, and the perusal of papers, even on
such interesting subjects as the pay of a ' timekeeper at
Hong-Kong,' or the appointment of an assistant chemist to
the Admiralty, palls after a time. So how can I better find
an agreeable subject for contemplation, or a more interesting
occupation, than by turning my mental eye on Ballyalla
and its mistress, and writing you a letter. . . .
" I am, as you see, at my post, like the Roman soldier at
Pompeii. Some day my body will be dug out of the solid
fog. I shall be found with my pen in my hand, and the
word ' boilers ' engraved on my petrified and well-preserved
heart. I shall become an example of devotion to duty, and
shall have a place in school-books.
" I have been vaccinated, officially ; they took the lymph

1 82 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
from an Army cow at Aldershot, and I think the military
must have engineered the thing as a subtle revenge for my
attacks on the War Office, for it was the most 'taking' cow
I ever had to do with. I shall bear my honourable scars
to my death. But I'm convalescent now, and I'll pay the
W.O. out yet. We have a dinner-party to-night. I wish
you were going to be a party to our party ; it would amuse
you.  and  and  and  are coming.
A gay company, is it not ? But not one of them — no,
not one — as gay as you, my dear ; so come over and see
us soon, and we will have a feast in your honour ! I am
just finishing Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd — a
fine book, lofty and gentle and moving. I wonder, though,
whether our Dorsetshire peasants do, or ever did, talk
such neat Shakespearian English as Hardy would have us
believe ?
"... Isn't it sad having Parliament again so soon — the
middle of January ? Detestable, I think ; personally, I
should like to go on with my work here till I could work
no longer. Actually, I may be kicked out any day, either
by a change of Government or by my constituents, which is
sad, is it not ? . . . — Ever your loving Brother."
On the day of the Thanksgiving for Peace after the
South African War, he writes : — "June 8th, 1902.
" You were not absent from my thoughts when the
news of the Peace reached me ; and you were again very
present to them to-day during the great Service of Thanks
giving in St. Paul's.
" It was impossible, in this day of real and legitimate joy
and thanksgiving, not to look back into the dark days that
have gone before. Impossible not to recall the great
national and private sorrows which have thrown their
shadows over our pathway since that sad autumn of 1899.
It pleases me to think that the only news of the war which
reached our Dearest One at Malvern 1 was of the success of
our troops, brief and delusive as that success was. She
would have taught us all how to bear the reverses which
1 See p. 142.

THANKSGIVING FOR PEACE 183
followed, she would have been the bravest and wisest guide ;
but the whole struggle with its losses, its waste, its long-
drawn weariness, would have cut her to the heart. So it is
well she knew no more. Dark as the earlier days were —
and I can still almost feel the oppression of life while they
lasted — they brought some good. Our People, who lack
many gifts, yet own many which are not bestowed in equal
measure, perhaps, on any other people. We did bear our
selves well through the time of trial, we did not flinch, and,
above all, we stood by the men who were taking the risks,
never betrayed them, and never abused them, while the trial
lasted. And then the cloud lifted just as it seemed im
penetrable, or only about to break in some destroying
storm. How great was the relief! Then there came again
the long trying period of slow progress, of losses, of doubtful
successes, and real failures. And now at last we have the
end, as we desired it, as we meant it to be from the begin
ning. ' Unconditional surrender ' by the men who chose to
violate our territory ; the British Flag replaced on the flag
staff at Pretoria ; the work of our soldiers done, and done
thoroughly. And yet with all this, happily, there is none
of the shame and misery that humiliate and embitter a
brave but defeated enemy. How strange must the present
scenes in South Africa be to our vilifiers, and yet how
comprehensible they are to us, and what a strength it is
to us as a nation that we have been able to make them
possible. " Of course the War is full of tremendous warnings. ' If
all this be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the
dry ? ' What might not happen if we were fighting some
great armed nation or combination of alliances ? What,
indeed, might not have happened had any Power felt strong
enough to translate its ill-will into evil deeds during the
past three years ?
" You may be sure that these reflections, and many more
which spring out of them, are very present to the mind of a
Secretary to the Admiralty, who knows something of the
Navy, and who realises its weaknesses and its strength.
"The Cathedral was packed to-day. Fortunately M.
and I had excellent places under the dome and close to the

184 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
pulpit. . . . The sermon was not good ; it was more like
reflections from a newspaper than the kind of address which
might have touched, and would have touched, the minds of
a congregation, attuned as ours was to-day, to receive and
respond to a very high note. But it is easy to criticise,
infinitely hard to give correct expression to the feeling which
is in many hearts, but which so few of those who entertain
it can formulate in words."

CHAPTER XI
" The command of the world's forces belongs henceforth to those who under
stand them best and know how to use them most skilfully, who have best learnt
how to transform the power of knowledge into the power of action.''
J. R. Thursfield.
The Work of the Board of Admiralty — The New Scheme of Training for
the Navy — The Authors of the Scheme.
The greatest and most serious problem which faced the
Board of Admiralty was one which had confronted many
previous Boards, and which had given occasion for much
anxious consideration and thought to successive Lords of
Admiralty, as well as to naval officers and civilians who
had studied naval questions.
The change which in the nineteenth century converted
the Navy from a Navy of sailing ships into a Navy of steam
ships, involved a revolution wide and far reaching, the real
nature of which was only slowly and gradually to be realised.
For some seventy years after the change from sail to steam
had taken place, the training of officers and men of the Fleet
was still accomplished by means of what has been described
as the " incomparable discipline of masts and sails." It was
rightly felt by the Navy, and by successive Boards of
Admiralty, that a discipline and training which had made
the Naval Service what it was, and what it had been in the
days of St. Vincent, Hawke, and Nelson, could not lightly
be abandoned ; nor could it possibly be dispensed with unless
and until some other system of training, comparable with it,
should be found to take its place. There were, however
distinguished naval officers, and many thoughtful civilian
critics, who saw and pointed out that we had come to the
parting of the ways, and that a revolution in our system of
training officers and men would become necessary, if we were
i»5

1 86 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
to keep abreast of modern conditions and not see ourselves
surpassed by other nations. The change that was becoming
inevitable cannot be better described than in these words
used by Mr. J. R. Thursfield, in a lecture given by him in the
year 1900 at the Royal United Service Institution. He
said that when once the discipline of masts and sails as an
essential element in naval training is given up
" We are brought face to face with the tremendous problem of adapting
the modern seaman to his new environment. ... No solution of the
problem will be adequate or permanent which does not take rational
and scientific account of the momentous revolution involved. . . .
The problem is how to develop maritime skill out of conditions new
to the sailor and never yet fully tested by war, how to mould the crew
of a modern warship into as consummate a fighting organism as the
crews which fought in sailing ships from Gravelines to Trafalgar. The
problem is not to be solved by rule of thumb, by tinkering here and
there at a routine still saturated at every point by the tradition of masts
and sails and their discipline. The rule of thumb has had its day. The
command of the world's forces, of the forces of nature and those of
society alike, belongs henceforth to those who understand them best and
know how to use them most skilfully, who have best learnt how to
transform the power of knowledge into the power of action."
That successive Boards of Admiralty should have shrunk
from attempting to untie the knot of this problem was
natural ; for it was clear that if it were to be solved at all, it
would involve not merely small reforms, but a practical
revolution, and the obstacles that stand in the way of such
revolutions are great. The moment, however, came at last,
when, the final abandonment of the training of masts and
sails having been carried out, the Admiralty was obliged to
face and admit the organic change that had taken place in
the art of naval war, and to recognise the new supremacy of
steam and the supreme importance of machinery,
" Everything in the modern fleet," wrote one of the most dis
tinguished of our Admirals, " is done by machinery, be it steam,
hydraulic compressed air, or electricity, to which will probably be added,
in the near future, explosive oil and liquid air. Not only are the ships
propelled solely by machinery, but they are steered by machinery.
Their principal arms — gun and torpedo — are worked by machinery.
They are lit by machinery ; the water used by those on board for
drinking, cooking, and washing, is produced by machinery ; messages
which were formerly transmitted by voice-pipe now go by telephone.
The orders which the Admiral wishes to give to the Fleet could formerly

NEW SCHEME OF NAVAL TRAINING 187
only be made by flags in the day and by lamps at night ; they are now
made by electricity, that is, wireless telegraphy and electric flashing
lamps. Orders which were formerly written out by hand are now
produced by the typewriter or by the printing machine. Formerly the
Admiral visited another ship in his pulling barge, now he goes in a
steam-boat, which has been hoisted out by means of a steam-engine.
The anchor, formerly hove up by hand, is now worked by an engine.
The live bullocks, which were formerly taken to sea, are replaced by
frozen carcases maintained in that condition by machinery. If a fire
breaks out in the ship, the steam-pumps drown it. If the ship springs
a leak, steam pumps keep down the water. The very air that those
on board between decks breathe is provided by a fan driven by
machinery." The development of machinery and labour-saving
appliances in men-of-war was indeed vast and ever increasing.
Steam and machinery as the motive power in our fighting
ships, and as the principal factors in the Navy of the
twentieth century, had " come to stay " ; and the sooner the
changed conditions were frankly faced, and the training of
the Navy brought into harmony with them, the better it
would be.
It was of the utmost importance that any new system
which should introduce such reforms should be conceived on
broad lines, that it should embrace all branches of the
Service, and should be a large and statesmanlike effort to
deal with the problem of officering and training the Navy as
a whole. The question that faced the Admiralty divided itself into
two principal parts : —
I. The anomalous and difficult position of engineers
and marine officers, — a position which created a prejudicial
division of feeling between the different branches of the
Service. 2. The need for a more modern and scientific system of
education for all naval officers.
It was impossible for the Admiralty to feel satisfied that
the education given under the existing system was adequate
to meet all the changing and growing requirements of a
modern Navy.
To Oakeley the educational aspect of the question
naturally appealed, and had an especial interest. Among
his papers and memoranda of the years 1901 and 1902

f88 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
there are many notes touching on the education and
training of the Navy. One Minute, written in the summer
of 1 901, after a study ofthe results of the examinations of
junior naval officers for the past two or three years, gives
the impressions left on his mind by their perusal, and some
of the conclusions to which he thought they pointed.
" At a time," he wrote, " when education is daily becoming more
necessary in every rank and profession, the education of the naval officer
is falling behind. . . . That the present system has produced admirable
officers is undoubted, — but what is good may always be made better ; and,
at the present day, it is not possible to accept the view that this country
can with impunity allow the practical and theoretical instruction of its
naval officers to fall behind that which is given to the officers of other
nations. To do so is to inflict an injustice on our officers, and to incur
a danger to the nation." . . . Education, he goes on to point out, " if
it is to be effective must be given in such a way as to attract and interest
students, it must be systematic and progressive, and should be given
under conditions most likely to produce concentration in the mind ofthe
pupils. . . . Few officers, if any, would contend that under the present
system the instruction given to midshipmen on board sea-going ships
is satisfactory, or is conveyed in such a way as to attract and interest them.
On the contrary, it is notorious that in nine cases out of ten the instruction
is looked upon by the young officers as a nuisance and sometimes as a
farce. It is imparted at casual hours in unsuitable places, and is subject
at all times to interruptions, which are frequent or the reverse, not in
deference to any rule, but to the particular point of view of the captain
of the ship. The appliances and apparatus necessary for the illustration
of scientific lectures are almost entirely absent. Under these circum
stances it is not to be wondered at that the teaching of physics, etc., should
prove as unsatisfactory as it appears to be. The education given on ships
at sea cannot be systematic. There is ample evidence that it is not pro
gressive. Many officers frankly admit that when they go to Greenwich
they practically have to begin their school over again, where they left off
on the Britannia. Very few have made any serious advance during the
period spent at sea, and it is probable that none on entering Greenwich
have made the advance which might be expected after so long a period
nominally devoted to instruction.
It is clear that the system is not calculated to promote concentration
in the minds of the pupils. On the contrary, not only is the instruction
liable to constant interruption, but subjects which should be prosecuted
continuously are studied at irregular intervals, and not in accordance
with any reasonable or well-regulated scheme. . . ." 1
The Minute closes with the suggestion, that in lieu of the
existing system the age of entry should be lowered, and a
1 Minute. June 1901.

NEW SCHEME OF NAVAL TRAINING 189
prolonged educational course given — beginning at an earlier
age, and ending with a cruise, for purposes of instruction, on
board a special sea- going training-ship.
In another Minute, written in July 1902, and submitted
to the Board of Admiralty in September of the same year,
he writes : —
" I understand that the question of the Education of Naval Officers
will shortly be discussed by the Board, and I ask leave, therefore, to
submit the following remarks with regard to this subject. The views
expressed are practically a summary of those contained in various
minutes already submitted.
1. No advantage has been derived from the alteration of the age of
entry of cadets, and the hope that by raising the age of entry the value
of a Public School training would be obtained for a large number of
naval officers has not been realised. The total number of entries from
Public Schools is 23 per cent of the whole, and there is no reason to
believe that it will increase. The arrangements for preparing boys in
some of the principal Public Schools are most inadequate. Moreover, it
is to be remembered that the chief value of a Public School training
consists in the lessons which are learned in the later years of the boy's
school career. From the point of view of instruction he learns little
enough at any time ; but in the higher forms he may learn to exercise
authority and to take his own part in a somewhat complex society.
It is submitted, therefore, that it is wise to go back from the present
regulation age to the earlier age of twelve and a half or thirteen.
2. The Britannia, or other institution carrying on the same work
as the Britannia, should become the Public School of the young officer,
and the course should be sufficiently long to enable him to obtain a
thorough grounding in all the branches of study which he will have to
pursue during his career. Among these branches of study should be
included some knowledge of Literature and History, which is necessary
to a gentleman in the Naval Service as it is to gentlemen in any other
profession. It is suggested that the first year might, roughly speaking,
be given up to general education, the second year to more specialised
study, and the third and fourth years to specific training in the duties
of an officer ; this training to be given in the first instance at the
College, but largely afloat, and during the last nine months in a sea
going training-ship furnished with a proper staff of instructors. . . .
It is submitted that the proper principle in training for the Navy, as
in training for in any other profession, is to provide the best kind of
instruction under the most favourable circumstances, and so to arrange,
that during the time the pupil is under instruction he still devotes his
principal energies to this task. . . .
3. It has been suggested in another paper that it will be well in the
future to enter candidates for the engineering branch of the Navy through
the Britannia, and if this course be adopted, it is clear that the
accommodation at Dartmouth College will at once become inadequate.
(The question of the additional accommodation that would thus be

190 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
rendered necessary was discussed, and tbe possibility of a second Naval
College in the neighbourhood of Portsmouth suggested.
4. The training of senior officers is, of course, bound up with that
of the junior officers, inasmuch as the whole scheme of the examinations
now depends upon the Cadets' and Midshipmen's course. If the
suggested plan were adopted, the first course at Greenwich might be
considerably altered, for at present the three months spent there are
usually devoted to learning or re-learning what ought to have been
taught on the sea-going ships. The three months, or even a longer
period, might be devoted with advantage to more advanced studies,
possibly to the learning of languages.
5. In one branch of naval education we are undoubtedly deficient.
In the higher learning of the profession — strategy, tactics, and certain
scientific branches — it cannot be said that the British Navy gives
lessons to the world, which, considering the position of this country, it
ought to do. It is admitted by most naval officers that the institution
of a School for Strategy, etc., at Greenwich has been a step in the
right direction, but it can hardly be said that Greenwich has yet
attained the position which it ought undoubtedly to occupy. It is
not largely attended, its personnel, although able, is limited, and the
School has not as yet the prestige which is necessary to give full value
to its teaching. If an opportunity could be found for transferring the
school to one of our naval ports — preferably Portsmouth — the oppor
tunities of giving practical instruction in connection with strategical
and tactical problems would be greatly increased, and it is submitted
that if this opportunity were to occur, the transfer should be made." l
In the summer of 1902 Lord Selborne's Board was
joined by Sir John Fisher as Second Sea Lord. His great
ability, and the intense personal energy that he threw into
every question that affected the Naval Service, made his
advent to the Board at this time of the greatest importance.
Oakeley often said, then and in after years, that Lord
Selborne's wise and far-sighted methods, which made him
so well able to carry out a great scheme to a successful
issue, together with Sir John's immense ability and " driving
power," formed a combination which was of incalculable
advantage to the Admiralty at that time, and a partnership
with which it was a privilege to be associated and to
work. Christmas Day 1902 saw the publication of Lord
Selborne's Memorandum, outlining the scheme that had
been drawn up by Lord Selborne and his Board, after
long consideration and many meetings. Many months of
1 The transfer to Portsmouth was made in the year following.

NEW SCHEME OF NAVAL TRAINING 191
further work were needed before all the details of the new
scheme were fully completed ; but in December its main
principles were settled ; and, in view of their great import
ance to the Naval Service and to the country, the First
Lord made them known at the earliest possible date.
In November 1902 Oakeley writes in a letter to his
sister : —
" We have been very busy at the Admiralty of late, and
as, I hope, you will learn before very long, busy to some
purpose. The fact is we are going to make a great revolu
tion in many things concerning the Navy, a revolution
which will leave its mark on the Naval Service for many
a year to come. I am so sanguine as to the ultimate
result being good, that I am truly glad to be a member
of the Board which is making the changes. But it is a
big responsibility all the same. I couldn't have believed,
two years ago, that so many of the changes I so ardently
desired would come about within my lifetime, still less that
they should actually come to pass before I left office ; and
yet I think that is going to happen, — to a large extent it
has already happened."
In another letter to his sister on Christmas Eve 1902,
he writes again of the new scheme : " I hope that to
morrow's paper will bring you an account of the Admiralty's
Christmas gift to the Navy and the nation, at least the First
Lord's Memorandum is to appear to-morrow. ... It is well
that credit should be given where credit is due. It is really
due to three men. Principally to Sir John Fisher, whose
originality, perseverance, and energy have made the thing
possible. Next to Sir John credit is due to the First Lord,
on whom, after all, all the responsibility rests, and on whom
the chief blame will fall if the scheme fails ; and thirdly,
and in a high degree, credit is due to Lord Walter Kerr, a
splendid, thoroughgoing, old-school sailor of the best kind,
who has justly earned the perfect confidence of the officers.
... A smaller man would have simply set his face against
the whole thing, and either have made it impossible or have
sulked. Lord Walter, on the contrary, having once made
up his mind to accept the new principles, has been most

192 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
loyal, and has done everything in his power to make it a
success. The mere fact of his acquiescence is worth an
immense amount. The rest of us, of course, have done our
part. Naturally I have worked at the business with delight,
because I see so many of my own ideas fulfilled. But the
real authors of the scheme are the men I have named, and
I am proud to have worked under them. Perhaps I have
had more to do with the educational arrangements than
with any other part of the plan, and I shall be very happy
if I succeed in getting these put on a broad and sound
basis." Lord Selborne in his Memorandum recognised the
changes that had taken place, and the need for a greater
co-ordination of knowledge between Executive officers and
engineers. The need for common knowledge had given the
opportunity for common instruction.
Under the new scheme it was proposed to make an
entire change in the system of the entry and training of
officers. Hitherto there had been three systems of entry
and three kinds of training. Henceforward there would be
one source of supply, one system of entry, and, for many
years of an officer's life, one system of training. The
objects aimed at were to give the best possible education
to all naval officers, to enable them to acquire the foundation
which all officers should build upon, namely, a thorough
knowledge of the duties of a seaman and officer on board
a modern ship at sea ; and after having given this common
foundation, to provide for the differentiation necessary for
specialised duties. Further, to get rid of the separation of
sentiment between officers of different branches, and to
increase the available supply of junior officers trained as
seamen. With these objects in view Lord Selborne's Memorandum
proposed : —
To have one class only of naval officers, who are to
enter as naval cadets between the ages of twelve and
thirteen. To train them all exactly alike until after they have
passed for sub-lieutenant, at about twenty.

NEW SCHEME OF NAVAL TRAINING 193
At the age of about twenty, distribution to be made
into the three branches of engineer, executive, and marine
officers. The Memorandum contained many other provisions ;
for the new scheme affected not the officers only of the
Navy, but the training and position of every rank and
branch of men who served with the Fleet. To a great
extent, however, criticism and debate turned on the
questions of the lowering of the age of entry to twelve
years, on the system of nomination adopted, and on the
common entry and training of executive, engineer, and
marine officers.
In the discussions on the New Scheme in the Press and
in the House of Commons, although it was much debated,
and although there was some active opposition to the
changes that were introduced, the Scheme met on the whole
with a cordial reception, as a broadly conceived solution of
a very difficult problem. It is noteworthy, considering how
drastic and far-reaching the provisions were, that the Scheme
should immediately have met with so large a measure of
acceptance and assent from many widely different quarters
and from both sides of the House of Commons, and that it
should have encountered so little really hostile or destructive
criticism. Certain modifications of the Scheme have altered it
slightly since its first introduction, and it is probable that
further modifications may yet be found necessary when the
working of its various parts has been thoroughly tested by
time and experience. The machinery set up was big ; and
it may from time to time need considerable adjustment to
make it harmonise with the needs of the Service. That it
should thus be adapted and adjusted by a gradual process
of evolution, is entirely consistent with the history and
traditions of the Navy.
In the months which followed the publication of Lord
Selborne's Memorandum, besides the financial sides of the
question, which belonged more especially to the Financial
Secretary, Oakeley gave constant time and work to the
Committees that sat week by week at the Admiralty to
decide the general and the detailed arrangements of the
O

194 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
education to be given in the Naval colleges of Osborne
and Dartmouth.
The appointment of the Director of Naval Education
and of the men who would have to organise and direct the
new Colleges, the methods of education to be followed, the
standard to be aimed at, and the appliances for scientific
and for practical instruction that should be provided ; all
these things had to be considered and decided upon. A
number of young naval officers took part regularly in these
discussions, contributing practical and valuable experience
to the Committees, and increasing day by day Oakeley's
admiration for the Service to which they belonged. That
the scheme has worked as successfully as it has done, was,
he always felt and said, largely due to their practical co
operation and help.
If undue stress should seem to have been laid on the
educational aspects of the " New Scheme of Training," and
insufficient space to have been given to other aspects quite as
interesting and important, it is because, in the limited space
which can be devoted to the subject in a short Memoir, it
would be impossible to deal with it exhaustively, and it
seems best to dwell on that side which Oakeley had made
especially his own, and with which his own experience and
training made him in some ways peculiarly fitted to deal.

CHAPTER XII
The Necessity for a better Organisation of the Resources of the Empire
— The Committee of Defence — Standardisation of Dimensions and
Material in the Navy — The Standardisation Committee — Victualling
in the Navy.
It has already been said that among the questions to which
Oakeley gave much thought and work when he was at the
Admiralty, and which he felt to be of the greatest and most
vital importance, was the need for creating a permanent
Consultative Body to which the problems of the defence of
the Empire and the utilisation of its resources for war, should
be entrusted. On this question it may fairly be claimed
that he had some share in helping to crystallise public
opinion, and in getting a wider and more general acceptance
for conclusions that had long been arrived at, and taught by
experts, such as Sir George Clarke, Mr. Spenser Wilkinson,
and other authoritative writers on military and naval policy.
A Memorandum, drawn up by him in 1 902, at the
request of Lord Selborne, with whom he had often discussed
this subject, was sent by the First Lord to the Prime
Minister, and was submitted to the Cabinet for their con
sideration. It summarises the arguments that he desired to
enforce, pointing out that no true organisation for war had
hitherto been created, and no authoritative body of opinion
with regard to imperial defence had been established ; and
it goes on to suggest the nature, constitution, and functions
of the body that he desired to see created.
The country owes to the statesmanship of Mr. Balfour
the great step that was taken a year later, in 1903, when
the old " Committee of the Cabinet on Defence " was
reconstructed, important alterations being made in its con
stitution and functions, and the " Committee of Imperial
Defence " was formed. '95

196 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
The Memorandum of 1902 pointed out the grave need
that then existed for a more complete organisation for war,
and urged : " That for the purpose of creating and maintain
ing such an improved system of organisation it is necessary
to create a special body, whose duties shall be different from,
and additional to, those now assigned to the Intelligence
Departments of the two Services." The Memorandum
points out the complexity of the problems of the defence
of the Empire, and the existence in other countries of
bodies of experts specially trained to consider and report
upon such problems.
The Intelligence Departments of the two Services could
not, under existing conditions, do all that the country had
the right to require ; nor would a mere extension of these
departments provide all that the situation demanded.
Not only were establishments of the British Naval and
Military Intelligence Departments " inferior in point of
numbers to those of Germany ; but in this country the
relative importance of the two Services was in no way
reflected in the appointment of the intellectual equipment
assigned to them. That the Intelligence Department of
the British Navy should be manifestly inferior in regard to
the number of its personnel to the Intelligence Department
of the British Army, is an anomaly which cannot be
satisfactorily explained. . . ."
An elaborate scientific training is given to the German
General Staff, but " the problem of defending Germany . . .
sinks into insignificance compared with the far greater and
more elaborate problem presented by the needs and circum
stances of the British Empire. And yet it is no exaggera
tion to say that the continuous and scientific study of the
problem as a whole, is ' Nobody's Business ' ; and that no
body of British officers receives a training to be compared
with that which is made obligatory for all officers serving on
the German General Staff. It seems reasonable to infer
that the more complicated problem requires the higher
organisation to deal with it, and that we cannot safely
dispense with that which Germany has found to be
essential." The existing Committee of the Cabinet on Defence was

COMMITTEE OF DEFENCE 197
incapable of supervising and directing the defence of the
Empire. None of the members of the Committee were
specialists ; and, being occupied in very important matters
of State, they were unable to give more than a small portion
of time and attention to the great problems on which they
were supposed to advise the Cabinet as a whole. More
over, no continuity of policy was possible to the Committee,
for no Minutes of its proceedings were kept, and if continuity
of policy is to be preserved, and a body of accepted doctrine
is to be created, the keeping of such a record is absolutely
essential. Examples are given in the Memorandum illustrating the
need for better organisation, and instancing matters of vital
importance to the defence of the Empire, which it was con
tended had been neglected or overlooked.
" Many minor though important examples might be
given," he wrote, " of the lack of a proper co-ordination of
the resources of the Empire for the purposes of offence and
defence, but the most important of all is furnished by the
fact that our system of offence and defence has never been
organised in such a way as to accord with the peculiar
circumstances of our Empire. There is not at the present
time, and there never has been in the past, an Empire of
which all the principal communications were by sea, of which
the central State and two of the most important outlying
states were islands, and between all parts of which water-
communication was possible. . . . But in the British Empire
no attempt has been made to specialise or to devise any
system peculiarly appropriate to the needs of a Maritime
State. . . .
" Inadequate attention has been paid to our very special
problems, the relation of the Navy to the Army are ill-
defined, and no serious attempt has been made to ensure
the co-operation of the two Services either in peace or
war, nor is there any interchange of personnel, such as
might reasonably be expected where perfect harmony and
mutual comprehension are so desirable."
And he urges " that the absence of any specialised
organisation suitable to the peculiar circumstances of our
Empire furnishes a strong argument for a change in the

198 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
existing system, under which a reasonable adaptation of
means to ends, and an economical and scientific direction
of force are still lacking."
Great as was the step taken by Mr. Balfour and his
Cabinet in 1903, when they constituted the Imperial
Committee of Defence, and great as is the progress that
has been made since that time, it will not be claimed that
we have yet arrived at any final or perfect solution of the
complex problem of organisation for defence. It is agreed
that the Committee of Defence still falls far short of what
such a Committee for the defence of the Empire might be,
and ought to become. A perfected system of co-operation
and interchange of plans between the two Services is still
to seek. It is still probably almost as true now as it was when
this Memorandum was written, that one of the greatest
difficulties encountered by Ministers of the Crown in
dealing with naval and military questions, is the absence
of any body of sound and authoritative professional
opinion, on which they can rely for guidance, and Ministers
may still, even now, be heard to speak with pardonable
bitterness of the contradictory advice tendered to them by
their professional advisers.
" It is one of the most remarkable proofs of the
inadequacy of our present arrangements that there is no
accepted view with regard to any great question regarding
the naval and military Services, and that no man or body
of men speaks on naval and military subjects with an
authority which commands general respect. It is not in
the least remarkable that this should be the case. If in
Germany the Stettiner Zeitung were to enunciate one
theory with regard to the distribution of the German
Army, and the German General Staff were to express
another and contradictory opinion, no reasonable German
would pay the slightest attention to the newspaper, or
would entertain the least doubt as to which view was
the correct one. Even in this country an opinion on the
liquefaction of gases expressed by Lord Rayleigh or
Professor Dewar, would carry more weight with the general
public than a contrary opinion expressed by the Keighley

MEMORANDUM, 1902 199
Echo or the Brixton Journal. But in both the above cases
public opinion would accept the official as against the
unofficial opinion, because all the world would know that
in either case such an opinion was the outcome of close
application, of long study, and of scientific methods. With
regard to naval and military subjects in this country,
however, no such presumption exists.
" It is no exaggeration to say that in a conflict of
opinion between a newspaper or other critic on the one
hand, and the official exponent of the naval or military
departments on the other, the public very rarely give the
benefit of any presumption to the official view. Very
often, no doubt, the public are wrong, but their instinct is
a correct one, and is due to the fact that they have come
to regard expressions of opinion on naval and military
questions as merely individual views, formed without
reference to any particular study, and often destined to
be contradicted the next day by another professional
authority equally eminent in the Service and equally
unqualified to come forward as a scientific and informed
exponent of any body of doctrine.
" It would be unreasonable to blame the public for their
want of belief, for undoubtedly the attitude is common to
the political heads of great parties. Nothing is more
common than to hear Ministers speak with indignation and
annoyance of the errors into which they have been led by
accepting the advice of naval and military officers, whom it
has been customary to style experts.
" The fact is that a man does not become an expert in
military matters because he wears a red coat, or in naval
matters because he wears a blue one. If he has attained
distinction in either Service it is probable that he is an
expert in some particular department of his profession.
He may be a good flag officer, a good gunner, a good
frontier leader ; but he may be any of these things
without being an expert in the great science of war, or
acquainted with the methods by which, under the compli
cated conditions of our Empire, preparation for war can
most effectively be made.
" Ministers constantly depend upon the opinion of

200 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
professional men in respect of subjects of which their advisers
have no expert knowledge whatever. It is no wonder,
then, that disappointments are frequent. . . . Under these
circumstances it is greatly to be desired that the country
should be furnished with a body of men, who may in time
become true experts, and that facilities may be given for
the creation and growth of a body of opinion with regard
to military questions, which will command respect, because
it is the outcome of scientific method and research." 1
And speaking on this subject in the House of Commons
in the same year,2 Oakeley urged upon the House the need
that existed
" for some reinforcement of the intellectual equipment which directs,
or ought to direct, the enormous forces of our Empire. I adhere
to all I have said as to the value, even in their not wholly developed
form, of the Intelligence Departments of our two great Services. But
I feel that these questions, which are, and must be, outside the
purview of either of those bodies, acting independently, cannot be
dealt with even by the highest officers in either of the Services, or
even by the highest political intelligences, merely by preliminary or
casual examination. . . . The study cannot be made as a mere
accident of professional life. There are great officers who have
served, and are serving, this country enormously to its advantage.
They have devoted their powers to the special avocations and duties
which they have been performing. But many of them, and, indeed, I
may say the great majority of them, have not been called upon to
specialise in the study of this exceedingly complicated problem of
the defence of the Empire, and the preparation and utilisation of
its resources in the most economical and efficient manner. I should
be false to myself if I were to deny that I believe there is room
for a greater amount of preparation in advance with regard to the
defence of the Empire. I am not at all sanguine that we can
improvise in a year, or five years, or even in ten years, an organisa
tion which will enable us to do all that we ought to do in this direction,
but it is certain that unless and until we take the initial steps, the
day of fruition will be indefinitely postponed. . . . Many of us have
our own ideas as to how a commencement should be made, but until
a commencement is made, we shall be no nearer the realisation of
our hopes." In the eight years that have passed since this speech
was made, and since this memorandum was written, though
much has been done, much still remains to do, before our
organisation for defence becomes the finely adjusted machine
that the Empire requires, and has the right to demand.
1 Memorandum, 1902. 2 June 20th, 1902.

STANDARDISATION 201
Great improvements have been made in the intellectual
equipment of the Services. The real development of the
General Staff of the Army, that has taken place in late years,
has been watched and welcomed with the deepest interest
and satisfaction by every one who has the interests of the
Army and of the Empire at heart. The creation of the new
Imperial General Staff is yet another advance recently made
by the War Office. Every step thus taken has been a move
forward in the desired path.
An increase and development of the War Staff of the
Navy has lately been promised by the Admiralty, and we
must hope that the initial steps having been taken we shall
gradually see fulfilled the hopes which inspired reformers in
1 902, and inspired the rebuilders ofthe Committee of Defence,
and that we shall eventually possess a body of men trained,
as the German General Staff is trained, by a lifelong and
scientific study of the special problem involved in the defence
of the Empire, — men who will hand down to their successors
the gathered results of their study, and the learning that they
have acquired ; and will build up gradually a great tradition
that will be available for future generations, and create an
organised and perfected " system of offence and defence
appropriate to the needs of this great maritime State."
The question of Standardisation was one which, long
before his time of office at the Admiralty, Oakeley often spoke
of as one of the problems that had to be faced, and that had
a most important bearing on many sides of the work of the
Admiralty. He used to dwell on the waste of money, time,
and material, which arose from the employment of all manner
of irregular shapes and sizes in various kinds of constructive
work in this country, and he often quoted the work done by
Sir Joseph Whitworth, who first demonstrated the waste and
inconvenience arising from screw manufacturers making
various patterns of screws all slightly differing one from the
other. Whitworth's proposal that an agreement should be
come to for a " uniform size and pitch of thread for every
diameter of screw and of aperture," was met by much oppo
sition. Firm "A," it was contended, would not use the screws
used by "B," while "C" used a different screw altogether. He

202 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
got over the difficulty by producing the exact mean of the
several patterns used by the most eminent firms, and his
proposal was adopted with acclamation.
Another of Whitworth's favourite object-lessons furnishes
a good popular example of our need for standardising in
everyday life ; he used to point to a candle wobbling loosely
in a candlestick, and only made firm by wrapping round it
a band of paper, or to a candle which required to be scraped
before it could be fixed into its place, and would ask why
candlemakers could not agree as to the number of sizes
required by customers, and why every No. I British candle
should not fit correctly into every No. i British candlestick.
The iron and timber parts of buildings, girders, doors,
door-frames, etc., used to move Whitworth to wrath by their
diversity ; and he used to plead for the adoption of a number
of English standards, maintaining that their adoption would
give us the monopoly of the trades in every branch of manu
facture in which this principle was carried into effect. An
example of successful standardisation was furnished by the
action of an association consisting of some of the principal
railways of America, who, in order to cheapen the cost of
rails and engines, adopted standard patterns for rails and
parts of locomotives. The reduction of price that was thus
made possible soon gave the American manufacturer an
immense advantage in the markets of the world ; and the
British manufacturers, who tendered for the supply of loco
motives for the Indian and other railways, presently found
their position gravely threatened by this competition.
From the first months of his tenure of office at the
Admiralty, Oakeley took an active part in introducing into
the Navy a system of standardisation, by which recognised
and uniform standards of dimensions and tests should be
adopted, which should regulate the manufacture of all
material and machinery used in naval construction, and by
which it would be possible to ensure the uniformity and
interchangeability of parts in all naval work. He first raised
the question in August 1907 in connection with the steering
gear of H.M.S. Cressy.
" I cannot help feeling," he wrote 1 at that time, " that the
1 Diary and Memorandum, August and September 1 90 1.

STANDARDISATION 203
almost universal practice of other nations, which are success
fully competing with us, sanctioned as it is by common sense,
point to the desirability of standardising to a far greater
extent than we do at present. ... I still think that no
adequate reason has yet been given against an absolute
uniformity of pattern in the steering-gear of the six ships of
the Cressy class. It is, no doubt, correct to say that in
some instances it is desirable to test different types of appli
ances in the ships of a class ; but I think it is hardly
suggested that any such experiment is being made in the
Cressy class, or that the variations between the steering-
gear of the respective ships is due to anything but the failure
to insist on uniformity. I believe that it would have been a
great advantage if the fractured parts of the Cressy' s gear
could have been immediately replaced by utilising the parts
supplied for another vessel of the same class, or by additional
gear, which it would have been economical to manufacture
as a reserve, had all the ships been identical in design.
" Many of the most important forgings in the machinery
of our ships do occasionally break or get injured in some
way. . . . Clearly, it would be an advantage if these things
could be made interchangeable without injuring the designs
of the engines. ... It is true that standardising does in
volve exceedingly accurate workmanship, and to obtain such
accuracy a considerable outlay on the first cost of machinery,
etc., is essential ; but it is just this accuracy which produces
good machinery, and that it is worth paying for is proved by
the example of many foreign firms, and now, happily, by
some energetic and far-seeing firms in this country. ... I
cannot believe that the principles which apply to every other
kind of mechanical work are not applicable to shipbuilding,
especially to the engines and appliances of ships. If that
be the case our shipbuilding firms will, in the long run,
suffer just as many other branches of industry in the United
Kingdom have suffered, from their failure to introduce
scientific methods into their industry. ... I believe the
time has come when the Admiralty might wisely take the
initiative in this matter, and by its example, and by its
demands, stimulate progress in the direction in which it is
so much needed"

204 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
In October 1901, he spoke on this question at the
Institute of Marine Engineers. " Looking," he said, " at
the machinery of our ships, and at all our great mechanical
appliances, I cannot help asking if there is not room for
more intelligence in the way of standardising these parts,
and securing uniformity of their design. At this moment
our greatest scientific body, the Royal Society, has made
up its mind that we ought to do a great deal more than
we do in this matter of standardising. A whole section
of the British Association devoted itself this year to the
discussion of the question, and was unanimous as to the
necessity of further uniformity in our mechanical operations.
In Paris, at this moment, there is sitting a body of men
charged solely with standardising operations for the continent
of Europe. But what do we find in this country? I go
down to a great factory where a large amount of work is
being done for the King's service. I find that the processes
of testing the tensile strength of materials are so conducted
that one set of tests is used for the Navy, another for the
Army, a third for the Board of Trade, a fourth for one of the
great railway companies, and a fifth for another railway
company ! . . . Again, there is no particular reason that I
can ascertain, why we should have to send ships to sea,
carrying big lots of tubes for boilers and condensers, all
made to different standards of gauge. . . . We are carrying
all this enormous quantity of truck about, because people
have not put their heads together to see whether they cannot
come to some rational agreement for the better advantage
of our mechanical appliances all over the world. ... I am
sanguine enough to believe that the time will come when the
government departments of this country will unite with the
manufacturing industries and the great scientific societies,
and will insist that we shall meet the competition of Europe
and of the United States, by talking the same language that
they talk, and utilising the same methods.
" I spoke just now of tensile tests. 1 find that there is in
use a long list of these tests that are utilised for our own
purposes, and at the bottom of the list I find one test for
the whole of the Continental work. That means that the
' Tower of Babel,' so far as science goes, is eliminated from

STANDARDISATION 205
the Continent of Europe, while we are talking a language
which we can scarcely understand ourselves, and which
others do not care to understand."
The immense influence and bearing that the question of
standardisation exercised on the work of the Admiralty may
better be understood when it is realised that the Government
of this country was controlling manufactures to the extent
of over forty millions a year, and that out of that amount
the Admiralty controlled eighteen or nineteen millions. Any
thing, therefore, which tended towards the efficient supply
of properly manufactured and properly graded materials,
was of the deepest possible importance to the Admiralty.
His prophecy that the time would come when our
Government Departments would unite with men of science,
and with manufacturing industries, to insist upon scientific
standardisation, was realised sooner than he had ventured to
anticipate. The new ideas naturally met with some oppo
sition at the outset, and difficulties were at first met with,
but with the active help of the Controller of the Navy,
Admiral (now Sir William) May, the difficulties were over
come, and the desired object was eventually achieved.
Before he left the Admiralty he had the satisfaction of seeing
the heavy gun mountings, the machinery of large battleships
and cruisers, and the boilers of destroyers, made inter
changeable. The number of types of torpedo boat boilers
was reduced ; and eventually, to his own keen delight, he was
able to sign an Admiralty order enjoining that, for the future,
all material used in naval construction should be manu
factured on recognised standard dimensions.
Meanwhile, he took an active part in forwarding the
general movement in favour of standardisation. The
Engineering Standards Committee, which was one of the
most powerful engineering committees which this country
has ever seen, had been formed under the Presidency of
Sir John Wolfe Barry. It consisted of representatives of
the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, of the Institution
of Naval Architects, the Iron and Steel Institute, and of the
Institution of Electrical Engineers. It soon became apparent
that the movement was one of such national importance, and
would confer such advantages on the trade of the country,

206 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
that the Government ought to give it support, and to
contribute towards its funds.
After consultation with Sir John Wolfe Barry, Mr.
Mansergh, and others, Oakeley drew up the outline of the
statement to be made by the Standards Committee to the
Government. At his request the Prime Minister received a
deputation from the Committee, and he was enabled, in
conjunction with its members, to induce the Government to
make a grant of money towards the Committee's necessary
expenses. He secured the appointment of members from the
Admiralty on the principal sub-Committees, that were formed
by the Standards Committee. He took special interest in
the question of steel tests, and in connection with this
matter, and with the Standardising question generally,
received and entertained the principal representatives of the
movement, who came over to this country from France, and
from the United States.
" There is enough among my papers," he wrote, later in
life, in a letter to his brother-in-law, Sir Arthur Riicker,
" to show that I worked hard for this question, that I
worked on true scientific lines, that I worked at first against
much opposition, and that in the end I succeeded. The
best reward I received, or could receive, was a letter which
my friend and extraordinarily able colleague, Sir William
May, was good enough to write to me before he left the
Admiralty to take up his command. ' I think you will like
to know,' he wrote, ' what the Engineer-in-Chief has just
told me. He tells me that the machinery of the Navy was
never so good as it is now ; that, practically, what used to be
square is now round. I think it fair to tell you this,' he
went on, ' because you fought the battle against all the
technical people, and you have been justified.' It was very
pleasant to hear this, though, of course, all the credit for the
execution of my ideas lies with Sir William May."
Before closing these chapters dealing with Oakeley's
work in the Admiralty, and the subjects which were of
special interest to him there, a few words may, perhaps, be
said about the question of the victualling of the Navy,
especially because, during the time that he was Financial
Secretary to the Admiralty, the changes were made which

VICTUALLING IN THE NAVY 207
greatly altered for the better the existing scale and quality
of the food supplied to the Navy.
All of us who have had any intimate acquaintance with
French households of the middle class have been struck by
the contrast that is presented between the menu and dietary
of such a household in France and that of a corresponding
family in this country. The Frenchwoman has applied her
mind to good purpose to the problem, and in nine cases out
of ten, her household is provided for in a manner incontest-
ably more intelligent and more satisfactory than is the
family of her English sister. A contrast quite as little
flattering to our national pride would have been possible a
few years ago, between the victualling arrangements of our
ships and those of the French and some other navies.
Oakeley's interest in the question of the food of our
sailors dated from the days, long before he became an official
at the Admiralty, when he began regularly to visit both our
own ships of war and foreign ships. He was greatly
impressed by the clever planning and forethought that
made possible the varied menu that is supplied to the
lower deck of the French battleships. From officers and
from men, he was always ready to get all the information
he could as to the arrangements and working of the com
missariat, which made such a result possible. The inferiority
of many of the arrangements for the provisioning and dietary
in the ships of our Navy, of our Mercantile Marine and of
our Training Ships, was too striking not to be noted.
He was always learning about such things from all sorts
and conditions of men ; and the personal experiences that he
thus gained and the detailed knowledge that he acquired,
gave him an added pleasure and keenness when he was able
to assist in carrying out the important changes that were
made, during his term of office at the Admiralty, in the
whole scale and arrangements of the victualling of the Navy.
In the dietary of the boys in our stationary Training
Ships he was also keenly interested. The visits that he paid
to them were, as far as possible, unannounced ; and he timed
his visits so as to see and judge for himself the quality and
quantity of the meals that were served to the boys.
The cordial co-operation and assistance given by those

208 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
who were responsible for these ships, and of those who were
responsible for the general victualling of the Navy, alone
made it possible to carry out many of the reforms he desired
to see accomplished. There are, no doubt, many further
improvements still to be made. As time goes on, and as
the standard of comfort and living of all classes goes up, the
Navy standard must rise also. The best men will not be
got for any service in which the standards of life are greatly
inferior to those of the class from which the men come.
Oakeley's interest was keen in every improvement that was
suggested or made in the conditions of life of both our soldiers
and sailors. The details of barrack life and accommodation,
and the arrangements for soldiers' messes and canteens were
points to which he gave just as much thoughtful work later
on. And the men with whom he worked to make the
surroundings of soldiers' and sailors' lives more humane, and
their food more wholesome and attractive, have written
since his death from many distant parts of the Empire, re
membering and acknowledging the help and encouragement
that he was so ready to give.

CHAPTER XIII
" But what produced this state of things ?" (the misery in our large towns,
the congestion of the labour market, etc. ).
"Free imports? I am not sure; I should like an inquiry; but I suspect
free imports of the murder of our industries much in the same way as if I found
a man standing over a corpse and plunging his knife into it I should suspect that
man of homicide, and I should recommend a. coroner's inquest and a trial by
jury. Of this you may be certain — that an impartial inquiry into this great
question will put more hope into your hearts than any Reform Bill. ..."
Lord Randolph Churchill.
Fiscal Reform and Commercial Union with the Colonies — A Conversa
tion with Mr. Chamberlain — The Growth of an Idea — The Case for
Enquiry,
In April 1903 the subject of our existing fiscal system,
and its suitability or unsuitability to the needs of the time,
were brought vividly and forcibly before men's minds by the
now famous speech that was made by Mr. Chamberlain at
Birmingham. In this chapter, which deals briefly with the
fiscal question and with Tariff Reform, I shall try to show
something of the work and thought that, from a period
dating sixteen years before this time, Oakeley had already
devoted to the consideration of this subject, and to that of
possible commercial union with our colonies. Some of the
difficulties that he felt, and that he frankly expressed from
time to time as he studied these questions, and the final
direction in which his mind was moving, when the great
impetus given to it by Mr. Chamberlain gave life and
reality to the conception of fiscal reform, will be told here.
Problems concerning the incidence of taxation, and the
comparative advantage and disadvantage of our system of
free imports, were questions on which his mind was already
much exercised, and on which he was already working,
even when I first knew him. As early as 1888 he set
before himself and carried out, a course of enquiry into the
209 P

210 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
statistics of the trade of the Empire, in order to find out, if
only for his own satisfaction, whether it would be possible
for this country to alter its fiscal system, to raise revenue
on foreign manufactured imports, and to institute some
form of preferential trade with our colonies. The con
clusions that he then came to were that the increase in the
growth of our colonial trade was, in comparison with our
trade with the rest of the world, so slow and gradual that
it did not justify such a change ; nor did he believe that
the feeling in the Colonies was favourable enough to make
such a venture possible at that time. But he never aban
doned the idea, and he spoke of it as a question which
must be reconsidered and studied afresh with an open mind,
from time to time, in the light of new knowledge and
changing conditions. At the time that he was engaged on
this enquiry, I remember our meeting at dinner my father's
old friend, Lord Farrer, the permanent head of the Board of
Trade, and a strong and very able exponent of orthodox
Free Trade teaching. Conversation after dinner turned on
the question of our trade relations with foreign nations and
with our Colonies. Oakeley said that, as far as he could
see, every prophecy that Cobden had ever made had been
falsified by time, and that all the expectations and promises
of the original teachers of Free Trade had come to naught ;
and added, with a vehemence that was very characteristic,
that he could not look upon Free Trade as an unassailable
dogma of political faith, but simply as a working arrange
ment which had certainly suited England's needs once,
which he believed still suited her best, but which might
very conceivably not continue to suit her always. I
remember Lord Farrer's kindly concern when he told me
of his real regret that my husband should be, as he feared,
imbued with a heresy so dangerous and reactionary as was
suggested by this conversation, and unsound on one of the
fundamental principles of the Liberal creed.
A few years later he went back to the subject afresh,
studying the Board of Trade returns from year to year.
His deep interest in the Imperial side of the question
attracted him continually to a reconsideration of the problem,
and made him desire eagerly that some solution of it might

COMMERCIAL UNION WITH COLONIES 211
be found, even though he could not as yet see his way to
any satisfactory answer.
In 1 89 1, writing about a possible commercial union with
the colonies to the Chamber of Commerce Journal, he pointed
out the great difficulties as well as the desirability of some
arrangement. " It cannot be denied," he wrote, " that the
application of higher and still higher tariffs by continental
and transatlantic nations, with the avowed object of excluding
foreign manufactures for the benefit of the home producers,
is the cause of much concern to manufacturers and business
men, as well as to economists and politicians, and that an
arrangement by which special advantages in trade may be
given, in the markets of the Empire, to goods produced
within it, is coming to be regarded as the best available
remedy. ... It is quite possible that if the resources of the
Empire were to be fully developed it could supply its own
wants both in quantity and kind . . . that there would
be no need to draw upon other parts of the world for
any article of commerce, and that within a measurable
time her Colonies and dependencies might furnish full
occupation for the factories of the United Kingdom. . .
But the fact must not be overlooked that although the
countries of the Empire may be capable of producing the
articles required and in the volume necessary to supply our
markets, yet it is quite possible that if those countries are
not the best suited for the purpose, the cost of production
might be increased and a great sacrifice might be entailed
upon the consumers of these articles by limiting the area of
production to the Empire."
The relatively small volume of the stream of our colonial
trade as compared with the main stream of our foreign trade
was a difficulty that he never lost sight of. Nor did he ever
forget or underrate the fact which at that time presented the
greatest difficulty of all, namely, that to give any real pre
ferential advantage to the Colonies, especially to Canada, we
should have to face the taxation of food ; and, until a radical
change in the opinion of the people of the United Kingdom
on this point should be effected, he believed that no work
able system of preference could be devised. This was the
difficulty on which he dwelt when he spoke to a meeting of

212 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
the Imperial Federation (Defence) Committee, pointing out
three possible ways by which federation might come
about : —
By a legislative or administrative federation ;
By a commercial federation ; or
By a federation for the defence of the Empire.
He dwelt on the difficulties that he saw in the way of
the second method, and on his conviction that, without taxa
tion of some food stuffs, it was an impossibility. And
" though such union would be of incalculable advantage to
the Empire," he believed that this objection was at that time
an insuperable one, and placed it, for the time being, outside
the range of practical politics ; and he urged that they
should therefore rather devote their energies towards bringing
about a federation in which all portions of the Empire should
take their due share in an organised and joint scheme for its
defence. He was probably right in his belief that, at that
time, ninety-nine out of every hundred electors would have
rejected the idea that, in order to give preference to Canadian
corn and Australian meat, a tax should be imposed upon
corn and meat imported into this country from other sources ;
and this fact made the problem of colonial preference, for the
moment, an insoluble one.
Nor had he begun then to question the assumption
taught by Adam Smith and the old economists, that the
duties that are put upon goods brought into a country are
paid by those who consume those goods. He did not, until
a later time, seriously question this " so-called " law, and in
his writings and books at the time, although he often
challenged other doctrines taught by Cobden, he assumed that
this dogma was true and unassailable. A prolonged enquiry
led him some years later to an opposite conclusion, and con
vinced him that this "law" was a fallacy, and was capable
of being disproved by facts. In the meantime, however
difficult and even insurmountable he felt the problem of
commercial union to be, the subject could not for long be
shelved ; for the stringent methods of Protection that were
being adopted by other countries, and which were succeeding
in driving our goods out of their markets, turned men's
thoughts continually to the necessity of assuring to this

CONVERSATION WITH MR. CHAMBERLAIN 213
country permanent access to the markets of the Empire
which it had founded.
In a letter written to me in June 1896 he records the
following note of a conversation with Mr. Chamberlain
which deeply interested him: —
"House of Commons, June 1896.
" I had a long talk with Chamberlain the other night.
He came and sat with me for a long time on the Terrace,
and talked with great freedom about many matters, princi
pally about federation and its prospects. He was very
sanguine about the prospects of the movement, and thought
it had never been so near. His great hope is Canada, which,
as he truly says, is the most important of the Colonies, and
— being a Dominion — the easiest to deal with. He fully
believes that before the end of the year he will have a
proposal from the Canadian Government (whichever Govern
ment it may be) for a conference to discuss possible Tariff
Union. He would at once agree, and thinks that the other
Colonies, or most of them, would come in.
" He is hopeful about a differential duty. I suggested
that the facts made any preferential duty absurd unless food
were included. He entirely agreed with this, but was quite
prepared to include food duties, and, indeed, regarded them
as essential. " I said I thought that, when it came to concrete facts, it
would be very difficult, if not impossible, to tax raw material.
The tax would either be so low as to make no difference,
which would be absurd, or so high as to make the profitable
production of the exported manufactured article impossible.
" I mentioned cotton. Cotton, he admitted, could not be
included. ' Wool ? ' Yes, wool must be. He did not think
it would involve much loss to any one, and if it did, losses
were inevitable in so great an operation, and the gains would
be enormous. He did not by any means commit himself to
the strict economic view that the consumer would pay the
duty ; probably, as in many quotable cases, the foreign
importer would lower his prices, and abandon part of his
profit in order to come into our market on any terms. He
believed that even if Canadian Ministers were not favourable

214 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
their people would insist upon taking advantage of so great
an offer as soon as they realised that it was made.
" The frankness with which Chamberlain accepted the
idea, and the enthusiasm with which he spoke of it, surprised
as much as they interested me."
Later in the same year, from quite another side, the
question of the incidence of taxation was brought into
prominence by the Report of the Commissioners on the
Financial Relations between Great Britain and Ireland.
The conclusion of the Commissioners that Ireland was over
taxed to the amount of two and a half millions, mainly
owing to the system by which our revenue is raised, drew
men's attention forcibly to the whole subject.
In December 1896 he wrote to his sister, Mrs. Vere
O'Brien :— " 24th December '96.
" There is going to be trouble over the Financial Rela
tions Commission Report. . . . The idea of Ireland, 'qua
Ireland,' being overtaxed is baseless, and the idea that
England and Scotland are going to tax themselves in order
to subsidise Ireland is absolutely ridiculous. There is, how
ever, a basis of fact at the bottom of the whole outcry.
Ireland, as a poor and agricultural country, is overtaxed,
owing to our system of indirect taxation being specially
unfavourable to every portion of the country so situated.
But what is true of Ireland is true also of Wiltshire, the
East Riding, the north of Scotland, and so on. It is well
worth considering whether we might not so readjust our
taxation for revenue as to lighten the pressure of the indirect
taxation, e.g. do away with the tea tax, amounting in Ireland
to £500,000, and raise revenue instead out of manufactured
articles that are imported from abroad. I am working this
question up. . . . Please let me know which Robin
thinks. . . ."
A month later he wrote again on the same subject : —
" I feel that after close study I am getting my ideas
about the Report rather clearer than they were, but I am
far from thinking that I see daylight yet. One or two
points, however, I feel fairly sure about,

OUR FISCAL SYSTEM 215
"Every effort to treat Ireland as a separate taxable
entity is contrary to the intention of the Act of Union, is
absolutely inconsistent with the continuance of the Union,
and should be opposed by every one who has the interest of
the Union at heart. . . . The unanimous finding of the
Commissioners to the effect that Ireland is overtaxed to the
tune of two and a half millions, or more, is in a sense true,
and is capable of proof.
" The whole fiscal legislation of Great Britain during the
last fifty years has been in the interests of the town and
manufacturing classes, and has ignored, or been directed
against, the interests of the agricultural and rural popu
lation. " Ireland, being almost entirely rural and agricultural, has
felt the evil effects of the British system with peculiar force.
It is fair for Irishmen to say, ' Such fiscal legislation as you
have forced upon us would be inconceivable from an Irish
point of view. We should never have dreamed of such a
method.' " Again, the accepted method of raising half the Imperial
revenue by indirect taxes upon what are practically the
necessaries of very poor people weighs most heavily upon a
population which comprises a very large percentage of poor
people. The subsistence scale of £12 adopted by the Com
mission errs, if at all, by being too low. In any case, the
Irish peasant's taxable margin, after paying for subsistence,
is exceedingly small. .
" I think few people realise what an enormous proportion
of this residue goes to pay Imperial taxes. Out of a
shillingsworth of tobacco more than ninepence is tax. I
don't quite know what a gallon of untaxed whisky costs,
but the tax on it is ten shillings, and I imagine that the
consumer of a glass of whisky pays at least twice as much
in tax as he does for the article itself. (These figures I am
working up.)
" Then the tax on tea, though not so heavy, is serious —
something like 25 per cent ad valorem. The result is (I
speak without having yet verified the figures) that of a
pound spent on these necessary articles, something like
twelve or fifteen shillings goes in taxes. And remember

ii6 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
too, that Ferdinand Rothschild practically drinks and smokes
no more than Pat Murphy, but ten shillings out of Pat
Murphy's pound is perhaps half Pat's available income for a
month. The same thing could not truly be said in the case
of Mr. Rothschild.
" But it is not really the very rich people who escape
taxation. They are taxed more fully every year, and
owners of land are undoubtedly cruelly overtaxed ; but
there is a large class of small shopkeepers and skilled
artizans, and others with incomes under £400, who practi
cally pay little or nothing to the State.
" But while all I have said is, I think, true, and demons
trably true, about the incidence of our present taxes upon
Irish peasants, it is every word of it equally true with regard
to Englishmen and Scotsmen in the same rank of life.
There are millions of them, too, although they do not form
so large a proportion of the population as their ' opposite
numbers ' do in Ireland. To suggest that Parliament should
relieve the Irish taxpayer, and retain the burden on English
backs, no better able to bear it, seems to me absurd, and I
for my part would resist it tooth and nail.
" Still, this does not conclude the question. On the
contrary, to my mind it only opens the real question,
namely, Is our scheme of taxation satisfactory ? I think
that clearly it is not. It is supposed to be part of a Free
Trade system. It is nothing of the kind. A country which
raises £35,000,000 by crushing duties upon the importation
of necessaries of life has no business to talk about Free
Trade. " Why not, then, look the facts in the face ? We have to
keep up a tariff for revenue. Why in the world should we
raise that revenue on necessaries ? Suppose we took off the
4d. a pound on tea, and halved the tobacco duty. Irish
taxpayers would be relieved at once of taxation to the
amount of £1,088,000.
" But we must get the money somehow — clearly. Then
why not tax luxuries instead of necessaries ? Raw materials
cannot be touched, but silks, clocks, manufactured woollens
and linens — manufactured iron, — these and a score of other
things could easily and justly be made to replace the loss

OUR FISCAL SYSTEM 217
of revenue. And who would be the worse ? No one, except
certain foreign manufacturers who would have to content
themselves with smaller profits than heretofore in order to
retain our market. I believe there is really a great deal to
be said for this plan, a great deal more, by the way, than I
have said here.
" Note that by an automatic process the change would
transfer the burden of taxation from the poor country to
the rich one, and if a million stops in the pockets of the
poorest class of taxpayers, that will be much better than
handing over that amount to some new Irish Board with
all its attendant evils. I am going to talk this matter over
before the Belfast Chamber of Commerce when I go over
about the 1 5th. . . ."
From the month of April 1903, when Mr. Chamberlain's
speech to his constituents at Birmingham so startled the
political world, this question of fiscal reform which had
hitherto been of chiefly academic interest, quickly became
the one political question that occupied men's minds, that
they spoke of, and discussed whenever they met together,
and that filled the columns of the press.
The substance of the conversation recorded by Oakeley
in his letter of June 1896 shows the direction which Mr.
Chamberlain's mind had even then taken. His long tenure
of office as Colonial Minister had given him almost un
equalled opportunities of seeing and judging the colonial
aspects of the question, and his attitude was no doubt
greatly affected by the deeply seated desire that he found
among colonial statesmen for the establishment of closer
relations with the Mother Country and for changes in the
fiscal systems of the Empire, by which reciprocity of trade
throughout the Empire might be made possible.
" I am deeply interested in Chamberlain's Birmingham
speech," Oakeley wrote on May 17. "I should greatly
like to fight under his new standard, for what I am worth.
I would try and do so, if I felt sure that Chamberlain has
looked ahead enough, and formed a coherent idea of how
the campaign on which he wishes to start us can be fought
with a reasonable prospect of success. I don't say it can't

218 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
be so fought — I hope it can be— and, perhaps, light will
come, but the problem which has to be faced is an exceed
ingly difficult one. I speak with some knowledge; for
nearly ten years ago I worked the figures out with great
care, and with the aid of the Board of Trade. Though
some things and figures have changed since that time, the
general situation is the same, and the problem seems as
difficult of solution as ever. It seemed to me then to be an
impasse. However, there may be a way out . . . and if
there be a way I shall find it, I think."
On May 18 he notes in his Diary that he had had a
" long talk with Mr. Chamberlain in the House, about his
Birmingham speech," and this is the first of many such
entries, for in the weeks and months that followed, he gave
himself up with characteristic energy to restudying the
whole question. Board of Trade returns, books, papers,
pamphlets were collected, studied, and noted indefatigably.
The memory which enabled him to remember so clearly
what he read, and the determined industry with which he
faced the course of study and reading which he had marked
out for himself as necessary, but which was entirely apart
from, and additional to, all his ordinary work, seemed to
those who were most with him at the time, a memorable
effort and achievement. The Whitsuntide recess, which was
spent with the Arthur Lees at Rookesbury, was devoted to
the same study, and, when the session began again, Oakeley
found in Mr. Leverton Harris, who was acting as his
Parliamentary secretary, the ablest of helpers and colla
borators, in his work of investigation.
By June he had begun to put his facts and figures
together in a form which would be useful not only to him
self but to his colleagues.
Beginning with the Blue books on foreign import duties,
published by the Board of Trade, he made a careful investi
gation into the treatment that is afforded to British goods
in foreign countries, and the exact effect of the Tariff wall
which foreign nations had built up against the staple
industries of this country. " There is no doubt," he writes,
as to the result of this Tariff wall. Duties imposed with
the intention of excluding British goods have excluded

'THE CASE FOR ENQUIRY' 219
them, and duties imposed with the object of diminish
ing and disturbing British trade have diminished and
disturbed it." He went on to examine the argument
that Free Traders, then as now, were fond of impressing
upon the country, that, despite Tariff walls, and despite the
unfair treatment which our exports meet with, the trade of
this country is increasing. The careful examination that
he made into this point of the Free Trade argument is set
out at some length in the pamphlet that he published soon
after this time, entitled, The Case for Enquiry.
He compiled summaries of the principal articles of
British produce, exported from the United Kingdom, which
in the previous ten years had increased; and corresponding
summaries showing the principal exports which had decreased.
It was a statement which, when completed, was very far from
being reassuring or satisfactory.
During this period in which the exports from Germany,
and from the United States, had made enormous increases,
our own export trade was practically at a standstill.
One fact, however, was especially noticeable. In nearly
every case in which there had been a substantial increase of
an article exported, it was found that that article was one
which was exported principally, if not entirely, to British
possessions, or to countries other than the great protected
States, and as the enquiry progressed further, it became
evident that had it not been for this large increase in trade
with the Empire, the falling off in our exports, and in their
value, would have been very large.
" If, then, it be true that, owing to the hostile action ot
foreign countries, the United Kingdom is losing its trade.
If it be true that, while our markets are freely open to all the
world, markets containing hundreds of millions of customers
are closed to us. If it be true that, were it not for our
increasing trade with our own Empire, our industries
would be declining with dangerous rapidity ; the thought
must naturally occur — Is it desirable that this state of
things should continue? — Is it inevitable that this system,
which is admitted to be undesirable, should continue for
ever?"1 , . . 1 The Casejor Enquiry.

220 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
It was from this position that he started on the further
course of his enquiry, making a study of the Tariffs of other
countries, of their reciprocal and retaliatory duties.
Some of the notes that he put together were used in
Tlie Case for Enquiry ; others were kept and were used as
a basis for speeches, and for the further investigation that
from time to time occupied him throughout the rest of
his life. The figures that had been tabled and summarised were
placed freely at the disposal of any colleague or any member
of the party who cared to use and study them. Mr.
Leverton Harris reminds me of, and the entries of Oakeley's
Diary, at this time, record, the long series of gatherings of
friends who used to meet, almost nightly, in the House of
Commons, in the room occupied by the Secretary to the
Admiralty, to discuss with him these figures, and to talk over
the whole question of Tariff Reform. At Mr. Balfour's
invitation Oakeley, also, from time to time, laid some of the
points of the case for fiscal reform, that specially struck him,
before the Prime Minister, and he records in his diary notes
of these conversations, and of Mr. Balfour's extraordinary
quickness of apprehension and understanding of the bearing
of the figures and facts laid before him.
On July 3rd he writes to his sister : —
" Among the subjects which are distracting the public
mind, ' Tariffs,' of course, take the first place. I have been
working very hard at facts and figures, and have now reduced
the first part of my researches to writing, and indeed to
print. I am correcting the proofs of a long compilation of
facts and figures bearing on the question of retaliatory or
reciprocal duties. When I have done this, and when time
allows I shall try to complete the other half of the question ;
that which is concerned with preferential tariffs and taxes on
food. I see Chamberlain very often, also A. J. B., and
others of my colleagues, who are all, I think, interested in
my figures. . . . With the principle of a retaliatory tariff,
with the object of getting a larger measure of really Free
Trade, I think you will be in sympathy when you have seen
my figures and facts, which you shall have ere long.

TARIFF REFORM 221
" If we had a good fighting lot in the House of Commons,
things would go very fast ; for the ' Old Women,' the regular
Cobdenites I mean, are helpless against a brisk attack ; all
their guns have been spiked long ago, and their fortifications
look much more formidable than they really are ; only the
attack ought to be sharp and pressed home."

CHAPTER XIV
The Political Situation in 1903 — The Unionist Party — -Grave Illness —
The New Government — Secretary of State for War — Difficulties
of the Position — Secretaries and Fellow- workers — The Abbey
Garden, Westminster.
THE effect of the movement that had been initiated and
was being pressed forward by Mr. Chamberlain was indeed
great and immediate. Its full effects upon the Unionist
party were more gradually felt.
We may, according to our political views, praise it as a
great and necessary measure of evolution ; or we may, as
Unionist Free Traders will do, condemn it as a revolution,
which was rashly sprung upon the Unionist party without
due forethought, and which served to weaken the party.
That it had for a time grave results upon the working of
the political machine cannot be denied. The summer and
autumn of 1903 saw the breaking up of Mr. Balfour's
Government and the loss of some of the older leaders of
the party. The new Unionist Government that was formed
did not recover from the shock that had been sustained, or
the loss of strength that had been suffered. A much greater
lapse of time than has passed since 1903 will be needed
before the whole history of the movement can be written,
and before men will be able to judge what has been its
ultimate effect on the country, and incidentally on the
Unionist party. A change so large and fundamental is
necessarily at the time a very disconcerting experience.
" Party leaders," says Mr. Graham Wallas, " can only
preserve their political life by being in constant readiness to
lose it. Sometimes they must even risk the existence of
their party itself."
All the great permanent changes which have come

THE SITUATION IN 1903 223
about in the affairs of our country have taken years to
accomplish, and during the process of accomplishment the
party machine has naturally and inevitably suffered, for the
time. The Unionist party in the House and in the country
suffered in this way in 1903.
The resignations of Sir Michael Beach and other senior
members of the Government, on the ground of the diverg
ence of view from the new fiscal policy, had shaken the
cohesion of the party and disturbed men's minds.
There were, besides, other factors, quite apart from
differences of opinion on the fiscal question, which were
tending to weaken the Unionist Administration. The
Government was, in the first place, suffering from the
acute reaction which is the natural consequence of a pro
tracted war — a reaction which all Governments, that have
been responsible in the past for the campaigns in which
Great Britain has taken part, have in their turn experienced.
An unusually long tenure of office, and the anxieties and
responsibilities of the South African War, had further taken
from the Ministry some of its early vigour and freshness,
and had had the natural result of weakening the enthusiasm
and zeal of their followers in the House of Commons and
in the country. The crusading days of the Government
were over, to use Lord Rosebery's expressive phrase.
In September Mr. Chamberlain resigned his office ; in
order that, freed from the ties and responsibilities that
membership of a Government involves, he might devote
himself wholly to carrying on his campaign throughout
the country in favour of Tariff Reform. The resignation
of the Duke of Devonshire followed, and Mr. Balfour had
to set about the reconstruction of his Government, and
practically to form a new Ministry.
Some weeks before the personnel of the new Govern
ment was announced, a crushing blow had fallen on
Oakeley's life. The earlier part of his summer holiday
had been spent in yachting. Towards the close of his
holiday, and before returning to London, when riding a
young and high-spirited horse on the Wiltshire Downs,
he overtaxed his heart severely. The injury that was
done was grave, and the heart never recovered from it.

224 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
He came back to London, to the prolonged and com
plete rest that was ordered. From the first moment, when
the blow fell on him, he faced the facts with a great courage
and patience, resolved that whatever was before him to be
gone through, whatever had to be given up, the shadow
should, if possible, never darken the lives of those around
him. Those who knew his enthusiasm for work, his intense
and almost restless mental and physical energy, and his
impatience of inaction, could alone realise what the sentence
meant to him, and marvelled at his serenity and uncom
plaining fortitude.
The time of rest helped him, and his patience and
courage perhaps did as much for him as the complete
rest did.
In October the invitation came to him from the Prime
Minister that he should become Secretary of State for War ;
and the question had to be faced, whether his health could
bear the strain of office, and whether he was justified in
taking the risk to health and life that such a further strain
would involve.
He did not underrate the grave difficulty occasioned by
his impaired strength, or the other equally grave difficulties
that would lie before him.
The weakness of the political situation, the shortness of
the term that could be expected in which to accomplish the
great changes that he believed to be necessary, were handi
caps too serious to be overlooked. To have a fair chance
of carrying into effect a policy of the magnitude that he
knew was needed, a Secretary of State would require time,
and also a strong party behind him, and neither of these
would be his ; but his courage and the hopeful temper of
his mind would not let him dwell for long upon drawbacks.
His heart was set, as soon as the chance of new work was
given to him, of taking that chance, and of making a
beginning at least on the path of Army Reform, which he
had so long studied.
His ideas on the subject had been long and thoroughly
thought out, and were already well known, not only to his
colleagues, but to the public, from having been fully stated

SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR 225
in his books, in his speeches in Parliament, and in the press ;
and he was eager, in spite of all drawbacks, to take up the
task offered to him, his peculiar fitness for which Mr. Balfour
so cordially recognised and acknowledged.
" The world brings odd changes," he wrote in a letter to
his brother, Edward Arnold-Forster, who was at that time
travelling round the world.1 " Certainly, when I wrote last
to you I never thought that within a few weeks' time I should
be a Secretary of State, charged with about the most diffi
cult and responsible piece of work that any British Minister
can be called upon to perform. To say that I regret my
promotion would, of course, be untrue ; a man must be more
or less than human not to welcome added opportunities for
useful work, added powers, and as far as those things count,
added honours and position. But all the same this is not
the moment, and these are not the circumstances, I would
have chosen for the commencement of such a task.
" Parliamentary time must be short — may even be very
short — the Party, on whose support I must rely, is torn by
conflicting views, and though I do not care to dwell on the
fact publicly, for good and obvious reasons, I have been left
a damnosa hereditas, which might well tempt a legatee to
renounce the succession. Then on the top of these troubles
has come the breakdown in my health. I dare say E 
has told you that I have strained my heart riding a pulling
horse, and that as a result I am, as the doctor puts it,
' winged for life.' I don't grumble, for I have been very
fortunate, and indeed am very fortunate still in having a
measure of health for current purposes ; but, of course, this is
not a situation one would have chosen ; and it is particularly
trying to me after so many years of active life to have to
give up almost all forms of exercise, to think twice before I
do anything, and to know that the most important part of
my machinery may play me false any day.
" Nevertheless, don't think that I am downhearted or low-
spirited. I have too many good friends in the world, and
have too much interesting work to do, to allow of my pitying
myself. " As to my work, it is difficult ; but I not only think, I
1 November 1903. Q

226 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
know, that the problem I have before me can be solved.
I am even sanguine enough to believe that under favourable
circumstances I might solve it. As it is, I can only hope to
make a beginning, and shall consider myself very fortunate
if I am able to do even that."
To his Sister, Mrs. Vere O'Brien.
"Belfast, November loth, 1903.
"... I am sure you know well enough that the love
and good-will of my dear brother and sisters is about the
most valuable possession I have in this world, and that with
out it no success in life, small or great, would give me any
real pleasure. Of course it is a real satisfaction to me to
have succeeded as far as I have done in the profession to
which I have devoted so much of my life. It is no small
thing certainly to be a Secretary of State at forty-eight, and
in an office so full of interest and so important as the War
Office. " I like being in the Cabinet ; I like being a Privy Coun
cillor ; and, above all, I like treading in the footsteps of my
Father, and doing that which, I know, would have pleased
our dear Mother. I should be less than human if I didn't
care, and care greatly for all these things. But the other
side is there too, and don't let me forget it. The longer
I live, the more I marvel at the want of wisdom with which
this great Empire is governed, and the more miraculous
does its continued preservation appear to me. The respon
sibility is tremendous, the power to accomplish good work is
so small ; and, moreover, even if my powers were far greater
than they are, the special problems I have to deal with
might well prove insoluble. I don't think they need prove
insoluble, mind you, but the difficulties are tremendous.
Such weights to be raised, such little leverage to raise them,
such a multitude of counsellors, and so little wisdom in their
counsels. " Then, too, I should like better health and more money
of my own, both of them very essential things for a Cabinet
Minister in a difficult office.
" However, considering the accumulation of blessings I

WAR OFFICE, 1903 227
really enjoy, the affection of my dear people, the partial
coming back of my strength, the support I get from many
good men, and the delightful intellectual interest of the
problems I have to face, I should, indeed, be a poor creature
if I were to complain."
To his friend, Mr. Leverton Harris, who had acted as
his secretary in Parliament for the past two years, he wrote
shortly after this : —
" Dear Leverton— I want to speak to you for your
good. You are now an important member of the Tariff
Reform Commission ; you have much work to do, and will
probably have more. I think it not only possible, but prob
able, that this work will occupy all your time and attention.
In that case you will have neither time nor attention to
spare for War Office work. I want you, therefore, to feel
yourself perfectly free, and to give up looking after me if
you think you ought to do so. I think I need not tell you
that I value your help greatly ; that I have learnt to depend
upon it, and that there is no one in the House whom I would
choose in your place, save under compulsion. At the same
time I feel that when a Member has such an important and
independent career as you have, and are likely to have, it
is not fair to interfere in any way with his special work,
or with his progress on a path which he has chosen for
himself. " So if you go, you will go with my blessing, but I am
bound to say, not without a tear.
" Of course, if you don't feel bound to come to the con
clusion which I think would be reasonable and natural, I
shall be very greatly pleased ; and I think it fair to say that
if you are able to stick to me for the coming session, you
are likely to find the work of absorbing interest. I am
making more progress than I could have believed possible a
month ago, and if health be spared me, and if the Parliament
lasts, I honestly believe I shall have been able to have
accomplished something for which the country will have
reason to thank me. And if this work be ever performed,
I should like your co-operation. After all, there are many
Tariff Reformers, but there is only one struggling Secretary

228 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
of State for War, face to face with big problems, and want
ing all the help he can get in tackling them.
" However, it will be as it will be. So do whatever you
think right, and don't bother too much about my woes."
Mr. Leverton Harris continued to act as Oakeley's
secretary in Parliament as long as his term of office lasted
and to give him his invaluable help. Indeed, in respect
of those who worked with him and for him he was sin
gularly happy. Both at the Admiralty and at the War
Office, he was assisted by men whose ability and devotion
lightened his tasks, and made their co-operation a pleasure.
" No one was ever better helped and served," he told me.
At the Admiralty his secretaries were Mr. Evans and Mr.
O. Murray. In Parliament for a short time Mr. Arthur Lee,
and for more than four years Mr. Leverton Harris. At the
War Office Mr. Arthur Loring, who filled almost a brother's
place, was his principal private secretary ; and first Colonel
Shute, and then Major Marker, both of the Coldstream
Guards, were his secretaries, and Mr. Turner of the War
Office.1 These men gave him far more than ordinary service.
They brought also a readiness to help and a devoted loyalty,
for which he could never be too grateful. Besides his secre
taries there were many others who, seeing the straits of ill
ness that often pressed so heavily on him, did all they could
to lighten his burdens. It would be impossible to mention
nearly all of these, whose kindness is, however, unforgotten ;
but it would be equally impossible for me to omit all reference
to the unvarying kindness that was shown by Lord Roberts,
the watchful consideration and helpfulness of Lord Donough-
more, and of Sir Herbert Plumer, who became a member of
the Army Council, of Sir Guy Fleetwood Wilson, and the
many members of the permanent War Office staff who with so
much ability worked so hard for him.
The personal qualifications that the new War Minister
brought to his task were warmly acknowledged by the press
of both parties, and of these qualifications a soldier of
1 Colonel Ewart was official military secretary to the Secretary of State, and
when Major Marker left to rejoin Lord Kitchener in India shortly before Oakeley's
time of office came to end, he was succeeded by Major Maude.

WAR OFFICE, 1903 229
distinction, who had long and closely watched his work,
writes : —
" Even Arnold-Forster's opponents bore ungrudging witness to his
personal qualifications for the position of Secretary of State for War at
this particular juncture. His enthusiastic application to the study of
Army problems, his indefatigable and personal examination of whatever
was best and most up to date in foreign methods, his close inspection of
both personnel and material in the great continental armies, and above
all, his zealous love for all that had to do with the profession of arms,
marked him out conspicuously for the office for which he was selected.
In a recent article the military correspondent of the Times has
written : ' The writer's belief is that the greater number of our military
mistakes in days gone by have been due to want of study of foreign
systems on the part of men responsible for the higher administration of
the Army. . . . The men at the top do not know foreign systems inti
mately, or at least have not done so until a very recent date. Yet
unless an officer knows all the chief foreign systems well, and one at
least intimately in detail, he is not competent to inspire reforms at home,
because his education is unfinished.'
This intimate acquaintance with foreign systems Arnold-Forster
had early acquired ; yet the possession of this rare knowledge was
perhaps in the end almost a hindrance to his work. As is pointed
out in the quotation from the Tunes, such knowledge has been ex
ceptional in soldiers of the highest rank. When a civilian Secretary of
State was able to speak with conviction, and from intimate personal
acquaintance, of problems and matters which public opinion had dis
missed as too technical for discussion, the man in the street declined to
accept the opinion of the War Minister. His reforms were regarded
with all the more suspicion according as the measure of knowledge
which had inspired them exceeded that of some even of those military
experts upon whom the more usual type of Secretary of State would
perforce have to rely."
From this time onwards, on account of Oakeley's health,
and in order to be near to his work and to the House of
Commons, we lived in Westminster, making our new home
at 2 The Abbey Garden.
Great College Street, into which the door of The Abbey
Garden opens, is one of the peaceful backwaters that are
happily still to be found here and there in Westminster.
On one side of the little street there are still some of the
picturesque houses built two centuries ago. On its other
side tall plane trees look over the old wall of rough grey
stone which shuts in the ancient garden, once the Infirmary
Garden of the Abbot and monks of Westminster.

230 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
In this quiet garden stands the house that was to be
our home for six years.
It lies close under the shadow of the Victoria Tower,
and looks across the lawn and trees of the Garden to the
towers of the Abbey, to the rose window of its south tran
sept, and to the long roof of Henry VII.'s Chapel rising
above and behind the red roofs of the Canons' houses.
Through a low arched doorway the garden path leads
into the Little Cloister, and thence through the cloisters to
Dean's Yard and to the outside world. That daily walk,
leading through the stillness and beauty of the cloisters,
became one of Oakeley's constant pleasures ; and if our
steps led us in the opposite direction, down Great College
Street, there was the river flowing close at hand, a perpetual
pleasure to him, with the little wharves that he liked so
much to watch, hardly more than a stone's throw from our
door, with barges, red-sailed, passing up and down the river,
and the noble outlines of Lambeth and the Lollards' Tower
on the opposite shore.

CHAPTER XV
" To those who think we ought to have no Army I have nothing to say,
except that I do not agree with them. But to every tax-payer I wish to point out
that, while to have no Army and to pay nothing for it is reasonable, or to have
a good Army and to pay twenty millions for it is reasonable ; to pay twenty
millions for an Army and not to get one is not reasonable nor to be endured. —
H. 0. A.-F.
Royal Commission on the South African War — Reforms urgently
demanded — Economy a paramount condition — The Reconstitution
Committee — Memorandum on the defects of the existing Army
system — Memorandum on suggested reforms.
The general political situation in 1903 has already been
spoken of, but there were other circumstances, partly
political and partly military, that were also of great moment
to the Army, to the Secretary of State for War, and to the
Department over which he was called on to preside.
In the first place, the War Office itself had only very
recently been arraigned before the tribunal of a Royal
Commission. The disappointments and humiliations of the
South African War had deepened the general feeling that
all was not well with the administration of the Army, and
that the military arrangements of this country should be put
on a sounder business footing. The Report of the Royal
Commission did not lighten this sense of uneasiness and
distrust ; for, though its verdict was in some respects favour
able, as to the military side of the administration, the Report
on the whole was grave and unsatisfactory, and deepened
the belief that serious change was needed. The more
favourable portions of the Report were generally over
looked, and had but little mitigating effect on public
opinion. Comparisons had for a long time been made between
231

232 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
the systems that obtained at the Admiralty and the War
Office respectively, and contrasts were continually drawn
between the working methods of the two departments.
It was generally felt in the country and in Parliament,
and it was insisted upon in the press, that the time had
come when there should be a special enquiry into the whole
question ; and that the administrative machinery of the War
Office should be reconsidered and reconstituted.
The Army itself was still sore and angry at the unde
served attacks which had too often, during the war, been
made upon it even by the responsible leaders of the Oppo
sition ; and resented with bitterness the imputations and
charges which had been made against its officers and men.
The Army is an organisation naturally leaning to conserva
tive habits of thought, and naturally slow to adopt new
methods. It had only recently, and before the actual con
clusion of the war, undergone a great constitutional change,
by which it had been transformed nominally into six Army
Corps. The term " Army Corps " was an unfamiliar one to
the general public ; and after the evaporation of the first
enthusiasm of pride in so unexpected a standard of military
strength, the title gave a handle to those politicians who
desired to see a great reduction effected in the land forces of
Great Britain, and who pointed to the new nomenclature as
an indication of the intention of the Government that our
Army should vie with the forces of the great continental
nations. The demand for economy was even greater than that
for increased efficiency, or for the reform of the adminis
trative machinery. The demand for a great reduction in
armaments which had been heard from time to time, but
had during the war been expressed by a comparatively
unimportant section, now gained in volume daily, and
had become a valuable party cry. And it was not among
an unpatriotic section, or among party politicians alone,
that the necessity for reduction of expenditure was keenly
seen and felt. It was realised also by most thoughtful
people that if the naval standard of the country was to be
maintained at the height at which it stood, we must continue
to pay the "price of Admiralty" in full, and with little prospect

WAR OFFICE, 1903 233
of its abatement. But, in view of this necessity, they desired
that the whole question of our national expenditure on
armaments should be seriously reconsidered.
On England's "shoulders immense, Atlantean " rested
"the load, well-nigh not to be borne," of her great arma
ments. The weight of these might well become, and
was indeed becoming, a burden almost more heavy and
more costly than she could bear.
The task of harmonising the almost irreconcilable
factors of rigid economy, on the one hand, with increased
efficiency on the other, was the problem which the new
Secretary of State was called upon to solve.
It had become clear, even before the end of the last
session, that the attack of the Opposition on the adminis
tration of the War Office would be vigorously conducted.
Confronted by a task of such grave difficulty, the Minister
responsible would require not only the backing of a united
party in the House of Commons, but also the whole-hearted
support of his colleagues in the Government, if he were
to carry out any far-reaching measures of Army reform.
But however clearly the Cabinet realised that changes were
called for, and were inevitable, it was manifestly extremely
difficult for those of his colleagues who had been responsible
for, or had been closely connected with, the introduction
of the last scheme of re -organisation to welcome with
enthusiasm plans which must necessarily involve the aban
donment of much that they had designed, and which, indeed,
they had prescribed as essential for the Army.
A policy of reform would have no clear course made
for it, and would have to make its way in spite of many
obstacles, political and personal, as well as military.
There was, necessarily, a short delay, after his appointment
to the War Office had been announced, before Oakeley
was actually able to take up his new work. He was
still kept to his room for a time ; and it was not until
a fortnight later that he was able to attend the ceremony
at Buckingham Palace and took the oaths as a Privy Coun
cillor and Cabinet Minister, and received the seals of his
office. A short stay at Portsmouth helped his recovery,
and during this time, in his enforced absence from his

234 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
constituency, his friends in Belfast re-elected him to his
seat in Parliament, after a brief but sharply fought contest.
Almost the first matter that had to be taken in hand,
when he returned to work, was the question of the adminis
trative reform of the Department.
For this purpose the Government had already decided
to appoint a small committee, which should advise them as
to the best methods of reconstructing the machinery of the
War Office. Only the actual composition of the committee
had to be decided on. The Secretary of State considered
that the presence of Lord Kitchener would have been of
immense assistance in giving the enquiry sufficient weight
and authority with the Army as well as with the general
public ; but the difficulties in the way of bringing Lord
Kitchener back to England were insurmountable ; and even
tually the War Office Reconstruction Committee did not
include an Active List General, but was composed of Lord
Esher, Sir John Fisher, and Sir George Sydenham Clarke,
who was then serving as Governor of New South Wales.
Meanwhile, on taking up his work in the War Office,
he had, as his chief military advisers, the Commander-in-
Chief, Field Marshal Lord Roberts ; Sir Thomas Kelly-
Kenny, Adjt.-Gen. ; Sir Ian Hamilton, Qr.- Master Gen.;
Sir Henry Brackenbury, Director-Gen. of Ordnance ; Sir
Wm. Nicholson, Director of Intelligence ; and Sir Edward
Ward, Permanent Under-Secretary; whilst Mr. Bromley
Davenport was Financial Secretary in the House of
Commons ; and Lord Donoughmore, Under-Secretary in
the House of Lords.
Besides the question of the reconstruction of the adminis
trative machinery of the Department, two problems, both
of them of great importance and urgency, demanded the
attention of those who were responsible for the Army.
In the first place, the Treasury, no less than the general
public, were pressing for increased economies, and for
immediate reduction in military expenditure.
Secondly, it was becoming daily more and more evi
dent that the existing system of enlistment for the Army
was rapidly approaching the stage of a complete break
down.

BREAKDOWN OF EXISTING SYSTEM 235
The system of three years' enlistment, under which
the Army was being recruited, had been introduced by
Mr. Brodrick, with the consent of his military advisers, in
1902, when it was decided that the whole regular Army
should be enlisted for a term of three years only, instead of
for seven years, with the colours. It was not overlooked that
the Indian and Colonial drafts could not be furnished by
these short -service men; but calculations, based on past
experience, were considered to warrant the anticipation
that, in the infantry of the line at least, the rate of
voluntary extensions to seven years, among the men enlisted
for three years only, would be very high ; and would reach
75 per cent of the total.
Had this expectation been fulfilled there would have
been no difficulty in providing the infantry drafts that were
needed for India and the Colonies. But by November
1903 there was ground for the gravest doubts as to
the soundness of these anticipations.
The rate of extensions in the infantry from three years
to seven, so far from reaching the proportion of 75 per cent,
was under 20 per cent, and in some battalions under 10
per cent. It will easily be seen how serious the position
was. In the words of the Secretary of State : " It had
been anticipated that out of every hundred men enlisted,
nearly seventy-five would become available for dispatch to
India or the Colonies, or, as old soldiers, to stiffen the
battalions at home. But when it became apparent that out
of a hundred men only ten, fifteen, or twenty, as the case
might be, were likely to become available, it was impossible
to ignore the danger of the situation." ]
In addition to this question of enlistment, the second
question, that of retrenchment, was now equally urgent, as
the Army Estimates were due within the next few months.
There was no difference of opinion as to the need for
economy ; but no such general agreement existed as to the
direction in which it should be sought. Immediate and
important changes could not well be decided on until the
Reconstitution Committee, which was awaiting the arrival
of Sir George Clarke from Australia, had had time to make
1 Memorandum, January 1904. — H. O, A.-F.

236 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
its report, and until the Cabinet had agreed upon the general
lines of military policy.
Even if such changes could have been made at once,
the effect in decreased expenditure could not have been felt
for some time, and the Army Board could, for the time
being, only consider such economies in matters of detail as
were feasible under the existing system. This was their
chief work during November and December. By the end
of the year it had become only too clear to the Secretary
of State that, so long as the existing system remained in force,
no appreciable reduction in the Estimates could be antici
pated. No adaptation or alteration of details in the present
system would avail to meet the demands of the Treasury,
and at the same time to ensure military efficiency. He was
confronted by (i) The failure of the three years' enlist
ment ; (2) by the grave warnings of the Report of the
Royal Commission on the War; and (3) by the pressing
demands of the Government and the country for reductions
in military expenditure. These were all overwhelming
arguments for the necessity of a change in the constitution
and organisation of the Army.
To carry out any far-reaching policy of reform, that
policy must first have the support of the military heads of
the War Office and of his colleagues in the Cabinet ; and, as
a necessary preliminary to obtaining that support, a clear
statement must be set out showing the weakness of the
existing state of things, and showing where and how the
system had broken down. This Memorandum, dealing with
the defects of the system of infantry recruiting and organi
sation, was drawn up by the Secretary of State, and was
ready for consideration by the middle of January.
The chief evils to which attention was drawn were eight
in number : —
1. To a large extent the First -Class Reserve, upon
mobilisation, still formed a substitute for non-effective men
serving with the colours, instead of being, as was intended,
a supplement to the strength of the battalions.
2. No striking force was immediately available on the
declaration of war. Nor could even a small expedition be
carried out without calling out the reserves.

BREAKDOWN OF EXISTING SYSTEM 237
3. The three years' system of enlistment made the
provision of foreign drafts a practical impossibility, unless
the percentage of infantry willing to extend their term of
colour service should be greatly increased.
4. The Militia showed a deficiency on its establishment
of some 34,000 men. Its numbers had shown a tendency
to decrease in the last two years. Employed as it was as a
principal recruiting ground for the Army, no great improve
ment in numbers could be anticipated. In its present
condition the value of the Militia for Home Defence was
not very great, and it could not be compelled to serve
abroad in time of war.
5. The linked battalion system for foreign service and
for the provision of drafts had entirely broken down, since
the number of the regular battalions serving abroad had
exceeded that of the linked units which remained on home
stations. 6. The system of regimental depots that was in force
was a source of administrative weakness and of unnecessary
expense. 7. No organisation was provided to deal with the large
number of immature and unfit men who would be left at
home on mobilisation, their places having been taken by
reservists. 8. There was a grave deficiency of officers in the junior
ranks. Other points that were dealt with in the Memorandum
were the lack of employment for men discharged from the
Army, the deficiency of numbers in the Brigade of Guards,
the bad and insanitary condition of many of the older
barracks. This Memorandum was communicated to the members
of the Army Board and to other leading soldiers, and met
with cordial and practically unanimous agreement. Pend
ing the verdict of the most competent military opinion on
this statement of military shortcomings, he also prepared a
second Memorandum, which was a confession of faith, or
statement of his own personal view as to the lines on
which remedies should be applied, and reforms carried out.

238 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
These constructive proposals were based upon certain
general conclusions, which may be very briefly summarised
as follows : —
The task of the Army is a threefold one. It has —
i. To supply troops on a war footing in peace time;
to garrison India, S. Africa, the Mediterranean, and other
stations outside the United Kingdom.
2. To provide a small force in aid of the Civil powers
in the United Kingdom in time of peace.
3. To furnish a very large army for service in time of war.
Whilst the two last-named duties are imposed upon all
armies, the duty of maintaining a large force on a war
footing in peace time, and of keeping that force mostly in
tropical or subtropical countries, is imposed upon this
country alone among all the nations of the world ; and,
whilst the military preparations of other countries are
primarily designed for the defence of the national soil, our
Army is to some extent relieved of this duty by our
insular position ; but, on the other hand, may be called
upon to carry out operations across the sea on a large scale
and at a great distance from its base.
The Army that serves as a peace garrison in tropical
or subtropical countries must be a Long Service Army ;
in the first place, because it must be a " grown-up " Army
(the rule that soldiers shall not be sent to India until they
are twenty years of age being based upon the hard teaching
of experience). The Army which in time of war is to supplement this
foreign peace garrison must be a Short Service Army. By
short service alone can large numbers of trained men be
obtained. (A battalion which turns over its men every two
years will produce in ten years nearly 4000 trained men,
whilst the product of a battalion serving for nine years
must necessarily be very small. A large reserve involves
short service.) By the adoption of short service alone can
any reduction of expenditure be ensured. The country
cannot maintain a force of 500,000 regular soldiers with
the colours in time of peace, without incurring a cost that
will be prohibitive. But this number of men may easily
be required in time of war. They must be trained,

SUGGESTED REFORMS 239
officered, and organised if they are to render effective
service in the field, and only by short service in some
form can such a reserve force be furnished without undue
expenditure. The British Army is intended to serve the double
purpose of garrisoning India and certain colonial stations
in time of peace, and of conducting a successful campaign
in time of war. Wherever that war is fought the Army
must be ready to go. Where it will take place it is
impossible to forecast. It may be on the Indian frontier ;
it may be nearer home, but it is most likely to be an over
seas war. The Army which is to decide the issue must
therefore be an Army which is available for service over
seas, or it will be useless for the purpose for which it is
primarily designed and principally required. The require
ments of the country therefore are — A Long Service Army
for peace time, and a Short Service Army for purposes
of expansion in time of war, and both Armies must be
available in case of need for war overseas.
In the Memorandum of the Secretary of State, the
main lines of the reforms that he suggested were set forth.
They involved the remodelling of the existing land forces
into two armies.
The first, or Long Service Army, would consist of
existing regular battalions for general service, charged
with the duty of furnishing the garrison of the Empire at
home and abroad ; and of serving wherever required in
peace and war.
The Second Army for Home Service only in time of
peace, would be charged with the duty of creating a large
reserve, capable of reinforcing the General Service Army
in time of war.
The General Service Army would consist of Long
Service soldiers enlisted for nine years with the colours
and three in the reserve.
The men of the Home Service Army would be enlisted
for fifteen months' depot and colour service, and six years
in the First Class Army Reserve (with a further optional
term in the Second Class Army Reserve). The Home
Service Army to be a true Territorial Army, composed of

240 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
short service battalions ; such battalions to be quartered
as far as possible, within the districts with which they were
associated. This reconstruction would involve the disbandment of
fourteen battalions of regular infantry (the third and
fourth battalions of certain regiments). Of the remaining
142 battalions, 112 would form the General or Long
Service Army. Thirty would become part of the Home
Service Army. Of the 124 battalions which composed
the militia, sixty were to be invited to transfer their services
to the Home Army, bringing the strength of this force up
to ninety battalions.1
The disbandment of the remaining militia battalions,
many of which were greatly under strength, was proposed,
but an alternative suggestion was left open for considera
tion, namely, that a further twenty-two of these battalions
might be added to the Home Army, bringing up its
strength to thesame number as that ofthe General Service
Army, viz. 112 battalions.
Two armies would thus exist, closely connected, in
peace time, the one to provide for the police work of
the Empire, the other, a short service force, to build up
the necessary reserves of trained men for mobilisation
for war. It is unnecessary here to go into the details of the
other changes by which it was proposed to remedy the
evils of the existing depot system, the lack of employment
for time-expired soldiers, and the shortage in the Guards'
Brigade, and to make provision for a striking force.
The proposals made in the Memorandum dealt with
these defects, and suggested remedies for them. The
infantry strength, which would eventually be formed under
1 Some modifications of these figures were afterwards made to meet sug
gestions made by the Army Council. In the scheme originally drafted by the
Secretary of State, a short service term of fifteen months' training was
proposed for the Home Service Army. Of these fifteen months, three were
to be passed at a large depot, and twelve with the colours. If this period
had been acceptable from a military point of view, it would have had great
advantages ; it would have involved only a short extension of the existing
period of Militia training, and would rapidly have created a large reserve. But
almost every military authority was opposed to the term as too short, the
general consensus of military opinion being in favour of two years ; and in
deference to military authority the two years' term was adopted.

SUGGESTED REFORMS 241
the scheme, would amount to a total of 365,000 men — an
increase of fully 65,000 men.
The scheme, as first propounded in the Memorandum,
dealt only with the infantry. But it was pointed out that
should the general principles be approved, it would be a
simple matter to work out similar proposals for the other
arms, in a relative proportion to the infantry strength, and
to imperial requirements.
It must be understood that this Memorandum was not
written for the purpose of dictating a particular solution
of the problem ; its author was the first to allow that the
question might be dealt with in various ways ; but he
submitted these suggestions tentatively, and always in the
hope of obtaining other and better plans from soldiers
and statesmen, who had had an inside acquaintance with
the Army system in the past. At the same time, his own
proposals embodied the conclusions to which twenty years'
study of continental army systems and British methods
had led him.
The one indulgence which he asked for in his critics was,
that when they criticised his solution they should not be
unmindful of the narrow limits within which he was confined
by the necessity for economy, and by political considerations.
Any alternative proposals must comply with the same
exigencies that had governed his own. At no time did he
claim that his Army scheme approximated to the ideal, but
only that, subject to the bounds imposed by financial neces
sity and by the possibilities of recruiting, it gave a reasonable
approach to the Army at which he aimed, and which was
requisite for the military protection of the Empire,
Before entering further into the details of these proposals,
it is necessary to refer to the first result of the work already
achieved by the War Office's Reconstitution Committee.
The first instalment of their Report was now completed.
Their recommendations met with the immediate approval
of the Government, and wrought a complete change in the
administration of the department.
In place of the Commander-in-Chief and the Army
Board, who had hitherto exercised military control in Pall
Mall, an Army Council of four military and three civilian
R

242 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
members was constituted under the Secretary of State for
War. An Inspector-General was also to be appointed to
perform those duties of inspection which had hitherto been
vested in the Commander-in-Chief.
Even now, after a lapse of over six years, the full effects
of these changes can hardly be gauged. The immediate
and practical result can best be stated by saying that, at a
time when the weight and prestige of the most experienced
soldiers was needed at the War Office to make it possible to
carry out the necessary changes, it found itself without the
responsible heads of its departments who were soldiers of
distinction on whom the Army itself placed reliance.
In their place a new Council was formed, the military
members of which had had little or no previous experience
in War Office administration, and who though distinguished
soldiers, were not well enough known to the Army to
command its unquestioning confidence.
The Committee had, however, laid great stress upon the
necessity for having new men to inaugurate the new adminis
trative system which they had recommended, and though the
Secretary of State felt natural anxiety concerning the change,
and realised that he would be losing the support of great
experience and knowledge, he agreed with the decision that
the new system should be worked from the first by men who
were free from all responsibility for War Office affairs in the
past. By February 26 the Esher Committee completed its
further task, and the final Report was then presented to the
Prime Minister.
A suggestion was made about this time that this Com
mittee should continue its existence as a separate consultative
body for the consideration of the further questions of Army
reform. To the Secretary of State and to many others,
however, it was at once obvious that a Committee which had
recreated the administrative machinery of the War Office,
and which had brought into being the new Army Council,
would be so powerful as necessarily to overshadow that
Council. The situation would have been an impossible one
for the new Council, which would not have had the weight
or the power that was essential for its future usefulness.

THE NEW ARMY COUNCIL 243
The thanks of the Government and of the Army to the
members who had worked so indefatigably on the Com
mittee, were expressed by the Secretary of State, in a letter
which voiced the general feeling of admiration for the
rapidity, the boldness, and wide scope of their labours, and
for the ability of their Report, — that Report having been
already practically adopted in nearly all its particulars.
The official connection of the members of the Recon
stitution Committee with the affairs of the War Office thus
came to an end. Sir George Clarke was very shortly after
wards appointed to the important post of Secretary to the
Committee of Imperial Defence.
Meanwhile, the appointments to the new Army Council
had been made. The military members were : Lieut-General
Sir Neville Lyttleton, Chief of the General Staff; Major-
General C. W. Douglas, Adjutant -General; Major-General
H. Plumer, Quartermaster- General, and Major-General Sir
J. Wolfe-Murray, Master-General of the Ordnance.
As soon as the selection of these officers was notified,
the Memorandum on " Defects in Infantry organisation," to
which reference has been made, was sent to them for their
perusal. Their attitude towards this Memorandum was so
much in harmony with his own views, that the Secretary of
State was encouraged to place before them his second Memor
andum, in which his proposals for reform were detailed. At
the same time this second document was also circulated
among his colleagues in the Cabinet early in February.
The Government had already decided that the proofs
that had been submitted of existing defects in organisation
were convincing ; and were of a gravity that called for imme
diate action. For the Government itself the position was no
easy or simple one. Some of its members had been closely
connected with the previous changes, from which great
improvement in the efficiency of the Army had been
anticipated. For Oakeley it was, naturally, a somewhat ungrateful
task to be obliged to dispel these anticipations. Loyalty to
the Army forbade a softening of the indictment. In order
to be able to make the Army efficient, the defects which
were so seriously injuring its efficiency must be made clear.

244 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
No half measures, he was convinced, would avail, and
a fundamental change in the system was required. As the
War Office was in course of reconstruction, so the Army
itself must be fundamentally reorganised to enable it to
perform its proper role in war.
The Memorandum on proposals for reform had met with
the approval, amounting in many cases to enthusiasm, of
almost all the senior officers to whom it had been submitted.
An influential War Office Committee, after preliminary
investigation, pronounced it to be "a logical and comprehensive
scheme based on sound general principles," and this encouraged
him to hope that the Government would find itself able to
accept the main outlines of his proposals.
They were, however, unwilling as yet to commit them
selves to any immediate acceptance. In the peculiar con
dition of affairs there were strong reasons for their
deliberation. Only a comparatively short time had elapsed since they
had adopted the Army Corps system. Two members of the
Government had already occupied the position of Secretary
of State for War. This fact, and their intimate connection
with systems, which must necessarily give place to any new
organisation, naturally predisposed the Cabinet to enquire
very closely, and with especial care, into the merits of any
new proposals, and into the amount of military support that
they were likely to receive.
When they were first laid before Ministers the final
Report and detailed conclusions of the Esher Committee
had not yet been completed, and it was clearly desirable to
await their recommendations before being committed to any
new Army policy. Moreover, the new Army Council had
only just held its inaugural meeting, and some expression
of their opinion on a matter so vital to the Army would be
necessary. The difficulty occasioned by the upheaval in the War
Office administration had begun to make itself felt. The
proposals for reform had to be brought forward in an inter
regnum between the two regimes. Under the old rigime, or
under the new when in full working order, the proposals
would have been considered and accepted by the Depart-

THE GOVERNMENT AND THE ARMY 245
mental Chiefs of the War Office, before submission to the
Cabinet. As matters stood in "February 1904, although the
Secretary of State might have the support of the old War
Office Board for his proposals, they could not be presented
with the collective endorsement of the new Council, and they
came before the Government as the personal work of the
Secretary of State for War, although with the individual
approval of members of the Army Council who had seen
them. The Government, however, fully recognised that in one
direction at least, that of the infantry drafts, the existing
system was rapidly breaking down, and that, if the Army
were to discharge even its peace-duties, some drastic measures
were of immediate necessity. They were, therefore, not un
willing to allow the Secretary of State to commence his
task, but it was urged upon him that, whatever action was
taken, it should interfere as little as possible with the
susceptibilities of the auxiliary forces, and the expenditure
involved must be confined within strictly defined limits.
So formidable had the attack of the Opposition become
on the charge of " inflated expenditure on Armaments," that
at this moment it was of even greater importance to the
Government to be able to show considerable reductions,
present and prospective, in the Army Estimates, than to
be able to guarantee the greatest increase in military
efficiency. Oakeley had hoped and expected to be able to announce
the outline of his proposals with the introduction of the
Estimates, early in March, but he fully recognised the justi
fication for the delay. Confident that the broad lines of the
policy suggested would eventually secure its adoption, and
that the details of the problem would be left by the Govern
ment to the decision of the Army Council, he turned to the
more pressing work of his Department, a Committee being,
meanwhile, appointed by the Cabinet, under the presidency
of Mr. Wyndham, to investigate the financial side of the
question, and to report on the balance between the financial
position of the proposed Army Scheme, as compared with
that of the existing system.
The month of February 1904 had witnessed the out-

246 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
break of hostilities between Russia and Japan. Deeply
interested as Oakeley naturally was, in the initial naval
engagements in the roadstead of Port Arthur, he was yet
more closely concerned with the military occurrences of
the war. Military attaches had to be appointed to the
Russian and to the Japanese field armies. He was fortunate
in being able to secure the selection, first of Sir William
Nicholson, and later of Sir Ian Hamilton, to represent the
British Army.
With the appointment of the Inspector-General, the
appointments to the chief military posts at the War Office
were completed ; H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught accepting
the position, to the great satisfaction of the Army and of
the Secretary of State.

CHAPTER XVI
"No economy is effected by endeavouring to span a hundred-foot gap with
a ninety-foot bridge. An army that will win is worth paying for ; an army
which will not win is worth nothing at all — a fact which is too often apparently
forgotten by so-called economists. But that the total of Army Estimates is
enormous, and ought if possible to be reduced, is a matter of common agree
ment." ' H. O. A.-F.
Army Estimates in 1904 — Postponements of the Secretary of State's
statement to the House of Commons — Resulting in motion for
adjournment of the House — The Militia — A compromise, July
1904.
The chief work of the Secretary of State for War now
lay in the preparation of the Army Estimates for the next
twelve months ; Estimates which had to deal not with the
Army as he hoped to see it, but with the Army System that
he had inherited at the War Office. It can never be an
easy task for a Minister, who has to frame and present large
Estimates, to meet the criticism that they will encounter,
even when he is personally responsible for the conditions
that he has to defend. In this case he worked with the
more care and anxiety, because he was responsible for the
justification and explanation of work that had been done
by his predecessor in office. A supplementary estimate,
which was necessitated by the continuance of hostilities in
Somaliland, further complicated the financial work of the
department. The Army Estimates were introduced in the House
of Commons on March 7. In opening his speech he
said : —
" My belief is that we are standing at the parting of the
ways with regard to the administration of the Army, and I
have seen nothing during the short time I have been
brought face to face, officially, with the problems of the
247

248 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
Army, to alter my belief that changes of considerable
magnitude are necessary if this country desires to obtain
the Army which it requires, and the Army which is appro
priate to its needs. If I thought that these Estimates
which I present to-day represented the last word upon
War Office policy I certainly should not be standing in
this place ; but it is because I have the confident hope that
it may fall to my lot, and if I have to abandon the hope
that it may fall to the lot of some hon. member equally
solicitous for the welfare of the Army, to produce Estimates
upon a totally different system, that I now ask the con
sideration of the House to these Estimates as interim
Estimates only. . . ."
Later in the speech full recognition of the necessity for
economy was expressed : —
" I have not abandoned the view I have long entertained
and often expressed, that the capacities of this country to
spend money on its armaments are not infinite, and that if
we are to have a readjustment it must be a readjustment in
the sense of first making perfect our naval defence, even
though to some extent we are compelled to provide on a
greater scale of magnitude than other Powers. Therefore
the advocate of economy will find me to be a very sympa
thetic listener. Of course I have my own ideas as to the
way in which economies may be best effected. I think the
first rule we have got to lay down is this, that true economy
consists in making a machine that will do our work, and
that anything short of that is a waste of money, and that
anything in excess of that is extravagance."
After a reference to the expenditure which had been
rendered imperative by the provision of a new weapon
for the horse and field artillery and an improved rifle
for all branches equipped with small-arms, attention was
drawn to the existing condition of the Militia and the
Volunteers : —
" I wish I could tell a satisfactory tale about the Militia.
I am sorry to say that circumstances do not permit me to
do so. The condition of the Militia, both as regards officers
and men, is profoundly unsatisfactory. ... I believe the
Militia has long been regarded too much as an adjunct of

ARMY ESTIMATES, 1904 249
the line. It has had no independent existence. I believe
the rule which is common to any body or corporation
applies to the Militia ; and that if you desire to restore it
to a satisfactory condition you must make it feel that it is
an all-important element in the defence of the country ;
that every battalion has individual existence, and that the
prestige of the officer and the man in a Militia battalion is
what he earns for himself and for his battalion while he is
in it. I believe it does not pass the wit of man to give to
the Militia those conditions of service which I think are
calculated to make it the force we all agree it can be made.
... At the present moment I am also convinced the
Volunteers are not fulfilling to anything like the extent they
ought to fulfil the duties which the country hopes they may
fulfil in time of war. I do not believe that that is to any
large extent the fault of the Volunteers. I believe it is
because we have not yet thought out our problems. We
have not yet learned to apply the special conditions of each
service to that service. We have not realised what part
we want each branch of the Army to take in time of war ;
and until we do all these things the Volunteers will continue
to be what they are now — a body capable of producing a
magnificent force, but which would be misdescribed at the
present time if we said it was a force of a truly military
character, with a quality corresponding to its numbers, and
with an organisation corresponding to the zeal and energy
of those who compose it."
" I confess I do not view with equanimity the condition
of the Army at the present time. I believe that, important
as it is that we should have this Army Council, and that we
should have these changes in the constitution of the War
Office, it is still more important that we should carefully
examine the condition of our Army to see whether it is
really capable of performing those tasks which, whatever
our politics, whatever our views may be, we fear may be
imposed upon it on some occasion which may be, but we
all hope is not, near. We have at this moment a great
asset in the number of trained soldiers in this country, but
that asset will not last for ever. It is being diminished

250 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
every day. I have been compelled to examine the con
stitution, organisation, and composition of our Army. I
am not satisfied that we can continue with advantage under
our present organisation, or that we can do it without grave
risk to the fortunes of this country."
The total amount asked for in the Estimates was
^28,90o,ooo.1 The immediate criticism of the Opposition was directed
to the fact that the recommendations of the Esher Com
mittee had been adopted, without Parliament having been
given the opportunity of discussing such fundamental
changes in Army administration. A further vigorous
attack was made on the financial situation and prospects.
A speech made in 1903 by the Chancellor of the Exchequer
was recalled, in which the confident hope had been expressed
that considerable reductions of the normal military expendi
ture would be effected within two years. But at the same
time there came from many quarters cordial recognition of
the difficulties under which the Secretary of State laboured,
in that the task was laid upon him of defending Estimates
belonging to a system for which he was not responsible, and
the approaching end of which had been foreshadowed in his
speech. The difficulty under which Oakeley suffered in intro
ducing the Estimates and in the discussion that followed was
the difficulty that was inherent to the situation. As long
as the Government had not definitely accepted the general
principles of the reform proposals, he could not announce the
forthcoming change of policy with regard to the Army Corps
and linked battalions system. All he could do was to lay
before the House Estimates for twelve months, making it
clear that during that time great changes were imperative,
but without being able to give any indication of the scope
of those changes.
The condition of uncertainty which was produced in the
1 It is of some interest to note that these Estimates, if the cost of the
Somaliland Expedition and the artillery rearmament are deducted, tally almost
exactly with the amount, ,£27,760,000, of Mr. Haldane's Estimates for
19 10- 1 1, but that the latter Estimates deal with a regular Army diminished by
nine battalions, and with every home battalion put on a reduced footing.

APRIL 1904 251
country and in Parliament by this protracted time of waiting
was shown by a " question " asked in the House on April the
14th, when Mr. Black asked the First Lord of the Treasury
whether " the Government had resolved to abandon its scheme
of Army reform in order to adopt en bloc that put forward
by the Reconstruction Committee ? "
The Prime Minister replied, "The hon. gentleman
appears to think that Army reform and War Office reform
are incompatible alternatives. That is not the view of His
Majesty's Government. We hope to deal with both."
This indication of the intention of the Government to
proceed with Army reform was followed by a statement by
the Secretary of State for War. " The Army Corps system,"
he said in answer to a question in the House, " would not be
continued. There would be substituted for it another form
of divisions not based on the Army Corps system."
The enquiry made by Mr. Wyndham's Committee into
the financial effect of the new proposals had now been com
pleted. The report was favourable to their cost as compared
with the expenditure under the existing system. A few minor
alterations were suggested. In some matters of detail also
the Army Council had suggested modifications that they
thought should be made. With revisions made to meet
these requirements the scheme was now ready for considera
tion, and was submitted again to the Government on April 1 9.
To Miss Arnold-Forster.
"House of Commons, S.W., i9.4.'o4.
" DEAREST FRANCIE — Here am I sitting on the bench
with Austen and Victor Cavendish. An individual named
M  is speaking, and is making, or trying to make, the
speech which he would have made if the Chancellor of
the Exchequer had made a speech altogether different from
the speech he actually did make. This is rather complicated,
is it not ? But it represents the facts. How can I spend
the time better, or more effectually dissipate the ennui caused
by the eloquence of M  than by writing to you ?
" I am making real progress, I think, with my Army
scheme. Of course I know exactly what I want to do ; but

252 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
the trouble is to persuade other people. I believe I am
going to do this. I have already got all my soldiers to
back me, and I don't doubt that I shall carry the Cabinet.
Then it will only remain for me to convince the House of
Commons and the country. If I don't do that it will be my
fault. Perhaps I shan't, but I am willing to take my chance,
and if I fail, I fail. I am beginning to think that I shall get
the time I require, not to complete my work, but to make a
beginning. We shall get through the Budget all right, and
if we don't have a fall over licensing, I really believe I shall
get my chance.
" Austen has made an excellent speech, under very diffi
cult circumstances. He has been much and deservedly
praised. He tells me that his right hon. friend the member
for West Birmingham has declared himself to be very well
satisfied, which he has reason to be. — Ever your loving
br°ther, H. O. A.-F."
And a few weeks later he wrote to the same sister : —
" I know exactly what I want, and how to get it ; but
that is not enough. Not only is there an immense amount
of complicated detail work to be done before the main
principles can be recommended effectively to the House and
to the public, but I have to carry with me many divergent
interests and to reconcile many conflicting views.
" I don't despair ; far from it. I am full of hope. But
time is short, and I have no right to be over sanguine."
To his sister, Mrs. R. V. O'Brien, he wrote in May : —
" My work goes on, but not so far or as fast as I could
desire. Perhaps I expect more than is reasonable, for of
course the problems I have to deal with are very complex.
All the same, I am sure that the longer we postpone coming
to a conclusion, the more difficult will it be for us to do any
real good. Of course the early return of Lord Curzon, and
the forthcoming Report of the Auxiliary Forces Commission
are good excuses for delay, though personally I don't think
either event need really alter our views. Still, I hope for
the best ; and I am quite clear that unless I do get a chance
of changing the Army system before the end of the session,

ARMY COUNCIL AND REFORM 253
I shall refuse to be responsible for the administration of the
Army. "As for myself, I don't know what to prophesy. The
state of things in the Army is so serious that I imagine my
Government must let me loose (if they don't, I shall cut
myself loose). But if, and when, I do make my statement,
I am under no illusions as to the possible result. I want
to deal with the whole problem ; nothing else will do any
good." The military members of the Army Council had, with
one exception, expressed their strong approval of the general
principles of the Memorandum, but the long delay before its
publication was beginning to produce its natural results.
Partial statements as to its tenor, often greatly distorted,
and often very inaccurate, were discussed in military circles
and clubs. Themselves new and untried members of a new
and untried Council, some of the military members began to
realise that a share of responsibility for changes which might
possibly be unpopular would have to be borne by themselves.
The weakness of the Minister's position in having to rely
upon this newly organised and untried body for military
support for his policy became apparent.
The Council as a whole now " approved " the scheme,
and definitely sanctioned its submission to the Government.
But some of the military members were anxious not to take
the definite personal responsibility that would be involved if
it should be presented to the Government as having received
their full consent. So long, however, as no such personal
responsibility was imputed to them, the Secretary of State
was authorised to put forward his proposals as being a
scheme the general lines of which his military advisers
approved, and to claim their full support for the statement
that " existing conditions could no longer be maintained with
safety." The combination of the linked battalion system with
enlistment for three years' colour service had indeed com
pletely broken down.
Out of a draft of 100 men embarking for India, concern
ing which a question was asked in the House at this time,
no less than 97 were serving on a three years' engagement

254 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
only, which meant that in most cases their term in India
would be less than a year. Widespread uneasiness was
felt in the Army. Oakeley was naturally deeply anxious
to be allowed to make a statement as soon as possible in
the House, and to outline the general scope of the changes
proposed. Such a statement would allay the general
anxiety and uncertainty, and would put an end to the
rumours and misrepresentations that were doing the Army
so much harm. But before he could make this statement a
definite decision by the Government had to be made. In
their discussions of the scheme the Government and Treasury
were still confronted by the financial exigencies, and would
not commit themselves to the scheme unless satisfactory
assurances could be given that the total sum of Army
expenditure under it would not exceed a definite sum. This
sum the Treasury desired to fix at an immediate limit of
£29,000,000, to be reduced ultimately to a limit of
£27,000,000. How was it possible to make the required
reduction ? To make it by reducing the regular Army
beyond the very limited reduction that was contemplated
under his scheme was a solution that the Secretary of State
felt it impossible to admit, and on this point he was strongly
supported by the whole Army Council.
Even had he been willing to consider this alternative,
the Russo-Japanese war and the political situation in the
Far East would have put it out of the question. For the
Indian authorities had had to make large demands for
further reinforcements of troops in view of possible compli
cations in Mid-Asia.
The only other conceivable method of arriving at the
desired result involved bringing within the scope of enquiry
and action the position, cost, and military value of the
auxiliary forces. Oakeley, on his side, was prepared to
undertake that the eventual military expenditure of the
country should not exceed the limits to which it was desired
to bind him, conditionally on his being given a free hand
to deal with the auxiliary forces, within the lines of his
scheme, in such a way as to attain the necessary financial
result. Any proposals, however, which affected the condition

COMMISSION ON AUXILIARY FORCES 255
and future of the auxiliary forces aroused powerful feeling
and opposition on both sides of the House ; and this
opposition the Government was most anxious to avoid.
The Report of the Commission on the auxiliary forces —
presided over by the Duke of Norfolk — had been long
awaited by the Government, who were anxious to learn
the nature of its recommendations before they announced
the lines of their future military policy.
The Report, when it finally appeared, was of great
importance and interest. But it was at once evident that
its recommendations were not such as to make any easier
the task of a Government which was obliged to lighten the
cost of armaments. The grave verdict was pronounced
that, " Your Majesty's Militia and Volunteer forces have not
at present either the strength or the military efficiency
required to enable them to fulfil the functions for which
they exist." And though many detailed recommendations
were made that would, it was hoped, tend to make them
more fit for war, every one of these recommendations
entailed additional expenditure ; and the Report closed
with a weighty advocacy of the principle of compulsory
national training.
" Here am I," Oakeley wrote to his sister, in June,
" in a sea of troubles, not all of my own making. My
statement has been put off — to the Greek Kalends, perhaps ;
I know not. At the last moment there comes on the
top of me the Report of the Auxiliary Forces Commission ;
and every recommendation in it means money. Then,
again, every one seems to be my master, except myself.
Servus servorum : that is the motto of a War Minister
nowadays, and no one to kiss my toe, withal. Moreover,
no triple crown ! They bid me economise and reform. If
I could do as I please I could accomplish this feat ;
but every man who says 'Economise,' cries 'Hands off'
directly I touch his particular preserve. The Foreign
Office, the Colonial Office, the Indian Office, the Army,
the Militia, the Volunteers, — it is the same story all round.
' Retrench in the abstract, but do not cut off a penny
in the concrete.' If they would only 'give me the run
of my teeth ' for one hour, I could solve the problem !

256 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
However, I don't give up yet. I know exactly what I want
which is more than any of the others do ; and I shall die
fighting, you will see.
"Don't think, though, that I have quarrelled with my
colleagues. They are really heavenly good to me, only
they don't understand. They don't realise yet that if
you are to save expense on the Army you must give
up, not that which costs nothing, but that which costs
something. " I feel myself a trustee for the Army. I know if I
don't do the thing some one else must, and may do it with
out knowledge or sympathy. That is why I intend to
fight this thing out if I can. I have been in bed for
the last two days, having a sort of Louis XIV. levee.
It has done me good, for it has rested me; and I never
work so easily and well as I do when I am on my back.
I got up at a quarter to eight, last night, and went off to
the dear Savile Club, where my kind comrades gave me
a 'Dinner of Honour' — a true delight to me, coming
quite spontaneously from my friends, my fellow-workers,
and my equals. The room was crammed, and more would
have been there if there had been places for them. I mark
the day with a white stone. I said a few words which
were true, and which expressed my feelings ; and my
hearers liked them."
" It seems much too long since we met," he wrote at
this time to his younger sister, Miss Arnold-Forster ; but
get away just now I cannot. What a day may bring forth
I do not know. Only this I do know, namely, that I
am not content to go on administering the Army on the
present lines ; that I think I can mend it ; and that, finally,
if I am not allowed to try my hand, in a very few days I
shall give some one else the chance. I am quite cheerful,
and complain of nobody ; but I do know the business, and
I cannot stand by and see the Army go to pieces while I am
responsible for it.
" However, I still hope, and, indeed, am rather inclined
to think that all will yet go well. However, the next few
days will decide, and for either fate I am prepared. I mean

ADJOURNMENT OF THE HOUSE 257
going, and doing nothing, or stopping, and doing my best.
Stopping, and doing nothing, won't suit me at all."
The statement that the Secretary of State was so
anxious to make to the House, and which had been pro
mised for June 16, was again postponed week by week.
A deputation of service members of Parliament met him,
and urged the Government to dispel the uncertainty that
hung over the future of the Army. He could only beg
them to defer passing judgment on the policy of the
Government until he was allowed to place it before them as
a whole. On June 28 the dissatisfaction of the House came
to a head ; and the adjournment was moved, to call atten
tion to the alarming deficiency in the drafts required for
India and South Africa, and the confusion and un
certainty prevailing owing to the prolonged delay in the
announcement of the Government's scheme of Army
reorganisation. In proposing the motion Mr. Beckett said, " The
Government cannot fail to be aware that there is, on
the part of the House, and the nation, a universally
felt and generally expressed desire that we should know —
and know quickly — what is going to be done with our
Army ; and, if I may venture to do so, I would warn them,
in no unfriendly spirit, that they cannot thwart or set aside
this desire without serious consequences to themselves. The
state of our Army is an urgent and pressing question — a
question which at the present moment far transcends in
its urgency any other question that is before the public,
and which is causing the gravest possible anxiety to those
who are behind the scenes. It is a question that cannot
be trifled with, or ignored, or postponed to a more con
venient season."
After referring to the recruiting difficulty, and the change
in the terms of enlistment from seven to three years with
the colours, which had been introduced by the last Secretary
of State for War in connection with the Army Corps system,
as the cause of the deficiency in drafts, Mr. Beckett referred
to the question of the long-promised reforms in the Army. S

258 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
He traced the acknowledged necessity for drastic re-organi
sation from the report ofthe South African War Commission,
and showed how the Government had created the War
Office Reconstruction Committee to direct the preliminary
work of War Office reform. On that it had been assumed
that the Government would produce their own "clean-cut
plan and system " of Army reform.
" We were led to expect by the Prime Minister
that a definite statement would be made on Thursday,
June 1 6. That statement was postponed, and, judging by
the reply made by the Prime Minister yesterday to the
leader of the Opposition, we are left entirely in the dark
as to when this statement will be made, or whether it
will be made at all during the present session. Had the
Prime Minister given a pledge that the statement would
be made within a reasonable time, I would not have moved
the adjournment of the House."
After the motion had been seconded by Sir J. Dickson-
Poynder, the Secretary of State for War, in the course of his
reply, said, " The hon. member who proposed and the hon.
member who seconded this motion have pointed out that
the adoption of the three years' system of enlistment has
had a most prejudicial effect in connection with the drafts
for our Army across the sea. It would be idle for me to
pretend that this system has been to the advantage of our
service of drafts to India and the Colonies. I agree with
my hon. friend that this matter is a very grave and very
important one. I do not want to say more about the origin
of this system, than that it was one which was forced on
the Government at the time by the circumstances which
existed at the time. The Government had to deal with a
falling market, and my right hon. friend 1 had to consider
by what immediate step he could provide for the necessities
of the nation. ...
¦' Now if I am asked what is my conclusion upon this
matter, I would say that it is that the system is not one
which can be continued with advantage. It is perfectly
clear to me that when we consider what are the real needs
of the Empire, we cannot indefinitely continue a system
1 The Right Hon. St. J. Brodrick.

ADJOURNMENT OF THE HOUSE 259
which exposes us to uncertainty in regard to the organisa
tion of our Army. The remedy for the moment is to find
the drafts as best we can, and to relieve ourselves from the
difficulty as well as the circumstances allow. I think I have
met the hon. member's question fairly and openly. My
reply is that I am as concerned as he can be as to the
possible consequences of the continuance of this system, and
I am as convinced as he can be that it is our duty not to
attempt to tinker with the system, but to alter it so that we
may be free from the uncertainty in advance as to the
prolongation of the period of service.
" My hon. friend spoke of the desirability of some pro
nouncement being made by the Government with regard to
their intentions in respect to the Army at large. He sug
gested that it is my duty to propound a remedy for the
evils which I, in common with himself, believe exist in the
organisation of the Army. I admit the soundness of that
proposition, and I agree with his conclusions. I should like
to make it quite clear to hon. members that whatever they
may think about the times and seasons of my statement on
the subject, there is no question at all about the indefinite
prolongation of the present system.
" We feel that there are difficulties connected with the
present system which can only be met by an alteration.
Therefore, I beg hon. members to dismiss from their minds
the belief that there is any conflict of opinion, or can be any
conflict of opinion upon this question. What we are face to
face with is not having to make up our minds as to whether
a change is necessary or desirable. Many things have
happened which have confirmed some of us in the belief,
and created the belief in others, that a change in the
organisation and administration of our Army is absolutely
essential. By, I believe, an almost universal desire, a change
has been made in the constitution of the War Office. We
have reconstituted the whole staff of the War Office, and if
hon. members knew the complexity of this problem, I think
they would not be so ready to say that we have been
dilatory. . . .
" It may be said with some fairness that we have been
given a good deal of time, but there have been some new

260 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
facts imported in the situation, which have gone some way
to complicate it.
" I think the problem itself is clear. We have got to
get an Army suited to the needs of the country and the
Empire. We have got to have an efficient Army in the first
place. That is an absolutely dominating condition. The
second thing is to make very large reductions in our Army
expenditure. I believe, when I say that, I am representing
the opinions of nine-tenths of the Army members of this
House. I believe there is almost absolute unanimity in
this House, and a very large consensus of opinion out
of the House, that we must have large reductions in our
Army expenditure. . . .
" The resources of this country are limited. Quite apart
from that fact, I believe there is a new and better school of
thought dictating the arrangements of our offensive and
defensive forces, which would rather contribute any ad
ditional expenditure to the Navy rather than the Army.
And there is a third problem, which I do not say rises
superior to, but to a certain extent dominates, the other
two. " To reduce the cost of the Army you must reduce its
strength, and when you come to reduce the strength of the
Army you must reduce A, B, C, D, E, or F — something
already existing. It is an addition to the problem which I
have to attempt to solve ; that the reductions must be such
as will commend themselves to the general feeling and
general acceptance of this House, will make our Army
efficient, and at the same time will be consistent with sound
economy. I do not despair at all. I believe with my hon.
friend that the problem is soluble. If I did not believe that
I should not be here. I am quite well aware of the indul
gence with which I have been treated, not only by my hon.
friends but by the House.
" The House may be perfectly sure that I shall not
overstay my welcome. I am as convinced as my hon.
friend can be that this question of the Army is one of
absolutely paramount importance, and that it must be dealt
with, and, for the reasons he had given, and for many other
reasons, drastically and soon. I am sanguine enough to

THE MILITIA 261
believe that I can suggest a remedy which shall be fully
acceptable to the House and to the country.
" If I did not believe that, I should certainly not trespass
farther on the goodwill of my hon. friend. But I will ask
him, if he will give me that indulgence, not to press me
unduly, and at any rate to remember that the problem is
complex ; and if he finds me fail, to remember that I shall
be as conscious of the failure as he can be. I shall, at any
rate, not ask him to accept anything which I do not believe
to be in the true interests of the Army, and which does not
conduce in every respect to its best administration."
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who followed, acknow
ledged that the Secretary of State had spoken throughout in
a tone which commanded the sympathy and respect of the
House, while further testimony was borne to the way in
which his frankness had disarmed criticism. No less cordial
was the recognition of his colleagues in the Government
of the tact with which he had dealt with a very delicate
situation. The debate on the motion cleared the air, but it
did more, for it had shown the Government that public
opinion was roused, and that their indecision on the main
question of Army reform could not be further prolonged.
They must come to some agreement which would enable
the long-promised statement of policy to be laid before the
House. Early in July the Government had arrived at an agree
ment in favour of the policy of the Secretary of State, except
upon one material point. This point was the question of
the Militia. It is hard at the present time, when the Militia has been
completely wiped out of existence, to realise how strenuously
its friends on both sides of the House fought to prevent
any modification being made in the conditions of the " Old
Constitutional Force." The Militia, as it then was, con
sisted of 124 battalions. Forty of these the Secretary of
State proposed to transform into regular battalions of the
Home Service Army. Sixty battalions were to be retained
as Militia, but on an improved standard as regards numbers
and efficiency.
Twenty-four Militia battalions only, which were greatly

262 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
under strength, would have ceased to exist. These were
the revised proposals submitted in April 1904. It is
instructive to compare this suggested fate with that which
has actually overtaken the Militia under his successor at
the War Office.
The whole of the Militia in the United Kingdom has dis
appeared, and in its place seventy Special Reserve battalions
have been created, which have no separate corps existence
in the sense traditional in the Militia, for they can never go
on service as individual units. The only direct link between
the Special Reserve battalions and the old Militia exists in
the rapidly disappearing contingent of former Militiamen
who are completing their engagements in the ranks.1
The Special Reservist gets six months' training in place
of the fifteen months or two years' continuous service, which
would have been given to the Home Service Army men in
forty units of the Militia. And yet it should be noted that
the strongest military objection that was raised in 1904 to
the proposed Home Service Army, was that fifteen months
were quite inadequate, and two years barely sufficient to
render men capable of meeting continental troops in the
field. That any proposals to alter the constitution of the
Militia would be opposed was evident, and the Government
was no longer in the position, and no longer had the
requisite driving power, to carry through a large scheme in
the face of any serious opposition. Its fighting days were
over, and its safety seemed to lie in following the line of
least resistance and exciting the least possible amount ol
controversy. The deadlock at the beginning of July seemed almost
complete ; for if the policy of dual long and short service
armies were to be carried out, as the Government had now
decided, the necessary reductions of expenditure could only
be made in one of two ways— (1) By further reductions of
regular troops, or (2) by dealing with the Militia on the
lines that have been indicated.
At the last moment a compromise was made. The
Secretary of State was to be permitted to make his state-
1 See pp. 351. 357= 368.

JULY 1904 263
ment in the House, to explain the full scope of his policy,
and to set forth what, in his own view, was the most feasible
method of dealing with the Militia question.
On the other hand, he was to make it clearly understood
that in speaking of this solution of the Militia problem he
was stating his own personal views, and to give a pledge
that the constitution of the Militia should not be altered in
accordance with this view, unless and until the consent of
Parliament were given, and that he could carry with him
the approval of the country.
Meanwhile, it was decided to disband all such units of
the Militia as did not come up to the standard of War
Office requirements, and to take steps, if possible, to
improve the efficiency of the rest of the force.
The compromise thus made involved a sacrifice so grave
on the part of the Secretary of State that he was most
unwilling to agree to it, and it was but natural that, looking
at the matter from the point of view of his interest and
reputation, those nearest to him should have eagerly desired
his resignation from office at this juncture.
He himself ardently desired either to press forward his
proposals as a whole, and to carry them, if possible, through
Parliament, or to be allowed to resign an impossible task ;
but the reasons which were urged on him, and which over
bore his own considered judgment, were strong ones. It
was pointed out that, though it might be possible to carry
the Militia proposals safely through the House, yet, should
an adverse vote result, the fate of the Government would
necessarily be involved ; and even more imperative con
siderations than the immediate future of the Army or
Militia had to be weighed.
The political situation not only in the Far East, but in
Europe, was in an electric and disturbed condition, owing
to the Russo-Japanese War. The renewal of the agreement
between Great Britain and Japan was within a short stage
of completion. The Parliamentary session was drawing to
a close, and if the Government could maintain its position
until the prorogation, the safety of these supreme interests
would be assured. There was no doubt in the minds of his
closest friends and fellow-workers that he made at this time

264 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
a sacrifice which would almost certainly be misunderstood,
and for which he would pay a heavy price. He made it,
believing it to be a necessary sacrifice, and that his duty,
for the moment, lay in the avoidance of a Parliamentary
crisis. But he did not, for a moment, disguise from himself
that his high hopes were over, and that the compromise
made had jeopardised most gravely the fulfilment of his
great ambition, namely, the creation of an Army, efficient
for war, which would satisfy the needs of the Empire.

CHAPTER XVII
Speech, July 1904 — Work and holidays — Summer 1904.
On July 14 the Minister for War made his promised
statement in the House of Commons. In opening his case
for the reform of the Army he explained his attitude
towards the proposed changes : —
" I want the Committee to understand that this is not
a case in which a Member of Parliament, who has been, so
to speak, accidentally tossed into a position of responsibility
and importance, desires to signalise his arrival at that
position by making a stir, by changing old things to new,
and making alterations for the sake of alteration. I want
them to believe, and I think I can convince them, that
whoever sits on this Bench, and has this responsibility, will
find confronting him exactly the same difficulties which
confront me.
" I am asking the Committee now to listen to me, and if
possible to sympathise with me, because the Army is going
through a period of great danger ; and if the Army is
going through a period of great danger, this country is also
going through a period of great danger.
" I am not moving for the sake of moving, but because I
honestly believe that the circumstances of the case absolutely
compel some change."
The evils and shortcomings of the existing conditions
of military administration were clearly shown. The results
of the system of three years' enlistment were stated, but it
was also pointed out that the introduction of that system
was not the outcome of caprice, as had been suggested by
the Opposition, but that it had been forced upon his
predecessor by the exigencies of a war emergency.
265

266 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
The other defects to which reference has already been
made were dealt with, and the measures by which it was
proposed to remedy them were briefly outlined. Finally,
the difficult and controversial matter concerning the future
of the auxiliary forces was laid before the House.
During the remainder of his tenure of office it became a
frequent charge against him, in certain circles, that he was
hostile to the Volunteers, and that his proposals aimed par
ticularly at the crippling, if not at the destruction, of that
force. It is only fair to recall the passages in which
he dealt with the Volunteers in this first exposition of
his scheme. " I come now to the Volunteers. I believe the Volunteer
force contains the best material we have in the whole Army,
. . . and if we are wise we shall make the very best use we
can of that material. Whether we are making the best use
of it at the present moment is a thing about which I am
not so clear."
Later in his speech he detailed his intentions for the
attainment of this object : —
" I say that within the Volunteers we have the most
magnificent material that this country can furnish, and I
want to utilise it for the defence of the country.
" I am going to ask the Volunteers to submit to the
same sacrifice as I ask the Line to submit to — and ask the
Militia to submit to — that is a sacrifice in numbers.
" I ask leave to reduce the establishment of the Volunteers
to 200,000 men. I have just read to the Committee the
report of the Commission which states that large numbers of
the Volunteers are inefficient, and are practically not avail
able as soldiers. We ought not to have these men in the
Volunteer force at all."
The existence of two different categories of Volunteers
in the force, and in almost every individual corps was
recognised. " There are men who want to give more time and are
able to give more time, either because they are not fully
occupied, or because they are young ; and there are those
who are willing and capable soldiers, but whose avocations
will not permit them to give so much time. The result is

THE VOLUNTEER FORCE 267
constant complaint against the ' screwing-up ' as it is called
of the War Office Regulations.
" We desire to recognise that state of things, and what
we desire to do is this. We desire to give a much larger
grant to the Volunteers.
" We desire, with the assistance and counsel of Volunteer
officers, whom we are most anxious to consult in this matter,
to give effect to that separation which we know exists.
" Personally, I should like to take 60,000 Volunteers
and make them into a Field Army, require of them all that
we think they can give, put a large grant at their disposal,
and make them keep up their full complement of properly
trained officers, and their full complement of non-com
missioned officers.
" I should like to put the other 1 20,000 1 upon an easier
basis of requirements, retaining their connection with the
force, sharing all its social opportunities, proud of their
position, and ready, I am certain, in time of war to take
their place in the force, with the experience and knowledge
which they have acquired.
" That I believe to be the right and true solution of this
volunteer problem."
In these words it will be difficult for the most prejudiced
critic to discover any touch of hostility to, or even any lack
of sympathy with the civilian soldiers whom he was always
so anxious to assist along the path which led to real
efficiency. And yet, as a soldier wrote concerning this particular
point, "to no part of Arnold-Forster's scheme was the
opposition so bitter or sustained, as to that which aimed
at the improvement of the Volunteer force. Subsequent
events have only proved that it was not the actual
measures that were proposed by Arnold-Forster, in what
many soldiers maintain was the best scheme of Army
reform which has ever been put forward — that were the
cause of the deadlock into which the movement for re
form subsequently drifted. It was largely because those
1 Under this scheme the Volunteer establishment was to be reduced to
200,000 men, 180,000 of the existing strength to be immediately absorbed, and
the force to be gradually raised to its full establishment of 200,000.

268 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
measures were part of the policy of a declining administra
tion. From within the Government they were inadequately
supported by colleagues who were afraid of the effect of
vigorous proposals upon the precarious popularity and posi
tion of the Government. From without they were opposed
with all the force of party antagonism exercised by an
Opposition which looked forward to the prospect of approach
ing power. The voice of the Army itself — the body imme
diately interested was one of general approval."
But the feeling of the Army could be officially ex
pressed only through the Army Council, and the Army
Council was not yet strong enough to express itself with
absolute independence of external influences. In the last
five years we have seen the disappearance of the force which
objected, successfully in 1 904, to a process which would
have retained its existence, and increased its vitality at the
expense only of factors acknowledged to be inefficient.
Its individual elements have been readjusted into a new
organisation which has, perforce, submitted to a " screwing-
up " process far in excess of what was then proposed. The
obnoxious medical test, the voluntary submission to which
was the feature of those proposals to which the Volunteers
most strenuously objected, has now become obligatory on
all recruits for the Territorial force. The attestation, in place
of enrolment for the Volunteer force which the Minister for
War in 1904 was warned would mean the destruction of
all voluntary military service, has been accepted from the
first by the Territorial Army.
To return to the speech of July 14, the question ofthe
Militia remains to be dealt with.
" Now I come to the question of the Militia. I have
already described to the Committee what the position of the
Militia is. It is very grave indeed. Nineteen thousand men
a year are passing out of the Militia to the Line. If they
were physically fit I think twice that number would pass
through. In some battalions as many as seven out of the
eight subaltern officers are in the Militia, in order that they
may go into the Line. Therefore you will understand that
at present the Line is living on the Militia.
" There are many hon. friends of mine in this House who

THE MILITIA PROPOSALS 269
have belonged to the Militia, who have done splendid work,
and I am the last to deny that to a great extent the Militia
difficulties have arisen from the unwise treatment they have
received in the past. But the difficulties of the Militia are
greater than that ; they are inherent in the situation. So
long as the Line depends upon the Militia, so long as the
country districts are depleted as they are now depleted, the
Militia difficulty will remain.
" I must tell the Committee what my own view would
be with regard to the best treatment of the Militia, both in
the interests of the Militia and of the Army as a fighting
machine. My belief is that the proper course to take would
be to give the Minister of War carte blanche to take some
seventy battalions of the best Militia, to unite each two
battalions together, and to turn them into Territorial
battalions ; to make them shake hands with the Line ; to put
them into the great centres of population, and make them
the Territorial battalions of this country.
" I believe nothing would be more popular in this country
than if I were allowed to put down in each of our county
towns one of these Territorial battalions,1 which would use
up the whole of the best material of the officers and men in
the Militia at the present moment. That is what I believe
is the correct solution of this Militia problem. I believe that
is the real way out.
" But I have not been so many years as I have in this
House without knowing that with a great national force of
that kind no Minister — not even a powerful Minister, let
alone a tyro like myself — can effect a change like this unless
he has with him the goodwill and conviction of Parliament
and of the nation. I commend that statement to hon.
members and to the country. I do not propose to ask the
House now to give any opinion. On the contrary, I propose
to occupy the coming autumn in consultation with the
Militia officers, and with those who are best qualified to voice
public opinion, and in ascertaining if they desire to fall in
with this proposal, which I believe will be both popular and
valuable. But, let the Committee remember this. They
have asked me to economise. If they desire to keep up
1 Of the Home Service Army on a two years' enlistment.

270 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
the whole of the Militia on the basis on which it now exists
they will have to pay for it. That is the plain black and
white of it. If they desire to keep up the whole of the
124 battalions of the militia with their artillery and
engineers, on their present basis, they will have to pay for
it. We will do our best if it is the wish of the House and
of the country to maintain all the Militia that are capable
of being maintained ; but we ask leave at the same time, as
those responsible for making a fighting force for this country,
to raise the standard of the Militia. And I go farther. We
must be given permission to cut off from the Militia those
units of it which are plainly redundant to our requirements,
and show that they are not capable of recovering the ground
which they have so unfortunately lost.
" With regard to the Militia, I am in the hands of the
House and of the public. If the Committee insist and the
country insist upon the retention of the Militia, as it at
present exists, they will pay £1,800,000 for the privilege.
If they allow me to do what I believe to be the best thing
for the efficiency of the Army, they will very largely reduce
that expenditure."
In all that he said upon this vexed question it will be
seen that he loyally adhered to his agreement with his
political colleagues, and respected the apprehensions of his
military advisers. In all the various phases of the proposed
reforms he refrained from involving the soldiers on the
Army Council in that personal responsibility which some of
them were desirous of avoiding. In the particular case of
the Militia, he made it clear that the proposal which he put
forward was a personal and tentative one, and that it would
not be proceeded with without a preponderant support in
Parliament and in the country.
In one passage only did he make a passing reference
to the impossible position of a Minister who was committed
to departmental retrenchment and reform, and yet was
constantly checkmated by supporters of diverse interests,
and by counsels of timidity.
" I speak as a Minister with many advisers — and I
suppose there has seldom been a Minister who, from
divergent and contradictory points of view, has received

THE MILITIA PROPOSALS 271
so much advice as to what he ought and ought not to do.
There has been practically a universal consensus as to the
duty of reducing expenditure, but there has been an
absolutely universal condemnation of any proposal to do
anything which involves the reduction of expenditure.
That is the difficulty that I want the Committee to under
stand and to help me in."
The Opposition could not fail to mark the note of
personal responsibility which Oakeley had been forced to
adopt in speaking of the Militia proposals. A phrase in
a speech of the Leader of the House of Lords a few days
later, which conveyed an impression that Lord Lansdowne
hastened to explain was an impression he had not
intended, still further strengthened the belief that the
Government had not assumed responsibility for the Army
Scheme. It was openly suggested in the debate that it
was not in the full sense of the word a Government
measure, but merely a statement of academic principles,
which had been under consideration by the Government,
but to which, as a whole, they were not definitely committed,
and the uncertainty and vacillation of the Government as
to the details of the treatment of the auxiliary forces was
alleged to extend to the fundamental features of the whole
Army scheme. The Government did not at this moment
take the immediate steps that would have been necessary
to eradicate this false impression, and the difficulties of the
Secretary of State became increasingly great, owing to the
prevailing uncertainty as to whether the Government were
really supporting him in the measures for Army reform
which they had authorised him to set forth in the House
of Commons. In the House itself the reception of the proposals was
at first undoubtedly promising, and if open support from
Ministers had been forthcoming during the remaining days
of the session, it is probable that the Militia proposals, and
with them the creation of the Home Service Army, would
have gone through without further opposition. Before the
session ended, steps were taken towards carrying out
certain of the reforms which it was possible to undertake
immediately. These were necessarily confined to the

272 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
changes affecting the regular Army, and involved the pre
liminary measures for the transformation of the redundant
battalions, and the engagement of soldiers serving under
the special terms proposed for the General Service Army.
The withdrawal of certain units from the Colonies was
to be carried out, simultaneously with the reduction of
the remaining garrison battalions. Before Oakeley could
leave London for a much needed rest and holiday, a
temporary crisis occurred in the Army Council, a body
which generally reflected the variations of the political
world outside Pall Mall. A reference by a Cabinet
Minister to the published scheme as the "proposals of
the Army Council " alarmed one of the members of the
Board. The difficulty was due to the old apprehension
that outside criticism might be directed against, and have
to be borne by the Council. Eventually the member of
the Council and his friends were reassured, and the little
crisis subsided ; but these smaller troubles on the top of
the long strain and anxiety of the past months were weari
some additions to an overworked Minister.
A short holiday journey was made to a village on the
Swiss frontier ; and long and happy weeks, with friends and
children around him, were spent staying with Mr. and Mrs.
Leverton Harris at Largie in Kintyre. Though most
active pursuits were forbidden to him, Oakeley devoted
himself to such shooting and fishing as was permitted,
and lived as active a life as his slender store of strength
allowed. Largie, with its views of moor and sea and
distant islands, was an ideal place for such a holiday, and
many plans were made that were realised in the following
year for a long cruise to explore the western islands and
coasts of Scotland.
After staying at Balmoral for a week as Minister, and
paying some visits, he returned to London and to his work.
Two letters written during this holiday are here given : —
To his Sister.
" I write in the train half-way between St. Cergue, the
little Swiss village I have just left, and Besangon whither

AUGUST 1904 273
I am wending. I did not think there was as much rain
in creation as has fallen in the last few days. There is
supposed to be one of the finest views in Switzerland from
St. Cergue, and Mont Blanc comes in the centre of it.
But ne'er a mountain of any kind have I seen, nothing but
impenetrable Scotch mist, just like what we get in West
morland, only much worse. However, I don't say I
haven't enjoyed my trip, for I found pleasant and amusing
people — mostly French — at St. Cergue. Moreover, I am
not too old yet to enjoy the incidents of travel and all the
odd talks with odd people in odd places.
" You wrote me very sweetly, dear Poppy, for my
birthday. Yes, I am a Secretary of State, no doubt, but
not destined, I fear, to be a very fortunate one. I have
got part of my way, but it was essential to success that I
should get all my way. This is not wilfulness, but it is a
fact that many good plans won't bear tinkering. Again,
my work is a dead heave ; so many are and must be against
me. That is always the case when many vested interests
are attacked. I could win with Time, because then I could
keep up the pressure, and do things myself, but Time I shall
not get. " However, I shall have done some good, though others
will profit ; but I shall have, at any rate, told our people
of their danger, which is great, and have pointed out to
them the great meaning of the truth that on ne badine pas
avec la guerre. I have shown them the way out, too, if
only they will follow it."
The following was written at the end of August to a
soldier friend : —
" Then coming to more difficult subjects — the reduction
of the Volunteers and of the Militia. I intend to proceed
with these two proposals. I am confident that unless I do
something now, the thing will not be done, and it is of vital
importance to the nation that some steps should be taken to
get rid of shams, and to realise how great is the need for
military efficiency. I shall probably ' perish in the attempt,'
but the thing must be done. . . . My ambition is to get two
or three Militia battalions to lead the way in transforming T

274 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
themselves into Home Service battalions. ... If I had all
the battalions at home that I want, and had full power,
I could get the whole thing started in about six weeks, but
neither of the desired conditions is fulfilled, alas !
" I can only make progress if people here 1 really intend
to make progress ; some of them, I think, do ; some of them
do not. If I could see any clear intention on their part, if
I thought they were looking into the future, and saw that
good could come by merely letting things slide, I should
have no objection to their caution, but that is not the situa
tion. They know almost as well as I do (not quite, for they
do not bring imagination to the task), how serious is the
condition in which we stand. They know, too, and have
told me very frankly, that they see no other solution than
that which I propose, and yet, so great is their fear of
departing in any way from accepted traditions, or of touch
ing anything to which they have not been accustomed, that
they will do anything rather than take responsibility or make
real change.
" Of course, I know well enough that attacks in the Press
do harm. However, there it is, and while the whole of the
military world and most of the public are content with purely
negative criticism which is so easy, I cannot expect to find
very many champions.
" While I stand where I do, I know that there must be a
change, and I see no alternative to the changes I have
proposed, therefore I shall and must go on."
1 In the War Office.

CHAPTER XVIII
Autumn Manceuvres — Incidentof the Russian Baltic Fleet — Decentralisa
tion Scheme carried out — "A Committee of Enquiry" — A Grave
Protest — Short Service Battalions to be formed and a " Grouped
Line Depot" — The Volunteer Question.
The manceuvres in Essex, which took place during
September, and at which he was present, were of peculiar
and special interest to Oakeley.
While he was still at the Admiralty he had conceived
the idea of joint naval and military operations. His original
plan had been based more upon the exercise of naval strategy ;
this plan had since been modified, and the actual manceuvres
embraced only a landing of troops with the necessary naval
co-operation. From a military point of view the value of
the work performed in Essex was great. For the first time
the Navy and Army worked together as component parts of
what he had been one of the first to recognise ought to be
one machine, whether used for offensive or for defensive
operations. In the past it had been the invariable custom to resort,
for manceuvres on a large scale, to such open spaces and
wide expanses as Salisbury Plain, or the Sussex or Berk
shire Downs. For the first time it was recognised that the
seaboard must necessarily be the terrain for opposition to an
invading force, and that the neighbourhood of the coast is
generally a country of small fields and intricate communica
tions. The importance of the experience gained in Essex
was, I am told, great, and helped materially towards the
formation of a new school of thought on the subject of the
tactics of Home Defence and the consequent training of the
Home Army in peace. 275

276 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
The notorious achievement of the Russian fleet during
its passage from the Baltic across the North Sea at the
end of October created a situation which was naturally a
perturbing one to the Army Council. Although, happily,
hostilities were averted, our relations with Russia were for
a time so strained as to force upon the minds of the War
Office authorities the dangerous unpreparedness for war,
which was the normal condition of the Army. Incidentally,
no stronger proof could have been found of the absolute
accuracy of the exposition that had been made of the exist
ing defects of the Army. But the tension was speedily
relaxed, and unfortunately with its relaxation a return to
the laisser-faire attitude, which was the greatest obstacle to
advance, was only too easy.
Shortly after the Russian incident he wrote to his sister :
" As you suppose, the days immediately following the incident
in the North Sea were full of anxiety. Had we been deal
ing with a rational Government and a wholly civilised people
I should not have been alarmed ; for I have been convinced
from the outset that the firing, foolish and blundering as it
was, was the result of a bond-fide belief that the fleet was
being attacked. In other words, the incident was a blunder
and not an outrage, and two nations cannot fight about a
blunder. The danger lay from the first, and indeed does
now, in the folly and malevolence of the militant party in
St. Petersburg. It is not always true that ' it takes two to
make a quarrel.' Unluckily one side, if sufficiently ill-dis
posed, can usually force a quarrel on the other. However,
the attitude of the Czar and Count Lamsdorf has been very
correct, and Lansdowne has done his part admirably.
" I don't think our Press has shone ; though as usual we
find that all the virtues were on our side and that we showed
conspicuous moderation. There was room for anger, and
the expression of it helped the Government and strengthened
Lansdowne's hands. But there was not room, and never is,
for all the wounding and offensive things which were said
about the Russian people in general, and the Russian sailors
in particular. Even if all that was said were true, it would
have been better to leave it unsaid. But most of it was not
true. The Russians have not shown themselves cowards.

DECENTRALISATION 277
Luckily not one Russian out of a million will read the
attacks in our papers."
Before the anxiety occasioned by our strained relations
with Russia had wholly subsided, it came to the knowledge
of the Secretary of State that the rearmament of the artillery
with the new quick-firing gun was falling behindhand, and
had not made the progress that had been expected or pro
mised. In view of the delicate foreign situation that still
existed, and the immense importance of the rearmament of
the artillery both in India and at home, this became a source
of serious anxiety to Oakeley. Departmental difficulties
were put forward to him to excuse the delay. But apart
from the natural sense of the deep responsibility of a
Minister, any delay in the rearmament of the artillery at
such a critical time occasioned him the gravest concern and
lasting anxiety, until the delay was made up and the guns
actually provided.
One of the directions in which work was accomplished
in the autumn of 1904 was in decentralising the administra
tion of the Army.
An important item in the recommendations of the
Reconstitution Committee still awaited actual enforcement.
This was the Decentralisation Scheme which they had
sketched in draft, and by means of which many administra
tive duties would devolve on a subordinate general in each
of the principal commands.
Until the new system of commands and districts had
become an accomplished fact, it had not been possible to
give effect to these recommendations. Now that the change
had been fully effected, and the new commands had been
settled and published in Army Orders, it was possible to
move ahead. Steps were taken at once to carry out the
Decentralisation Scheme, and eventually an Army Order,
introducing its proposals, was published in January 1905.
The members of the Reconstitution Committee were
deeply interested, and anxious to give their advice in the
matter of the further details by which their recommendations
were to be carried out. Grateful as the Minister for War
had always been for the very valuable work done by the
Reconstitution Committee, he did not at first at all realise

278 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
the extent to which the interposition of members of that
Committee would hereafter be carried. Not even his sense
of obligation for the work achieved would have been allowed
to interfere with his judgment ; that outside direction in War
Office affairs is undesirable and likely to lead to confusion
and misunderstanding. No allusion to these circumstances
would be necessary but for the fact that they did in the
course of the next few months, in the spring of 1905,
very naturally lead to such difficulties and to regrettable
misunderstandings. Many anxieties, combined with serious troubles of health,
made the last few months of 1904 a trying time to Oakeley.
Even his great powers of detachment from personal con
siderations were not wholly proof against the long-continued
strain. Speeches made at this time by his friend and col
league, Mr. Walter Long, and a letter from Mr. Long, gave
him exceptional pleasure in a condition of depression which
was so unusual to him : —
" I had no idea you were depressed about the reception
of your proposals, or that you thought your colleagues were
not giving you sufficient support in their speeches. I have
more than once expressed confidence in them, lately in
Wales, and among my constituents ; but, of course, my
speeches are not well reported.
" I think your colleagues ... are in hearty accord with you.
You have been terribly overworked, have had some quite ex
ceptional difficulties to meet, and your depression is natural,
but it is not justified by the facts. We all have the fullest
confidence in you, and we all feel that if you cannot carry
out the necessary reforms, nobody can."
"The problem I have to solve," Oakeley wrote at the
beginning of the New Year, " is a hard one, but it is in no
sense an insoluble one. It is all the unnecessary obstacles,
the waste of time over personal matters, that clog the wheels
of progress. However, I have no business to grumble ; I
shall have done something, shall have done my best without
sparing myself, and I shall retain after all is done the same
confidence in the truth of my ideas as I did when I first put
them on paper."
His great desire now was to make some progress, at

ARMY REFORM 279
once, towards the foundation of the Short Service Army on
which his scheme depended. If he had been free to take
active steps and to go ahead with this part of his work, he
could immediately have set about the formation of the new
system of large depots, a matter to which he attached great
weight, and one which many of the best-informed soldiers
have spoken of as one of the most valuable of his proposals ;
and he could then begin in earnest the work of organising
the Home Service battalions.
But the way of making this progress was still to be
barred. The soldiers, alarmed by the lack of political
support, begged for further assurances that the Government
approved and would support the scheme. And at the
same time the politicians, who had given but a reserved
approval to the proposed changes, took this opportunity to
point to the cautious attitude of the soldiers and to the lack
of their whole-hearted support.
It was easy to demonstrate that absolute unanimity
existed as to the defects in the present state of the Army and
as to the resulting dangers, and to show that no alternative
scheme that would hold water had been suggested to remedy
the existing conditions. But in the difficult political circum
stances of the moment, a temporising policy seemed the least
dangerous course to the Government, and no immediate pro
gress could be made. For the moment, therefore, it was
decided that the direct advance that Oakeley wished to
make in the direction of forming depots and organising
the new Home Service Army must be again temporarily
postponed. These continual disappointments were hard to bear.
From henceforth Oakeley did not conceal from himself
that the prospects were but slender of his being able to make
solid progress with the dream of his life : the provision of
an Army suited to the conditions and needs of our people
and empire. But this conviction did not cause him to
slacken his labours for the good of the Army, for whose
welfare he was still responsible. He never wavered in his
conviction that the lines he had followed were those which
alone fulfilled the conditions of this difficult problem.
Although he might no longer be working with a hopeful

280 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
prospect of success, whatever he might achieve would at
any rate be so much gained for whoever succeeded him in
office ; and to the last he worked as strenuously as ever
to lay the foundations of military efficiency and security.
Another circumstance in the spring of 1905 made the
relation of the Government to Army reform still more
difficult and confused. A suggestion was made that a
Committee might be appointed whose report would assist
the Secretary of State in the passage of the Army Scheme
through Parliament. Their pronouncement might, it was
thought, be useful at this juncture, and in this the Secretary
of State concurred, and made certain suggestions as to the
personnel and reference of the Committee. The reference
and scope of the enquiry were subsequently greatly enlarged.
The members appointed to it were Lord Esher, Sir George
Clarke, and Sir George Murray, and nominally they were to
sit under the Presidency of the Prime Minister. Mr. Balfour
was naturally too deeply engaged in the absorbing cares of
his office to be able to take much part in the work of the
Committee, The composition of the Committee itself, the nature ot
its reference, and the methods that it followed, differed from
what the Secretary of State had approved, and had agreed to.
The enquiry developed into a general review of the
situation, and in practice the Committee sat in judgment
upon all the proposals which had already been adopted by
the Cabinet, and which had been announced to Parliament.
It was not long before Oakeley began to realise what was
actually taking place. Information having been collected,
and the evidence of soldiers and officials taken, not only
was the whole of the Secretary of State's Army Reform
Scheme subjected to their investigation and criticism, but
the Committee proceeded to draw up an alternative scheme
to be placed in the field in competition with it. So little
secrecy was observed in a matter so delicate, that the course
and trend of the Committee's enquiry and conclusion were
public property in the War Office, the House of Commons,
and the Clubs. Emphatic and formal protests were entered
by the Secretary of State.
That the Prime Minister, in instituting the enquiry, was

A COMMITTEE OF ENQUIRY 281
animated by a sincere desire to assist him, Oakeley always
firmly believed; but that the proceedings as they were
actually carried on were in accordance with the wishes of
the Minister responsible for the War Office, or could possibly
strengthen his hands, it was impossible to imagine.
In his Diary, Oakeley wrote : " The existence of two
schemes is obviously bad, bad for the Government and, what
is much more important, bad for the Army. All the world
seems to know by now that a Committee, of which the
Prime Minister is Chairman, has propounded a plan of
Army reform, which differs fundamentally from that of the
Secretary of State for War. It is quite obvious that such
being the case, there can be neither certainty nor progress.
No Minister would be justified in attempting to pursue a
policy to which his chief is opposed. Nothing but evil
could come of such an attempt. . . . While I have no
desire whatever to embarrass the Prime Minister in any way,
and shall most gladly relinquish my work to another at
once, I cannot make changes in my own proposals, nor
adopt the scheme ofthe Prime Minister's Committee.
" Last year I was requested to prepare a scheme which
would comply with certain rigid conditions respecting cost,
men, and efficiency. Those conditions have never been
relaxed. As long as those conditions are regarded as
binding, the alternative proposals are out of the question.
" I should have to ask leave to set forth to my colleagues
the conditions under which I have worked, and the objects
I was told to aim at. ... I must be told whether those
objects are still imperative, and, if so, whether they consider
they are compatible with the suggestions of the new
Memorandum ; if they do, there is an end of the matter,
and I sincerely trust some one may be found who will be
able to achieve the object we all hope for. But the un
certainty that prevails at present, and the belief that I am
not supported by my colleagues— a belief which, however
erroneous, has enormously increased my difficulties, cannot
possibly continue."
^ These protests were formally made to the Prime
Minister. The alternative scheme that was evolved by the
Committee did not survive examination, and did not see

282

HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER

the light. But in the meantime great harm had been done
and it seems now, after a lapse of years, almost inconceiv
able that a political blunder so grave should have been
made. References were constantly made in the debates on
Army Estimates to the Advisory Committees to which it
was hinted, the administration of Army affairs had been
transferred by the Government.
The Opposition in the course of these debates naturally
recalled the fervently expressed hope of the War Minister,
a twelvemonth previously, that that might be the last
occasion on which Estimates would be produced on the old
basis. Why, they asked, very pertinently, were the new
Estimates not based upon his scheme, which had already
been laid before the House ?
It is probably true in most of the affairs of life, but it is
undoubtedly and inexorably true in political affairs, that the
line of least resistance is not generally one which can be
followed with ultimate success and without loss of dignity.
Every month that the Government postponed the reforms
which they had pledged themselves to accomplish, made
their task not less, but more difficult, and weakened their
position. The report of Sir William Butler's Committee of Enquiry
into the matter of certain scandals that had arisen as to
stores and contracts at the end of the South African War
was published in May 1905. The findings of the Com
mittee imposed upon the War Minister the unpleasant duty
of deciding what disciplinary action was to be taken with
regard to officers who were either directly or indirectly
inculpated. The scandal was not finally disposed of until a
Judicial Commission had dealt with the whole question of
the contracts and supplies at the conclusion of the war, and
until actions in the Civil Courts had been brought by certain
officers, who had suffered from the original verdict and from
resulting comments in the Press. Meanwhile, the " South
African Stores Scandal " provided material for lengthened
discussion and questions in Parliament.
Much valuable time had to be given up to these debates
in Parliament, and also to the steps that were rendered
necessary by the verdict of the Butler Report.

ARMY REFORM 283
On June 11 he wrote: "I have made what I may
call my last will and testament. It is a statement of my
position, saying categorically that I cannot stay at the W.O
unless I am publicly and strongly supported ; that I must
be allowed to give effect to the principles which I laid down
last year, and which I have always insisted upon as essential.
I have said exactly what I propose to do. If this is agreed
to, I will go on ; if not, not."
On June 22, after having fully stated his case to his
colleagues, and demonstrated the impossibility of going on
any longer under existing conditions, the Secretary of State
was empowered to proceed a certain way along the path of
reform with regard to his Home Service Army. "What
will happen next I do not know," he commented at the
time. " Of course the decision comes much too late, and is,
moreover, a very restricted permission, but it is better than
nothing ; and, if time is given, I shall try to make good use
of it." He was free during the autumn to take the following
steps : —
1. To open recruiting on the short service (two years)
basis for eight battalions, then at home, belonging to " four
battalion regiments."
2. To enlist about 900 short-service recruits for these
battalions. 3. Subsequently to close the short-service recruiting and
to reopen long-service (nine years) men for the long-service
Army, until a sufficient number of these were obtained.
4. To quarter these experimental short-service battalions
territorially, so far as existing barrack accommodation would
allow. 5. To create one of the new large grouped Line depots.
6. To lay down the necessity for creating an adequate
reserve. 7. To give service pay to long-service men at the higher
rates proposed in his Memorandum.
A condition, however, was imposed at the urgent
instance of the friends of the Militia, which fettered him
in dealing with the Militia battalions, and which, in his
opinion, did away with much of the value of these con-

284 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
cessions. Instead of converting Militia battalions into part
of the Short Service Territorial Army, another almost hope
less attempt was to be made to convert it on the old lines
into an efficient force for war.
The Army Council was reassured by the fact that
these moderate measures were the accepted policy of the
Government; and they were proceeded with through the
autumn that followed.
So much of the time and energy of the Opposition
was at this moment concentrated upon the Volunteer
question that there was little opportunity or time to spare
for any serious consideration of the far more important
features of the reform scheme which dealt with the regular
Army. The discussion of the Volunteer vote, which culminated
on July 13, showed the insincerity of the Opposition
attack on Army reform proposals. The Secretary of
State, when making his original statement in the House,
had very clearly indicated his purpose with reference to
the Volunteers. He wished to divide the force into two
categories into which, by force of circumstances, its members
naturally fell. (1) Those who could give sufficient time
for training to comply with the War Office standard of
efficiency, and (2) those who, though willing to do all
in their power to serve their country, were unable to devote
so much time to preparation, or who, for other reasons,
did not fulfil the necessary requirements. With this object
a circular had been issued — which had met with approval
from many Volunteer commanding officers — which laid down
the requirements for efficiency, and provided for medical
inspection of members of Volunteer corps, which should
decide their physical fitness for service.
An agitation, which was largely political, was got up
against this confidential circular. The subsequent transfor
mation of the Volunteers into the Territorial force, with
the resulting compulsory medical inspection, has exposed
the unreality of this grievance. The main object of the
proposal of the Secretary of State, which was to increase
the efficiency of the Volunteer force, at a possible sacrifice
of inefficient members, and, incidentally, to reduce unre-

VOLUNTEER QUESTION 285
munerative expenditure, had been received in the House
with general approval. But the Opposition discerned a
valuable electioneering cry in the accusation that the Secre
tary of State for War desired to " destroy the Volunteers."
The Government carried the vote in the House of Commons,
but at the expense of long debates and much opposition.
" My whole fight, as I see it," he said at this time,
"is against sham armies and make-believe organisations."
He had learnt enough from history, and had sufficient
experience of warfare under modern conditions, to know
that no justification existed for the pleasant delusion that
an amateur soldier could hope to achieve success against
trained continental troops simply because he might be
a Volunteer and an Englishman. Consequently, to the
last he never ceased to point out the danger of everything
which savoured of sham or make believe in what should
be the exceedingly serious work of preparation for war.
Looking back at the work done during this session
of Parliament, no one could fail to be struck by the courage
with which he maintained the long uphill fight on behalf
of what he felt convinced was for the good of the Army.
No one knew better than he did at that time, that
he could not hope to carry out the work he had dreamed
of accomplishing when he went to the War Office, and
which would have been the fulfilment of a life's endeavour.
One of his friends thus wrote to me : —
" A less conscientious or less energetic statesman than Arnold-Forster
would be content to let things be, to disclaim any further responsibility
for a state of inefficiency which he is not permitted to remedy, and
to throw upon the War Office the duty of extricating itself from the
situation into which it has drifted. Had he chosen to consult his
own interests he would have resigned a thankless task. But he has a
more complete knowledge than even his military advisers of the reality
of the dangers in which the Army stands ; he sees the risks which
it might run with a change of Government ; and he dreads that the
regular troops may be sacrificed to the interests of the more politically
important auxiliary forces. He is determined to do what he can
to save them, even against themselves, from the perils which he
foresees. Alone, and almost unsupported, he is doing something every
day to improve the efficiency of the Army ; to lay some foundation
of the system which he knows would ensure safety, so that his successor
may at least be committed to erecting the superstructure of a re
organised Army on the ground-plan of his design. With this aim

286 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
he is content to undertake work far beyond his strength, to squander
his health, and to submit to continual obstruction from those whose
business it should be to give him loyal support."
In July he wrote to his sister, Mrs. Vere O'Brien :
" You have been pleasant in condoling with me in my
supposed misfortunes. I don't say that I have none, and
of worries and anxieties I have, indeed, many. But things
are by no means so bad as they might be, and I am
not feeling nearly so downhearted as I have often done
during the past eighteen months. Of course all this South
African business is a trouble, but the whole thing is absurdly
exaggerated, and now that we have got our Commission1
(for which, by the way, I pressed from the outset) things
will quiet down, and assume their proper proportions.
" Luckily I have a pleasant subject also to write about.
After many months of hard fighting I have got a unanimous
decision out of the Cabinet, giving me, in most categorical
terms, the right to go ahead. Of course, it may be too
late to do much good now, but I am going to try ; and
I feel a much happier man than I did.
" It is a pity, though, my colleagues could not have made
up their minds a little sooner. They were bound to come
round to my conclusions in the long run. They have not
time or inclination to study the facts ; I do know the
facts — really, I do.
" Happily, the Army improves every day, as all our officers
testify. The recruits still come in ; the Guards are full.
The new guns are being finished by scores. The cavalry
was, by universal consent, never so good as it is now. Our
new finance system is now working. Some day people will
understand these things. I must be content, for the present,
with knowing them myself."

To his friend Mr. Leverton Harris, M.P., who was
undergoing a short rest-cure in a nursing home, he wrote
at this time in a lighter vein "a letter calculated to
soothe '' : — ¦
1 The Judicial Commission appointed to enquire into the South African Stores
Scandal.

LETTERS 287
" xoth fuly 1905.
" Dear Leverton — July has arrived with all the pomp
of summer. The tittlebat are rising freely in the ornamental
water of St. James's Park. Several netters have taken
fine bottlefuls of this sporting fish. They tell me that
Parliament is still in session, but neither the lover of nature
nor the votary of the town pays much heed to the agitations
of this tiresome assembly. My wife gives a rural fete in
the garden of the Abbey on Wednesday next. We antici
pate a fine occasion for aquatic sports. The heavens lower,
and the clouds are fat with rain.
" I have been reading a book on the ' Philosophy of the
Human Species.' I have learnt some things of value from
its perusal. I have come to the conclusion that the only
essential portions of the human organism are the thumbs
and the lesser intestine. All else appears to be superfluous,
or noxious, or both. The greater intestine, the stomach,
the appendix, the hippocampus major are certainly noxious,
the head and the extremities are apparently superfluous.
Probably, when we meet again, I shall be merely a truncated
shell. They talk of war in the East and of the success of
the Japanese against the Russians. There appears to be
truth in the rumour, but no certain news as yet.
" I hope to find a ship in which I may sail in your Scottish
waters next month, but as yet the vessel has not been
secured. " I trust your rest-cure goes well. The excitements, as
you describe them, seem to be judiciously limited. That is
well. I trust I have not broken the treatment. I have
sought to be calm.
" Queen Anne is dead — the ' great Anna is no more.' I
have a story to tell you about a fishing exploit of mine,
which will interest you. It was a trout which I fished for
for seven days under Hammersmith Bridge. The eighth
day I caught it, It scaled — but no, I must not strain you.
Perhaps you are not accustomed to fishing stories. — Believe
me, yours ever, H. O. A.-F."
The same friend received the following formal acknow
ledgment of the gift of a miniature toy cannon, purchased

288 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
on the Paris Boulevards, which had been duly despatched
to the British War Minister. "War Office.
" Sir — I am desired by the Secretary of State for War to
thank you for the sample field-gun (French pattern) which
you have submitted to him. I am to say, however, that
the type of gun for the British service has already been
decided upon, and that no use can, therefore, be made of the
gun now sent. Mr. Arnold-Forster, however, is much im
pressed with the rapidity of the action and the simplicity of
the loading arrangements, and thinks you may be glad to
know that with an expert staff no less than three rounds have
been discharged in twenty minutes. The practice of attach
ing the projectile to the muzzle of the gun also seems, to
Mr. Arnold-Forster, to be an interesting and valuable
departure. — I am, your obedient servant,
E. R. Davis,
F. Leverton Harris, Esq.. M.P."
To Mrs. Vere O'Brien he wrote in August from the
steam yacht, Queen Margaret : — " KlLBRENNAN SOUND.
" I cannot tell you what a change our life during the
last few days has been, after the imprisonment with hard labour
I have had to undergo for so long in the House of Commons.
Here we are in a tidy little steamer, gently making our way
down this beautiful Sound, with the peaks of Arran, blue and
jagged on the port hand, and the lower lands of Kintyre on
the starboard. The sun is shining brightly, and even
warmly, the sky is blue and the sea is blue. Altogether we
consider ourselves very fortunate, for though we began our
cruise last Friday in terrible weather, the last three days
have been halcyon days, and these smooth lochs and soft-
coloured mountains have many a time reminded me of
Como and Maggiore.
" You write me pleasant and cheering things about myself,
my dear. I wish the quarter of them were true ; alas, I
know they are not. But as to the philosophy and patience, I
must needs be a patient philosopher if I am to live at all.

LETTER ON HIS WORK FOR THE ARMY 289
A contented one I am not, and never shall be until I have
seen the affairs of the Army in which I have, perforce, con
cerned myself so much of late, run on very different lines
from those which now approve themselves to this people.
" My dear Flo, the danger is grave, and some day we
shall get a great awakening."
The Edinburgh Volunteer Review on September 18
which he attended was of great and special interest to him,
for the idea of the review had been originated by him, and
though many difficulties had been interposed, it was suc
cessfully carried out, and then, as always, he admired the
magnificent material which was contained — but often
wasted — in the old Volunteer force. On September 30 he
returned to London and took up, once more, the work of
the Office.The following extract from a letter which he wrote
shortly after this time shows better than any mere statement
or comment made by his friends could do, the extent to
which merely personal considerations were eliminated from
his thoughts. Even bitter attacks were looked at from the
point of view of their effect upon the work which he wanted
to carry out, and I never knew him to give a thought to
their personal side, or to the harm that might be caused to
his future career : —
" It is with great regret that I have seen the paragraphs
in the newspapers, which, in my opinion, are purely mis
chievous. Indeed, the constant misrepresentations and
inventions which appear daily in the newspapers are most
prejudicial to the Army. To politicians like myself they
are not, perhaps, important, because they can be measured
at their true value. But to soldiers, who are steadily working
and doing their best under very difficult circumstances, they
are most discouraging. The Army Council and the War
Office have many difficulties to contend with, but of this I
am certain that, despite all these difficulties, the Army is
being steadily improved in every branch. In three years'
time it will be better than it has been for many a year. The
infantry battalions will be full, and they will be full of men ;
the reserve will be stronger than it has ever been ; drafting u

29Q HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
in the cavalry will have ceased, and the cavalry regiments
will be well manned and well horsed. The artillery will
have been rearmed ; every store will be full : a new type
of barrack will have been created ; the Guards will be full,
and they will have, I believe, their full complement of
officers. If I am permitted to do what I desire, a real
General Staff will for the first time have been created in our
Army. All this work has either been accomplished, or will
shortly be accomplished. Much more might be accomplished
if the Army Council were permitted to prepare the Army for
war without reference to considerations which have nothing
to do with war. But I am sanguine enough to believe that,
even in respect to the Militia and Volunteers, we may
accomplish something, and what we have been able to do
with the yeomanry increases my confidence. I know what
I have said to be true, and I recognise the immense importance
of steady effort and continuous progress.
" It is for these reasons that I greatly regret the perpetual
attacks which are made upon the administration of the War
Office."

CHAPTER XIX
The General Staff of the Army — Memorandum on the formation of a
General Staff — Last days at the War Office — Letters — A summary
of Aims and Achievements.
When Oakeley returned to London and to the War Office
in the autumn, he knew that his remaining time in office
must be very short. The sands of the life of Parliament
were running out apace : he therefore concentrated all his
efforts on two points that he conceived to be essential.
First and foremost he desired to see established the principles
on which the formation of a General Staff of the Army
should be laid. And, secondly, he hoped to have time
to inaugurate one of the grouped infantry depots, which
was to be placed at Lichfield on account of its central
position. " Life goes tranquilly and not unpleasantly with us," he
wrote to his sister. " The intense anxiety and worry which
at one time made existence rather a burden are past, or at
any rate they are absent for the time. I have floated into
smoother water. I have got my way about some things —
the short-service battalions, the big depot, the cavalry scheme
and the guns, and the Medical Department, and a good many
minor things about which I needn't trouble you. Above all,
the long-service recruiting has gone exactly as I said it
would. Already we have taken over 22,000 long-service
infantry, and ever since my Norwich speech the numbers
have been increasing by leaps and bounds. This week we
took 180 more men for the Army than we took during the
corresponding week of last year, the biggest recruiting year
we have ever had in peace time. It is not in the least
wonderful or remarkable, it is merely common sense ; but,
then, half my efforts have been devoted to trying to
291

292 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
convince people that common sense and the Army problem
have anything to do with each other.
" I have only two important things to do now. One to
start a real General Staff, the other to abolish flogging in
the military prisons. I think I shall live to do both."
His Memorandum on the General Staff of the Army
was completed at the beginning of November. It was
published on November 22.
To no work of his life did he attach more significance
than to that which led up to the production of this Memo
randum, on account of its importance for the future develop
ment of the Army. It was natural that he should care thus
greatly about it, because he had for years made a close study
of the question, and had in a Memorandum for the Cabinet a
written in 1902, put on record his belief that in our Army
the duties of a General Staff were not being adequately
performed ; it was natural, therefore, that he should wish
to use his position of responsibility at the War Office to
create the institution which he had so often declared to be
absolutely indispensable,
The Memorandum of November 1905 showed, as he
pointed out a year later, that —
" an attempt was being made to lay the foundation on which a real
General Staff for the Army might in time be constructed. . . As a
matter of fact the document forms but one of a series of papers in which
the all-important question of the composition and functions of the Staff
were dealt with.
" The Memorandum itself is brief and simple, but it must not be sup
posed that its preparation and issue were unattended with difficulty. As
it stands, it was the outcome of much deliberation. Every phrase was
chosen with care, every statement was carefully weighed. In the judg
ment of the Secretary of State the Memorandum represented the opinion
of the best and most progressive soldiers in the Army ; but it would be
an exaggeration to pretend that it found universal acceptance among all
schools of thought, that its publication was unattended with difficulty or
escaped criticism.
" Fortunately there are signs that in this matter at any rate there is
likely to be continuity of policy, and the Army Order issued (by Mr.
Haldane) on the 12th September 1906 is an almost verbatim repetition
of the Memorandum of November 1905." 2

See chap. xii. 2 The Army in igo6.

A GENERAL STAFF 293
In later years it gave him deep satisfaction to observe this
continuity of policy, and to see that that which he had hoped
for and had worked for so long was gradually coming to pass ;
and that under the guidance of the present Chief of the
Staff, Sir William Nicholson, and other soldiers devoted to
the Army, and determined to leave the Army and their
department better than they found it, the General Staff is
growing steadily in prestige, and commanding the respect of
the best elements in the Army.
Before he left office Oakeley had at least the deep
satisfaction of seeing that the lines which have guided
this development were firmly laid down, and of knowing
that this important step towards the formation of the
General Staff had actually and irrevocably been taken.
The Minute of the Secretary of State to the Chief of
the General Staff respecting the formation of a General
Staff began as follows : —
The General Staff of the Army.
"Chief of the General Staff — At the meeting of the Army
Council held on the 9th August 1905 certain general conclusions with
regard to the formation of the General Staff were arrived at. These
conclusions were as follows : —
(a) Officers of the General Staff should be selected on their own
individual qualifications, and not on account of any appoint
ment which they are holding, or for which they may be
selected.
(b) The list of officers should at present be small.
(c) Appointments should be for four years.
(d) At the end of every four years from the date of his first appoint
ment to the General Staff the desirability of the retention of
an officer's name on the General Staff List should be con
sidered.
(e) The general principle of accelerated promotion should be
accepted, the question of the extent and nature of this pro
motion to be deferred for further consideration.
(/) The list of duties of the General Staff, as detailed in Appendices
E and F of Army Order 30 of 1905, should be further
amplified.
(g) There should not be a separate General Staff Corps.
(K) The possession of a Staff College certificate, though most desir
able, should not be an absolute sine qua non for being placed
on the General Staff List.
The principles approved by the Council must now be regarded as
governing the composition and duties of the General Staff, and the time

294 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
has come for taking action in accordance with these decisions. It is
desirable, that in carrying out the work entrusted to you by the Army
Council you should have before you a clear statement of the objects for
which the General Staff is to be formed and the duties which it is to
perform. It is impossible to secure continuity of policy in Army administration
without reasoned and well-ordered thought, and it is with a view to
securing this desideratum that the formation of a General Staff has been
undertaken by the Army Council. At present, as in the past, every
officer in the Army has his own opinion on every military subject, the
result being that there is an infinite variety of opinions upon every
subject. Hence the advice tendered to the Secretary of State by his
responsible military advisers is the individual advice and opinion of the
officer tendering it, and it is not the carefully balanced opinion, after
mature thought and deliberation, of a collective body of experts. Thus
continuity of thought, of purpose, and of action are wholly impossible,
and in their place we find disjointed and unconnected plans. No true
' military opinion ' does or can exist.
There are, moreover, many duties which are now not performed at
all, or which are insufficiently performed, and which ought in the future
to be carried out by officers of the General Staff.
The objects to be kept in view in forming such a Staff are as
follows : —
i. To gather the ablest men in the Army together, and by some
system of advancement and promotion to make sure that
the fortunes of the Army are always in their hands.
2. By means of these men to form a school of military thought
which shall be abreast, or ahead, of that of any other army.
Subject to a first list being drawn up and approved by the Army
Council generally, all future selections for, and promotions in, the
General Staff will be recommended by the Chief of the General Staff
alone, without the intervention of the Selection Board or of the Army
Council. In no other manner can the Staff be made homogeneous and
its action inspired by a single purpose. . . ."1
The Memorandum concludes with a definition of the
eventual position of the Chief of the General Staff, and with
further reference to the principle of accelerated promotion.
Before the projected Infantry Depdt at Lichfield could
be established Mr. Balfour's Government had resigned. On
Monday, December 4, Oakeley attended at the War Office
for the last time. In his Diary for that day he notes : —
" I wrote a Minute on the question of flogging in the
1 This paragraph in the Memorandum of 1905 is the only one of which the
substance was materially altered in the General Staff Order issued by Mr. Haldane
in September 1906.

LAST DAYS AT THE WAR OFFICE 295
Army and a letter recommending  ,  ,  for the
General Staff. . . . To the Office at 1 1.45. Finished one
or two papers, and then commenced saying good-bye to the
members of Council, Directors, and others. . . . Partings
are never pleasant. I have differed from several of my
colleagues, but, happily, though our divisions have been
sharp, we have always remained on pleasant personal terms.
To part from  ,  , and  ,  , and  was a
real grief. And  and  have been good friends
and very competent workers.
" I tried to say one word, other than personal, to each.
It was this : ' I have tried to fight the battle of the regular
Army. I greatly fear that if the policy of trying to keep up
the peace Army to its old strength with the colours is persisted
in it will end in disaster. It means Army Estimates of over
£31,000,000, and that people won't stand. The result
would be the very worst that could happen — the destruction
of units of the regular Army with their officers. The true
policy is the Navy footing. Keep your ships in ' peace
commission' full and ready; keep the personnel of your
reserve ships as cadres only, and expand them in war ;
otherwise there will be a calamity to the Army. I trust I
may not be a true prophet — but wait and see.' The Chief
of the General Staff told me, I am glad to say, that he is
now quite reconciled to my Memorandum on the General
Staff, and that it has done nothing but good." 1
On Monday the nth of December, he records in his
Diary the delivery of the seals of office to King Edward at
Buckingham Palace, and also speaks of the sympathy and
great kindness that had been constantly shown to him by
His Majesty, both in his difficult task as War Minister and
in his special trial of ill health. " I thanked him for his kind
ness, which has indeed been real and constant, and then there
was nothing more to say or do. So I am S. of S. no longer.
Nor do I think I shall ever be again ; but, indeed, I never
sought or expected office. In this matter I am a perfectly
genuine philosopher, not by principle or design, but by
disposition, which, though it is not in any way to my credit,
is undoubtedly convenient." 1 Diary, December 1905.

296 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER

To Mrs. Vere O'Brien.
2 The Abbey Garden,
xoth December 1905.
" Last things are never particularly agreeable, and I
cannot pretend that I write my last letter as S. of S.
without some regrets. But the compensations are many,
and 1 can truly say that I shall give up my seals to-morrow
with a tranquil, if not with a perfectly contented mind.
Quite content I can hardly be, for though I have done much
more than I expected, I have left undone much that I
hoped to see accomplished. But there again I need not
break my heart. In another five years I could have done
much, in another five weeks little enough. However, I
don't intend to write a long story about my work now.
You know more about it than most people, and you have
seen the difficulties I have had to meet."
Almost the last letter which he wrote from the War
Office was to a very distinguished soldier who had on more
than one occasion openly acknowledged the great merits of
his proposals for the efficiency of the Land Forces, and it
contained the following prophetic passage : —
" I see before us an immediate and great danger — that
of a sweeping and utterly irrational reduction of the regular
Army. The Army has no friends, no spokesman, and yet
it is the Army which has done all our fighting, and which,
if I mistake not, will always do it. If it should prove that
what  said gives a further impetus to the passion
for sham soldiering, and encourages still further the belief
that you can safely cut down the regular Army if you
sufficiently increase, not the efficiency, but the numbers of
the Volunteer force, then I think the speech will be worth
100,000 men to any enemy of this country. To tell the
truth, the Volunteers have been flattered and praised until
all measure has been lost. Many of them can be made
very good, some of them are very bad, and this indis
criminate ' praise ' does, I believe, encourage the worst and
not the best elements in the force.
" Well, I must cease my lamentations. I am about to

APPOINTMENT OF MR. HALDANE 297
lay my burden down. For two years I have been fighting
my hardest for what I believe to be the true interests of
the regular Army, and I am bold enough to think that
the time may come before long when soldiers will see
this. ... It is, and I suppose always will be, an unpopular
fight." The appointment of Mr. Haldane to the War Office
gave him sincere pleasure, and he welcomed his successor
warmly in a letter which crossed Mr. Haldane's own words
of cordial greeting and acknowledgment written on the
same day : — 2 The Abbey Garden, Westminster,
1 \th December 1905.
" Dear Haldane — I think I need not tell you that
I see your appointment to the War Office with deep
satisfaction. " I don't pretend to think that you will agree with me
either on matters of principle or in matters of detail ;
though, being very human, I hope you will. But I am
glad, because I know that whatever policy you decide to
adopt, you will bring to the work of the department a
powerful mind, a steady judgment, and, above all, a sense
of the magnitude and importance of the task you are called
upon to perform. I wish you every success.
" You can't expect me to say that I will support
whatever you do. That would be absurd. Of course I
shall make the best fight I can for what I think right.
But I can say most honestly that I long to support you,
and that no thought of jealousy or personal feeling will mar
the satisfaction I shall feel if you make the Army powerful,
efficient, and popular."
It was a real personal trouble to Oakeley that, by one
of the earliest acts of the new administration of the War
Office, the Army Council lost the services of the Quarter-
Master-General. Oakeley had written shortly before in his
Diary a brief note recording his sense of the services of
this colleague : —
" General Plumer has asked for nothing, has received
nothing, but has deserved much. He has been perfectly

298 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
loyal, has made no speeches, has discussed the work of the
Office inside the Office alone, has laboured steadily and
successfully at the work of his department, and whenever
he leaves will be able to look back on a record of work
performed of which he may be proud and for which the
Army will be grateful." His friendship with General (now
Sir Herbert) Plumer, was one among many such friendships
with soldiers which gave Oakeley great pleasure, and in
General Plumer's house one of the last afternoons of his life
was passed.
The principal objects which had been aimed at in the
Army policy of 1 903-5 have been fully explained in the
foregoing pages. To conclude this chapter it will be
sufficient, very briefly, to summarise these objects, and to
show how far they had actually been accomplished when
the change of Government took place.
I. The establishment of a long-service Army for the
purpose of providing the garrison of the Empire at home
and abroad in time of peace.
By October 1905 more than 200,000 long-service men were in the
ranks.
II. The establishment of a short-service Army, remaining
at home in time of peace and furnishing a great reserve for
the expansion of the Army in time of war.
By October 1905 the Army Reserve had greatly increased, and
was increasing. In that month concurrent long and short
service was begun. It was stopped by Mr. Haldane early in
1906.
III. The creation of a real striking force of all arms,
ready to take the field complete at a moment's notice, and
without waiting for mobilisation.
Under the scheme of 1904-5 a striking force of 16,000 men of all
arms would have been provided.
IV. The abolition of the linked-battalion system, which
involves equality in the number of battalions at home and
abroad respectively ;
The abolition of the regimental depot ; and

SUMMARY 299
V. The institution of large depots for the training of
recruits and the supply of drafts.
VI. The employment, in congenial work, as a matter of
right, of all long-service soldiers discharged with a good
character. It was made clear that the creation of the short-service Army
would open many appointments for long-service soldiers on
completion of their first term of colour service as warrant and
non-commissioned officers in the proposed short-service Army.
VII. A change in the organisation of the cavalry to
avoid the necessity of drafting men from one regiment to
another. It was proposed to extend the colour service to seven years, to raise
the age to nineteen, to establish large depots for training and for supply
ing drafts, and eventually to establish concurrent long and short service.
By October 1905 the shortage of cavalry officers had been almost
made up.
VIII. The multiplication of units ; with its necessary con
sequence a great increase in the number of officers and
N. C.O.'s, giving increased power of expansion in time of war.
IX. In order to make our immense auxiliary forces
available for war it was proposed in 1904 —
A. To utilise the Militia as the basis of the proposed
short-service Army, making it liable for foreign service,
enlistment to be for two years with the colours and from
six to ten years in the reserve. The battalions to be
permanently quartered, as far as possible, within the districts
with which they were associated.
In November 1905 the Militia numbered 85,8 14.1
B. To alter the allotment of the money available for
the Volunteer force so as to allow of a larger sum being
spent upon the most valuable portion of the force.
1 It may be noted that in March 1909, when Oakeley wrote his last words on
this subject, the Special Reserve, which had replaced the Militia, numbered
68,000, but that of this number 37)799 were old Militia men completing their
term of service who will disappear in two or three years. Six months' training
is given to the special reservist, in place of the two years' colour service which
was unanimously laid down by all military authorities in 1904 as the minimum
training for the soldier.

300 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
(Note. — The Volunteers had been reported by the Norfolk Commis
sion to be unfit to face an enemy's troops. Further expenditure being
then impossible, it was at first intended to reduce the least valuable
portion of the force and to spend the existing Volunteer vote upon secur
ing increased efficiency in the remainder. Subsequently, owing to wide
spread opposition to any reduction of numbers, it was proposed to
retain the force entire and to increase the vote by ;£ 180,000 or
,£200,000.) In November 1905 the Volunteer force numbered 249,611.
C. To extend the principle of the enlistment of selected
Volunteers into the First Class Army Reserve.
This has been continued by Mr. Haldane.
D. To provide a brigade and divisional organisation for
the Volunteers.
(The efficiency of the brigade and divisional organisation of the
Territorial force that is due to Mr. Haldane was cordially welcomed and
acknowledged by his predecessor in office.)

CHAPTER XX
" Never before this time have we had such good material in the Army. The
morale both of officers and men is higher than it was. The Army is in a con
dition in which I do not think it has been before both in point of quantity and
quality." Speech of Rt. Ron. R. H. Haldane, March 1906.
A Farewell to West Belfast — The General Election, 1906 — Croydon
election — Speech in the House on Army Affairs — Illness — Letters.
BEFORE the last days at the War Office had passed we had
paid a farewell visit to Belfast. In 1904, when we realised
how carefully Oakeley's slender store of strength would
hereafter have to be husbanded, we had come with deep
regret to the conclusion that an Irish constituency, which
involved so long and tiring a journey, would be, hence
forward, too great a strain for him. He felt deeply the
prospect of saying farewell to the warm-hearted friends who
had done so much for us, and who had fought his battles
with so much courage and loyalty. When it came to the
point it seemed harder than ever to say good-bye, and the
meetings and gatherings of our fellow - workers moved
Oakeley very rnuch. " The good-will and kindness shown
to us both L so genuine," he wrote, " and their regret so
obvious. I think I was right to decide to leave the ' West
Division,' but had I thought my health would serve, and
known that the Home Rule battle would have to be fought
over again, I could hardly have given up these tried friends
and hard workers. . . ."
The memory of the West Division, its Homeric fights,
its passionate beliefs, and stormy contests could never be
effaced, nor the great faithfulness and kindness of our
northern friends be ever forgotten.
Meanwhile, when it had become known in 1904 that
301

302 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
Oakeley would be unable again to stand for West Belfast,
the Conservative Associations of Croydon had come forward,
and had invited him to stand for this great Surrey con
stituency that was within an easy distance from London,
and by the time of the General Election, which followed
Mr. Balfour's resignation and the formation of Sir Henry
Campbell- Bannerman's Ministry, we had already got to
know the constituency fairly well. A Labour candidate
was already in the field, and the fight became a three-
cornered one when Mr. Somers Somerset became the official
Liberal candidate.
The Chinese labour agitation was used in Croydon, as
elsewhere, as the chief plank of the Liberal platform. The
election of 1906 will long be remembered on account of the
crushing series of defeats that it brought on the Unionist
party and its leaders, and when Oakeley was returned for
Croydon, by a reduced majority, he was for some days the
only member of the late Cabinet that had been re-elected
to Parliament. The new House of Commons met in February, when the
crowded benches of the Government side were confronted
by a mere handful of members of the Unionist opposition.
Mr. Haldane introduced the Army Estimates in March.
In his speech he dwelt, as every Minister for War must
necessarily dwell, on the causes of the growth of military
expenditure and the need for reduction. This is indeed
the problem which has faced all his predecessors, and which
must face those who succeed him in his onerous post. He
had the sympathy of all men when he said that he proposed
to take ample time, and not to be hurried on the path of
reform which he desired to tread. His position, backed by
the authority and driving power conferred by a great Par
liamentary majority, made this not only very wise but made
it possible. To his immediate predecessors no such time of
grace had been, or could have been given. Mr. Brodrick
succeeded to the office at the close of a devastating war.
Mr. Haldane's immediate predecessor took office when the
Army was a rapidly disappearing quantity, and no sufficient
time could be given for delay or standing still.
Mr. Haldane was in a happier position, for as he said

SPEECH ON ARMY ESTIMATES 303
in his first speech, " The Army was never more efficient
than it is at the present time. Never better in personnel or
in organisation." 1
He found a large and growing force of long - service
infantry, he found recruiting steadily progressing, the long-
service enlistment large, the garrison artillery full up, and
600 of the new field guns ready.
With the main propositions laid down in his speech all
were in agreement. On only one point raised in it was
there likely to be any serious difference of opinion.
The Secretary of State said that he looked forward to
a great change in the body from which the regular Army
was to be reinforced in time of war, and sketched, in outline,
his ideas of a large, partially trained, voluntary, citizen
Army, " decentralised as to administration, governed locally
by the people themselves, not by those who would impose
on them, from without, military duties which they might
not be disposed to undertake," which would form a large
reserve of semi-trained men, " and be able to produce a
very large supporting and contributory force." 2
It was on this point that Oakeley then and ever joined
issue with him.
The example chosen by the Secretary of State to illus
trate the military value of semi-trained men was one that
was not calculated to reassure the student of history : he
quoted the example of General Chanzy's army. The story
of the failure and demoralisation of the army of the Loire
has been often told ; General Chanzy himself wrote its
story in words that have become historic. Twenty-two
thousand unwounded prisoners were taken with their
colours, guns, and ammunition, and, with their fall, Paris
lost its best hope of relief, and France had to sign a
disastrous peace. " The disadvantages of untrained men
were only too apparent to the French commander-in-chief,"
wrote one of our military critics, "and to every nation,
save, perhaps, to our own."
If it be really possible to produce an Army which can
fight against the best modern troops in the world, and can
1 Hansard, vol. cliii. p. 673. 2 Ibid. p. 677.

304 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
succeed after having had such a training as was described
by the Secretary of State, and officered as such an Army
must be officered—" Then," said Oakeley, " it is the greatest
discovery that has ever been made. But," he argued,
" there is a strong presumption that in the sharp conflict of
opinion that exists between us and all continental nations
on this point, it may be we ourselves and not they who are
wrong. If it be true that untrained and ill-officered men
are always beaten by armies that are well trained and well
officered, it behoves us to weigh with jealous care any pro
posals which have for their object the multiplication of
untrained armies, and the destruction of the small and
disciplined force which the country possesses, and which
has never yet wholly failed it." The idea of second-best
armies, he pleaded, is most dangerous. "The second-
best fleet is now at the bottom of the sea of Japan. The
second-best army was destroyed on the plains of Liau Yang
and Mukden."
In July a further and more detailed exposition of the
new scheme for a large territorial voluntary Army was
made by Mr. Haldane. The policy adopted by him and by
the Government is that which still holds the field, and that
to which he has ever since devoted his great talents and
energies. Those who, like Oakeley, believed that this policy was
one fraught with gravest danger to the State, were compelled
to oppose it, and to point out the perils that they saw. In
Oakeley's case, his own beliefs had been strengthened and
confirmed by the unanimous and overwhelming nature of all
the military opinion that he had been able to consult. The
military view on the policy of relying upon semi-trained and
imperfectly officered troops had been expressed to him by
all the soldiers he had consulted, and the considered judg
ment of our chief military authorities had been given in
evidence before the Royal Commission on the War, and
stands on record.
In his belief, to place reliance on a partially trained
Army, which must receive, after the outbreak of hostilities,
the training which alone could make it fit to meet a con-

PARTIALLY TRAINED ARMIES 305
tinental Army was to run the greatest risk. The corollary
of this policy, the diminution of the strength of our small
regular Army, he believed to be its most disastrous
feature. There may be division of opinion as to the military
value, in time of war, of slenderly trained forces, which
cannot be utilised for foreign service, and as to the wisdom,
or unwisdom, of large expenditure upon them. But as to
the necessity for maintaining our regular Army in a state
of absolute efficiency there is, in theory at any rate, no
difference of opinion, and any policy that tends to diminish
its strength or to lessen its reserve-making power Oakeley
regarded with grave suspicion. To starve or to reduce the
Army for the sake of the popular unprofessional force, was,
he thought, to neglect the chief lessons that have been taught
by military history and experience.
In the summer, thanks to the kindness of Admiral
Bosanquet, Oakeley had once more, and for the last time,
the opportunity of accompanying the naval manoeuvres as
a guest on board H.M.S. Euryalus. With all his old admira
tion for the men of the Navy, and with all his old zest, he
followed the operations and enjoyed the voyage, and came
back feeling hopeful about himself, and with a measure of
returning strength and health. The rest of the summer we
spent in a beautiful, remote corner of Cornwall. In Septem
ber, further grave illness declared itself, and pleurisy and
fresh heart trouble kept him for many weeks in bed, and in
acute suffering. His courage and cheerfulness were undimmed,
and whenever pain allowed him to dictate, or to correct the
proofs of the book l that he was finishing, he went on with
his task. From Roseteague he wrote to Mr. Leverton Harris : —
" I have had a tiresome time in bed, but am down to-day
for the first time. Nearly all the pain due to the pleurisy
has left me ; but of course I am weak, as the result of being
in bed so long. Otherwise I feel well. As to internal
mischief, that is another matter. Either I shall be able to
do as much as I have done for the last four years, in which
1 The Army in iqo6, published by John Murray. X

306 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
case I shall be well content ; or I shall not, in which case-
well, I suppose I must be content too ; for indeed, sick or
well, rich or poor, I am a most fortunate man in the wealth
of affection, friendship, and kindness with which I am so
richly endowed.
" Of course, I am somewhat of a ' fighting man,' and I
hope to go on fighting as before. I think I shall, but ' you
can never tell,' so I must be prepared for either result. At
present I am determined to get well, and feel quite in the
mood for doing it.
" I hope we shall see you at Basset Down. The rock garden
and the gem collection are worth a visit, and so, indeed, is
my father-in-law, who is a really wonderful person. My
book is all in type, except a small portion of the Appendix.
M  's great piece of work is finished — after four years —
and Will's picture is approaching completion ; so you see
we are a hard-working crew."
To his sister he wrote, at the same time : —
" I have written the whole of my book with the exception
of one chapter — that on the General Staff and the Com
mittee of Defence. The slips are being paged, so I am in
sight of the end, which is a good job.
" I am reading Fortescue's excellent History of the Army.
It is curious to note what a persistent enemy of military
efficiency the House of Commons has been. Still more
interesting to note is the absolute regularity of the present
phase of reduction with a view to economy. I don't ex
aggerate when I say that the thing has been done thirty
times since the ' New Model ' Army came to an end.
Every time the arguments have been the same ; every time
the result has been the same ; and that result has been
reaction within a period varying from two to ten years ; an
endeavour to recreate in haste and in a panic what has been
destroyed for purely political purposes. The corporal of
Garrison Artillery who is in charge of the fort here is a
long-service soldier, who has seen much of the world. He
has been six years acting sergeant in command of the
artillery in Nigeria. He spoke to M  of the reductions
with consternation. ' I suppose,' said he rather grimly, ' it

'THE ARMY IN 1906' 307
will be the same thing as usual. In a year or two we shall
be in some trouble, and then they will be paying inefficient
Volunteers 5 s. a day to try to do the work we have been
taught to do, and paid for doing,' and that is exactly what
will happen."
We returned to Basset Down, and later to London, as
soon as he was well enough to travel ; but henceforth pain
was a nearly constant accompaniment of his life.
With a courage that never failed, he still carried out
political and other engagements, as far as he possibly could,
and set himself to try to do what still remained to him of
the work he cared for so much ; devoting such strength as
was left to him to making clear, both in and out of Parlia
ment, by speech and by pen, the dangers that he saw in the
military policy to which the country has been committed.
During the last three years of his life he wrote two books
on Army Questions. The first of these — The Army in
zcjo6 — was written in 1906, and was published by John
Murray. In it he described the Army that he believed to
be required by this country and Empire, the means by
which such an Army could be raised, and the steps taken
towards this end during the period of his administration of
the War Office ; and, further, it sets on record the steps that
he believed still required to be taken, that he had not been
able to effect, owing to his short tenure of office, and owing
to the many difficulties that he had encountered.

CHAPTER XXI
A voyage to the West Indies — The Kingston earthquake.
For one slowly recovering from grave illness it seemed a
peculiarly ill turn of fortune that a visit to the West Indies
in the course of this winter should have led us to Kingston,
Jamaica, at the very time when the great earthquake occurred.
We were advised to try whether a long sea voyage to a warm
climate would help Oakeley to get stronger. Sir Alfred
Jones had asked us to accompany him on his next visit to
the West Indies, and to be present at the Conference of the
Imperial Cotton-growing Association. As he spoke of the
wonderful climate and beauty of Jamaica and urged us to
come out with him in December, Oakeley's eyes brightened,
and we agreed that to sail away to sunshine, to blue seas,
and to tropical islands, leaving the English winter far behind,
would be the fulfilment of many a dream.
We left Wiltshire under a wintry sky, and deep under
frozen snow, and embarked at Avonmouth on the Port
Kingston, our son John accompanying us. For a week,
under dark grey skies, we ploughed southwards and west
wards across the Atlantic ; for two days we were caught in
the tail of a circular storm, and rolled heavily in rough
weather ; then, with the trade wind following, every day
brought us to hotter suns and to bluer seas.
Our fellow-voyagers made a company unique in its way,
and differing much from the ordinary chance gathering of
seafaring travellers on board ship. The majority were
travelling together for a definite and common object.
Liverpool cotton manufacturers and experts were going out
to meet the growers in the West Indies. Formal discussions
were held on all questions affecting the growth and develop-
308

JOURNEY TO JAMAICA 309
ment of the cotton industry, and the needs of the manu
facturers. The great Conference that was to be begun at
Kingston on the fatal day, January 14, was drawing, not
only these men, but men from all the West Indian islands,
to meet and discuss the present position and the future
development of the cotton, and of the sugar, rubber, and
fruit industries. Sir Alfred Jones, the leader of the party,
had for years been devoting his life, his fortune, and his
great experience to developing these sources of wealth in
different parts of the Empire. There travelled with us
representatives of the Colonial Office, and men who had had
varied experience in Colonial affairs and Governments.
Lord and Lady Dudley were also our fellow-travellers, and
to their companionship our eventful journeyings owed much
of their pleasure.
Jamaica was reached on the 11th of January. The
story of our experiences there will be told in the two
following home-letters written at the time, the first by me,
the second by Oakeley : —
" Constant Springs Hotel, Kingston, Jamaica,
Monday, January 14, 9 o'clock morning, 1907.
" We have been in Jamaica for three days, but it seems
much longer, for the days are so full of interest, and the
delight of seeing a new world of beautiful things is absorb
ing. Our hotel is six miles from the harbour and town,
high up on the lower slope of the blue mountains, which
make an amphitheatre round us, and which are beautiful
from dawn till night. It is a large and picturesque place,
with tiled roofs and green jalousies. I am writing, sitting
in a deep verandah looking towards the mountains. The
garden is rather parched, as there has been no rain ; little
lizards are running about, a brightly-striped little bird, black
and white, and some long-tailed black birds are hopping
about near, a giant crow is hovering beyond. It is very
difficult to tell which are dragon flies and which are hum
ming birds, the pretty creatures seem much of the same size,
and dart about as quickly. Just beyond the garden, with
its orange trees, bamboos, palms, and pergolas of bougain-
villia, there is a field of pine-apples in which darkies are
working:.

310 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
" The day begins early ; the best time for doing things is
from seven to nine and after four o'clock. Early in the
morning the sea-breeze freshens the land, then there comes
a breathless time, very hot, till there begins the blessed
mountain wind from the north, which is what keeps this
place so delicious as to climate. It is certainly hotter in
the middle of the day than any summer day at home, but
the afternoons are so cool and fresh that one can greatly
enjoy them, and one does not try to do much at mid-day.
" I stopped writing this letter to go down with Oakeley
and the rest of our party to the opening of the Cotton
Conference. As soon as it was over I made my way home,
leaving Oakeley to lunch at the club, and to take part in
the afternoon Conference. It was after two when I got
back to the hotel, hot and rather tired, and after some lunch
I went up to get a little rest in my room, Jack being next
door to me. I dozed a little, when a great crash of banging
windows and doors in a hurricane of wind disturbed me. I
rested still, when suddenly the walls of my room began to
rock violently with a lateral motion from side to side, and
the floor seemed to rise up in waves to meet me. Great
crashes of falling masonry and a curious roaring sound
which I do not understand went on at the same time. Then
my door opened and Jack came in, very composed and sen
sible. I was partly undressed. Another tremendous shock
followed, and everything shook to its foundations. I finished
dressing and seized my hat, and we took hands to run to
the open. When we got into the corridor the whole ceiling
and great beams, masses of mortar and stones blocked the
way to the central staircase, and fresh stuff was falling, so
we had to turn back again. Jack said he knew there was
another little winding stair which led to the men's bath.
We ran to that, and soon got down to the open. Lord
Mountmorres met me ; he was very kind and helpful, and
promised to send off a messenger to Kingston to get news,
and to let them know that we, in the hotel at Constant
Springs, were safe. The crowd on the lawn was very strange.
Many had been resting and having a siesta, and all came
out dressed as they were, in their night-dresses, dressing-
gowns, or anything they had on. The women behaved

THE KINGSTON EARTHQUAKE 311
wonderfully well and calmly; only one man went off his
head, but as he had been all through the San Francisco
earthquake his nerves were shaken. The earthquake came
in three shocks, beginning at 3.30 on Monday, January 14.
The shocks continued, the intervals between getting longer,
as long as we were in Jamaica. About sixteen occurred in
the first twelve hours.
" Time seemed quite interminable before I got news of
Oakeley. The first news was that the club where he
lunched, and the Conference room, were both levelled, and
no one saved. Then news came that Sir Alfred Jones's
party were safe, but Sir A. himself killed. At last people
came up who gave clearer accounts. Kingston, they said,
was in ruins, fires breaking out everywhere, and the mortality
terrible, but our party, they believed, safe. Jack and I
waited together in the garden, very sad and anxious.
Luckily we did not have to wait idly, for there came to us
many people who had been hurt, and there was plenty to do
for them, and for others who were almost distracted with
anxiety and trouble.
" At the last we saw Oakeley himself driving up in a
buggy safe and unhurt. It was a wonderful moment of
thankfulness for us all. He had been at the Conference
Hall and walked out with Lord Dudley, but had gone back
to get his hat, his papers, and the letter that he was writing
at the time for the Times about the Conference. It was
long before he could get any vehicle, and at last only got a
lift on the luggage seat of a buggy. After a time, the
shocks having lessened, we ventured to our rooms to pack
and put things together, lest they should possibly be looted
or buried by some further shock. Packing was hurried, as
you may imagine. I flung the immediate necessaries and
such things as I should need most, such as bandages, etc.,
into my handbag, and shuffled my clothes pell-mell into my
boxes, my sealskin coat on top of my evening dresses, boots
on top of all, everything just as it came. Then we lugged
our belongings out to the iron staircase, and a stalwart
negro helped us to get them down to the open, and we made
a laager for the night with a couple of sofas, our boxes and
bags, pillows, and one or two blankets ; Oakeley and I and

312 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
Jack lying down together after we had had some bread and
cold meat which was brought out from the hotel. Darkness
fell almost immediately after sunset. The lawn was covered
almost over with encampments like ours, and with a few
improvised tents. The stars shone out brilliantly in the
darkness of the night, and the great mass of smoke and
flame hanging over the burning city lighted up the southern
sky. It was the strangest night I ever spent. Glad thank
fulness for our great mercies and deliverance, sorrow and
horror for the awful doom of the city and its inhabitants,
and over us all the peace and beauty of the wonderful
tropical night.
" Early in the morning the Southern Cross hung just over
the pall of smoke and fire that lay about Kingston. Then
the encampments around us began to stir and awaken, and
al fresco dressing and washing at the fountain on the lawn
looked very funny. Some wounded people, who had been
brought up, needed help, and I was soon very busy bandaging
and washing ; for we had no doctors and nurses, and one
young fellow was badly cut and bruised from the falling of
a wall, and had hardly a whole place from head to heel ; the
only thing to do was to cut off his clothes and wash him,
and make bandages out of our sheets, and we soon made
him more comfortable.
" Lord Mountmorres and Sir R. Moore and others organised
shelters and food, and went up and down to Kingston and
back to find out what we had better do. The day seemed
long, though we were so very busy all the time. Sad news
arrived constantly, and we learnt of Sir James Fergusson's
death, of Mr. Nathan's (a fellow -passenger), of Mr. Con-
stantine's death, and of the terrible havoc at the camp, where,
besides all the other casualties, the hospital was burning.
About 4 o'clock a message came to tell us that we were to
go down to the ship, the Port Kingston, at once, and we
put our things together and started in a buggy. The drive
down the six miles was terrible, shattered houses everywhere;
wherever brick or stone had been used the walls had simply
smashed and fallen, and one looked into rooms with beds,
chairs, and pictures intact, looking like a doll's house whose
front was open. The roads in the town were blocked with

THE KINGSTON EARTHQUAKE 313
fallen masses of debris. Before we left Jamaica, these fallen
masses smelt horribly, and the great vultures or crows
hovered grimly over them.
"The Port Kingston seemed a place of refuge indeed
when we arrived, and so did our familiar cabin with our
swing cot and familiar fittings. Oh, the sense of security
and peace it gave one ! But the poor ship was still in great
confusion ; she had been used as an hospital throughout
Monday night, hundreds of operations had been performed,
sixteen had died on board, and they had only just moved the
last patient out into the temporary hospital in the adjacent
wharf. Directly we had had some tea, Lady Dudley and I
went off to the wharf hospital, to take food and to look after
the sick. Two cases were very bad, and the wife of one
man sobbed, heartbroken, in my arms. We moved her
husband two days later to the hospital in the town, and left
him going on fairly well, and my poor friend more hopeful.
Early on Wednesday morning, Lord and Lady Dudley and
I started, with Dr. Evans, for the temporary town hospital,
and spent all day there, coming back just to get food on
board. We saw terrible things coming and going, and the
state of the hospital itself that day was very sad. It is like
three big compounds with low buildings round ; these
buildings are not safe, so all the patients were camped out in
the open. The doctors were all working desperately hard,
but the first days were terrible. The dispensaries have
everywhere been levelled ; no disinfectants, anaesthetics, or
necessaries were to be had, but this was soon improved upon.
Whilst we were working in the women's division another
earthquake shock shook the buildings, and the poor creatures
clung to us, crying to the Lord for mercy, but very quickly
collected themselves, behaving wonderfully well. There were
so few helpers in comparison to the dreadful number of the
hurt, that we had just to turn to and assist, even in the
operations, and hold things and give the chloroform to the
doctors. The poor creatures came in maimed and burnt
almost out of recognition. Tiny children, without home or
parents, were brought in for the doctors to do what they
could for them. Night falls very quickly, and as darkness
closed in, these poor little creatures wailed pitifully and

314 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
cried. I got soup and milk, and fed them, and we got a big
mattress and blankets out in the compound, and tucked up
all our little black children as well as we could, and they
went off to sleep. One babe started singing to itself one of
the negro hymns, and the other babes crooned it too, and
fell asleep. We stumbled about in the darkness feeding the
sick and giving what relief we could, and then home to the
ship. Oakeley meanwhile had driven off to the camp to
help and comfort the soldiers of the West Indian Regiment,
who had suffered very severely. He looked very tired, and
we were all thankful to go to bed after a short service of
thanksgiving held by the Bishop on the deck. On Thursday,
some of our fellow-passengers offered to row us round the
wharfs to where the Myrtle Bank Hotel had stood. The
Dudleys and I and Mr. Jesse Collings went, and the sight
is one which can hardly be described. The shell of the
building stood here and there, but most of it was a shapeless
ruin. Sir Alfred Jones was in an upper room when the
shock happened, and how he escaped was a miracle ; he
says he just scrambled down the debris. The smell of the
whole town is getting appalling, but relief parties are busy
now clearing up and digging, getting the sewers into order,
and mending the pipes and water-supply, so all will soon
be better. Harbour Street, which, two days ago, was the
Regent Street of Kingston, is levelled, buildings tilted in
every direction, roofs shot out across the street. All last
night great fires blazed in different parts of the town. To
day they are blowing up buildings so as to save others, and
in some places still sadder fires are burning, where the bodies
of the dead are burnt. The Governor is at work all day
organising relief. Two American battleships have come in,
and there is much feeling among our people that no English
vessel is here to help ; for there was natural anxiety lest loot
ing should become general, though so far the people have
behaved so well. The Myrtle Bank Garden was a strange
contrast to all the horrors around it, it looked so pretty and
undisturbed ; the hibiscus flowering brilliantly and the palms
making a pleasant green shade. We took some photographs
and re-embarked, and then got a buggy and drove to the
hospital again, after visiting our patients in the wharf

THE KINGSTON EARTHQUAKE 315
hospital. We have three earthquake babies in the hospital
as well as other tinies. One mite of a few weeks old, as
black as a little coal, was weeping sadly. It had been
picked up in the street, and went to sleep in my arms as we
carried round the food and oranges that had been sent by
Sir Alfred Jones. My black piccaninny made all the
patients laugh, even in their misery, and was a great help in
cheering them up. They are so funny, they say such odd
things. ' Oh, my white angel from cross the seas ; God
bless you, my white angel ! ' ' Mistress Forster, dear, never
give away that black piccaninny ; me come along with you,
honey, and be your black maid and nurse the piccaninny ! '
I called my black baby ' Claudius,' and he was really very
sweet. The passengers had given me eau de Cologne and
clothes, etc. ; all very welcome in the hospital. Some lovely
stories could be told if one had time. One little boy, only
seven or eight, was there with his mother and two other
little ones. The mother's legs were broken as she was
pinned under the fallen brickwork of her house ; the little boy
had scrambled back over the tottering walls and debris and
had saved both the babies. He was very little hurt, and
took me to see ' my babies,' and watched me feed them
with great delight. Everard and Gerald de Souza were two
other little brothers, very refined and sweet, both of them
hurt, who lay holding hands on one mattress the first night
I was in the hospital. When I fed them, they insisted on
knowing my name ; and, holding my hand, they said their
prayers, praying for me very sweetly, and I tucked them up,
and hoped to see them again. But on the next morning
their people must have fetched them away, for they were
gone, and I did not see them again. By Thursday, the
hospital was getting much more into shipshape, and when
we left on Friday we were happier about it."
Oakeley's letter to my father tells of his experiences : —
" Monday was the first day of the Conference, and at
11.30 we were all present at the Assembly Hall. The
Governor opened the proceedings, and a series of compli
mentary speeches were made. At lunch time, Mary and
Jack went out to Constant Springs Hotel, and I went over to

316 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
the Club to lunch with the Governor and other members of
the Conference." Here Mary's story and mine part company. The Club
is — I should say was — a brick building in the same street
as the Conference Hall. Our party at lunch included the
Governor, Lord Dudley, and Sir James Fergusson and Gerald
Loder (former M.P. for Brighton), who had just arrived by
the R.M. steamer from Panama.
" Sir James has always been a good friend of mine, and
we had much pleasant talk. After lunch the Conference was
resumed. As the subject under discussion was sugar and
not cotton, very few members of our party, who, as you
know, are principally interested in cotton, returned to
the hall.
" I went back to my previous place in the corner near
the platform. I cannot gather that there was any serious
fall of the barometer, or any indication of coming trouble
except a very strong wind which sprang up suddenly, and
which was noticed by many people, though not by me,
as I was in the hall. We were in the middle of a discussion
upon sugar when the shock came. It came absolutely
without warning — a bolt out of the blue. You will ask
what it was like. Well, I should describe it as having
something of a personal and vindictive element in it. It
was as if some great malevolent beast had the earth in
its jaws, and was shaking it to and fro with a fierce noise,
half growl, and half roar. I am told there were three
shocks. I did not distinguish them. In many places
there was a rolling motion ; I did not notice this. What
I did notice was the crescendo of noise, caused, doubtless,
by the falling buildings, and the rocking and shaking of
the building. Perhaps you will ask what my first feelings
were. I can tell you. First and instantly, I realised that
it was an earthquake — that knowledge seemed to come
intuitively. Then the thought came to me that this would
be the end of the Conference, the break up of its good
work, and the destruction of the growing confidence in
Jamaica and its future— a great calamity. Then it occurred
to me that the proper thing to do was to get outside.
There were, I daresay, over a hundred people in the

THE KINGSTON EARTHQUAKE 317
hall, and only one door at the farther end, but I rejoice
to say there was no crowding, no pushing. Every one
played the game, as was proper for white men. Luckily,
though much plaster and some bricks came down, the hall
stood. The gate-posts fell, and two of the pillars of the
portico were broken through, but, as I say, the hall itself
stood ; otherwise, there would have been a great loss of life.
" It was not till we got outside that we realised how
destructive the shock had been, for there we could see the
fallen buildings on either side of the street.
" It was difficult to know what to do. I was, of course,
principally concerned to know what had happened to Mary
and Jack ; but it was six miles to Constant Springs, and
though I am fairly well for me, I don't think I could have
walked so far in the hot sun. However, I started off in
the direction of the hotel, hoping to get a tram. But this
was out of the question. Electric wi1" ¦ and telegraph lines
were down everywhere, and everj, fitter house was a heap
of ruins. The people, however, were behaving very well.
A few women made shrill laments, and gesticulated, but
the great bulk of the people in the streets conducted
themselves admirably.
" I walked some way, and asked the drivers of one or
two buggies if they could take me up. But, naturally
enough, they had their own work to do. Finally, I sat
down on the garden step of a ruined house, and fell
into conversation with a white man who, I think, was the
owner. He kindly brought me a glass of water, which
was welcome. Finally, a buggy passed with two white
men in it. I asked them if they were going in the
direction of Constant Springs. ' Yes, they were.' ' Would
they take me?' ' Yes ; get up behind.' So I got up
on the little ledge used for luggage, and there hung on.
We started off, and were soon joined by a tall, strong
young man who was running, and who asked leave to hold
on to the buggy. He ran some way. Then we found
that he had several miles to go to his home in the country,
so we took him up and put him on the floor in front.
" You may imagine that we were an anxious party.
The two owners of the buggy were partners who had been

318 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
at business in the city when the shock came. They were
both longing to get to their homes. I had Mary and Jack
to think of. It was not a good drive, but I was fortunate
to have got the lift. Behind us great columns of smoke
were already rising in the city ; on every side were the
fallen houses. The wooden buildings everywhere intact,
the brick ones in whole or partial ruin. Luckily, in most
cases the walls had fallen outwards, leaving the roof
structures. Where the roof had come down there had
generally been accident or death. We came first to the
house of one of my friends. His family were on the lawn,
and ran out to the gate to meet him. All was well ; the
house was damaged, but no one was hurt. A mile farther on
my other friend was hailed by a man in the road, ' All well
up at your place.' So there was another anxiety removed.
" At last, at a place called ' Half Way Tree,' I asked
a man belonging to the tramway service how things were
at the hotel. ' The hotel is all right,' said he ; ' there has
been a fall in one of the towers, but all the rest is right.'
So there was comfort for me.
" We were now all relieved except a Mr. Capper, whose
home was still ahead. I did not see him arrive, but I
believe all was well with him too.
" At last I reached the hotel, and there, by the
carriage drive, I found my beloved Mary and our dear
Jack standing waiting for me. You will understand what
a joy it was to meet them. During the whole afternoon
there was much anxiety. Many members of the party
had been in the town, and there was no news of them,
Gradually, however, many of the missing ones found their
way up, and many of those concerned were consoled.
" We made a little laager for the night on the lawn. All
round us were other little encampments. We were lucky
in getting some food, and all went to bed under the most
beautiful starry roof I ever saw. . . .
" We woke early with the light, made such toilets as we
could, and collected all the available news. Some of it
was very sad. Poor Sir James Fergusson, with whom I
had lunched, had evidently gone out into the street after

THE KINGSTON EARTHQUAKE 319
the first shock, and the walls of two houses had fallen on
him. . . .
" Gradually news came to us of the fearful destruction in
the town. . . The weather, even for this season in Jamaica,
has been exceptionally dry, and the fires which broke out
immediately after the first shock spread with great rapidity.
The whole business quarter has been burnt down, — banks,
warehouses, and public offices, and very many persons have
been burnt to death in the ruins.
" And here I think it will help to explain the situation if
I say that in the open garden we were perfectly safe. It
is no exaggeration to say that but for the over-confidence
of man not a life need have been lost, not a pound's worth of
property lost, as the result of the earthquake. The move
ment was a lateral one, from west to east, I think ; and
I don't believe it was a foot one way or another. In many
places pillars have been broken in two and displaced for
half their diameter, but have not fallen.
" There has been no tidal wave ; there are no fissures
in the earth ; and, with scarcely an exception, the wooden
buildings, the concrete buildings, and the little wooden and
palm-leaf shanties of the negroes have stood. It is the stone
and, above all, the brick buildings that have gone. Two
hundred years of immunity have bred confidence, and people
have forgotten that, after all, Jamaica is in the earthquake
zone. The municipality of Kingston has actually enforced an
ordinance for many years past, making the building of brick
houses compulsory. Had it not been for this there would
have been no disaster to record. The course of nature
has suffered no interruptions. Not a grain of dust has
been misplaced on the roads ; not a twig has been bent
on the trees ; no bird or beast has died. Ten miles out in
the country men did not know there had been an earth
quake. Guests started to the Governor's ball on Monday
night, not knowing that the Governor's house was in ruins,
with only one habitable room left in it.
" During the afternoon news arrived that we were to
go back to the ship in the evening, as all the patients
would by that time have been removed, either to the

320 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
hospital or to Spanish Town. And here I ought to explain
that the Port Kingston, being uninjured, and lying close
to the burning wharves, naturally became the refuge of
great numbers of wounded. In fact, for two days the
ship was in the condition of a hospital after a great battle.
Dr. Evans — Sir Alfred's own medical man — who has been
acting as ship's doctor, rose admirably to the occasion.
Over forty amputations took place in the saloon ; and on
deck there were many deaths, and terrible suffering.
" The ship's company behaved admirably — officers,
stewards, and all doing their part magnificently in most try
ing and depressing circumstances. Many of them were quite
worn out when the ship was at last cleared. About fifty
of the firemen and sailors were sent ashore to act as police,
and to prevent looting ; so all were employed. I think we
were all glad to get back to the ship, for she gave a promise
of security ; and glad we all were to see her big white bow
towering up, and to climb over her side once more. Natu
rally there was a good deal of confusion still on board.
Every one looked dog-tired ; and the smell of the antiseptics
and disinfectants was everywhere. However, we got a
meal, of a kind ; and were all very thankful, with much
reason. The first thing on Wednesday morning came the
announcement that the U.S. men-of-war were entering the
harbour ; and there they were, sure enough — the Whipple
destroyer, which had come in during the night, and the
Indiania and Missouri, big white battleships, which were
slowly steaming up to their anchorage as I came on deck.
" It was a great humiliation that, for the first time in our
troubled history, a British colony in distress should have
found itself dependent upon foreign ships for its comfort
and aid. And the humiliation became deeper as hour
after hour, and day after day, we looked — and looked in
vain— for a British ensign. It was not till 4 P.M. on Friday
afternoon that the Port Kingston left the harbour. The
earthquake took place at 3.30 on Monday. When we left,
there were present in the harbour the American battleships
(the Whipple had left), three German steamers (not counting
two others which had stuck on the reef outside), and a
Cuban passenger steamer. Not a single vessel flying the

THE KINGSTON EARTHQUAKE 321
white or the red ensign was in the harbour. If there had
been an outbreak — as there well might have been — the
town and island would have been absolutely dependent
upon the protection of the foreigner.
" There could not be a more striking or greater condem
nation of the new Admiralty policy. The withdrawal
of the half battalion of white troops was right. Hardly
any one here now objects to it. The Chief Constable,
the Colonial Secretary, and others were all at one in
approving. The three hundred and odd boys were of
no use as a garrison, and were more than useless as police.
The true course is to spend the money formerly wasted
on the Militia upon a proper police force. This, I think, will
be done. " But the withdrawal of the ships is quite another thing.
Moreover, it is a breach of faith. When I consented to
take away the half battalion of infantry, leaving only the
garrison artillery and R.E. for the forts, I specially
stipulated that an adequate naval force should be retained.
It was promised in the most formal way that —
" I. The Indefatigable or other ship, with 300 marines,
should be stationed in the West Indies ; and should be
available in any emergency.
" 2. That the Diamond, a 22-knot cruiser, should also
be permanently on the station, and should be ready to
proceed at high speed to any point where her services
were required.
" 3. That the cruiser squadron should constantly show the
flag in the West Indies.
" All these promises have been broken. There are only
1 5 0 marines on the Indefatigable. Where that ship is I do
not know. We left her at Barbados. The station instruc
tions are that she should proceed at once to any place with
which telegraphic communication has ceased. She had not
turned up at Kingston on Friday night ; she might have
been there on Wednesday night.
" The Diamond is at Halifax, and has never been near
the Islands at all. This is the result of this miserable
policy of penny wise and pound foolish. I fear, too, that
the presence of the U.S. ships, though kindly meant, has
V

322 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
been productive of harm. On arrival, they sent a proposal
to land an armed party. By a most unlucky chance the
Governor, who had been up and active for thirty-six hours,
was taking a brief rest, and an underling committed the in
credible blunder of accepting the offer. Two hundred armed
men were, in consequence, actually landed. They were no
more wanted than they would be in Swindon on a market
day. The white troops, the West Indian regiment, and the
police were perfectly competent to keep order if there had
been any disturbance ; but there was none.
" Of course, as soon as the Governor was informed of
what had taken place, he hastened off to the Admiral and
requested him to withdraw the men. The Admiral was,
naturally, in a quandary; he would be blamed, he said,
for landing men on British territory against the Governor's
wish, whereas he had authority for doing so. Eventually,
it was arranged that the party should remain for two
hours, and then go on board again ; and this was done.
But the whole episode was a most unfortunate one. I
hope no harm will come of the whole incident ; but I fear
there may be some very foolish writing about what has
taken place, and what hasn't.
" The Americans were not the only arrivals on Wednesday.
A big German steamer, trying to enter the harbour in the
night, and unaware that the lighthouse had been smashed,
was warned off by the lighthouse keepers with ' flares.'
But the Germans are very crafty ; they have formed a ring to
reduce the pilotage fees at Kingston, and have a little gang
of pickets of their own, with which they communicate by
private signal. They thought the ' flare ' came from one
of the non-Teutonic pilots, and paid no attention to it ; so
bang they went on to the outside of the palisades, there to
stay till a hurricane breaks the ship up. There are now
two immense German steamers lying broadside on upon
the shore within 500 yards of each other. They represent,
I imagine, nearly three-quarters of a million of money.
Another big German steamer only just missed the reef on
Thursday afternoon ; she came safely to harbour.
" It was most reluctantly that I yielded to Mary and

THE KINGSTON EARTHQUAKE 323
gave up going to the hospital with her, but I felt that I had
at any rate a clear duty to the soldiers. I was able to get
up to the camp about two miles up the town. Things had
been very bad there. Of the barracks for 1200 men, not
one building is left in a habitable state. The hospital fell
flat and then caught fire. An officer and 26 men were
killed. Another officer was mortally wounded in the town.
The Colonel's house was down, and I found the Colonel
with other injured officers in tents in the garden of one of
the quarters. I visited the various detachments. The poor
R.E. women and children were all camped out under
blankets. They only arrived from England a fortnight ago.
I talked to many of the men, white and black. They have
all been doing well. Then I went down to see the R.G.A.
just coming in from Port Royal, which has become untenable.
They lost only one man. I went out with the architect to
Myrtle Bank Hotel to see if we could get bungalows built
in the gardens. There will be room for a few, and these
will be constructed at once. The hotel itself and the
adjoining streets, or rather the place where the streets were,
present an amazing spectacle of ruin. Why every soul in
the hotel was not killed I don't know.
" Yesterday, I went out to the Illinois with an injured
American, who was one of the many bad cases we have
had lying in the wharf, close to the steamer, and whom we
have been looking after. The poor fellow has had the most
devoted attendance from his two brothers, who have tended
him day and night. We got him safely on board the battle
ship, but his head is broken to bits, and I fear he cannot live.
I had some talk with the American officer, and told him
that their promptness in coming off from Cuba was much
appreciated ; that though I should have preferred to see
British ships there, I was sure the presence of such a large,
well-disciplined force would give confidence.
" It had been intended that the Port Kingston should
leave on Thursday, but over ten thousand pounds' worth of
her cargo remained on shore. To abandon it meant not
only a clear loss to the Company, but a loss to all the
shippers, most of them small men — and to all the labourers
engaged in loading. So, after consultation, in which I spoke

324 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
strongly in favour of remaining, it was decided to postpone
our departure till four o'clock on Friday.
" By this time the city had become very unpleasant.
Some 500 people have been buried, but hundreds of bodies
have been dug out of the ruins, their presence only betrayed
by their decay. These bodies have been burnt in great
fires at the street corners. It is said that the number so
disposed of has already reached a thousand. This may
well be so, but the figures are not certain. Unluckily, con
trary to the ordinary rule in disasters of this kind, the first
estimates of loss seem to have been very much under the
mark. " The burnt area, the Governor tells me, covers fifty-six
acres. On the remaining portion, perhaps, one house in five
is habitable. " Saturday igth. — We duly left at four o'clock yesterday,
and are now steaming against the great N.E. track, wired en
route for Barbados. I think a good many of us would
have stopped in Jamaica if we had felt we could do any
good by remaining. But it is pretty evident that, at present,
we could do nothing. There is not a house in which we
could live.
" Luckily, there is no food question as far as the poor
people are concerned. The earthquake has been confined
to three parishes ; the railway is running, the resources of
the island are unimpaired, and there is an ample supply of
fruit for everybody. What we shall do on arrival at
Barbados we do not know yet, probably we shall rest there
a few days.
" I must repair an omission in my story without which it
would be incomplete. On1 Wednesday evening we had a
thanksgiving service for all hands on the upper deck of the
ship. The Bishop of Barbados conducted the service. It
was welcome to all, for the hearts of men and women had
been much tried, and the singing in unison of the great
hymns, ' The Old Hundredth,' and ' Now thank we all our
God,' and the giving of thanks for our preservation, were a
solace to all.
" I telegraphed to you on Tuesday, ' All well.' I hope
this reached you, but all the cables have been broken, and I

THE KINGSTON EARTHQUAKE 325
don't know when our messages went off. I have borne the
necessary exertion of the last few days very well. I have
had some pain, but nothing I can complain of, and though I
have not been able to do a tithe of what I wished, I have
accomplished more than I expected.
" And now I must bring this long, long story to an end.
Whenever it reaches you, it will bring you our best love. —
Believe me, always yours affectionately,
H. O. Arnold-Forster."
At Barbados we left the ship on which so many event
ful days had been passed, and stayed on the island for a
week of much-needed rest, after the wearing experience we
had been through. We journeyed on from Barbados to
Trinidad, staying at Port of Spain with Sir Henry and Lady
Jackson, and renewing with them a friendship which had
been begun some years before at Gibraltar.
The loveliness of our surroundings in Trinidad, the
forests, the flowers, and bright unfamiliar birds, the strange
tropical beauty of the island and its climate, and its very
nearness to the American continent, all make up parts of an
experience that can never be forgotten. Though even in
the midst of the wonderful beauty and charm of the island,
I could never quite get over the sense of the dangers that
were hidden there, — the malaria that is so common, a touch
of which Oakeley caught there and never again wholly lost,
and the deeper anxiety as to yellow fever, which broke out
just as we were leaving Trinidad.

CHAPTER XXII
Letters to his sister — English Socialism of To-day — Some proverbs and
some translations — Decision to retire from Parliament on account
of failing health.
'' M  will have told you," he wrote to his sister in
April 1 907, " that I am better and that I have been getting
some work done at last. ... I think my speech in the
House was good — though not well reported. I have no
doubt the Bill J will pass, but with the modifications with
regard to the Yeomanry and Volunteers which I have pro
phesied from the first. The upshot will be that while the
regular Army, about which few people care, will suffer
greatly, the Volunteers will remain really very much as they
are. My impression is that there will be a compromise
about the Militia. The Militia officers may be pleased for
the moment because they will think they have gained a
point in the game ; but unless they consent to a radical
change in their organisation no compromise can save the
force." In July he wrote again to her : —
" I wonder whether you saw my six letters on the Army
Scheme in the Standard of the week before last. I hope
you did, for I think they were good, and I know they were
useful to my colleagues.
" The articles appeared in a number of papers — Yorkshire
Post, Birmingham Gazette, Liverpool Courier, Manchester
Courier, etc. So the closuring and guillotining in the House
of Commons did not prevent my saying what I meant to
say. There is really nothing left of the original Bill now.
" Haldane told me the other day that he is going to
abandon the reduction of the Horse and Field Artillery, to
1 Mr. Haldane's Territorial Army Bill.
326

LETTERS TO HIS SISTER 327
which he had so strongly pledged himself; and that he
proposed to enlist 3000 artillerymen on a three years' term
of colour service.
" The Militia, too, are to become short-service Territorial
regulars. When I think of all the abuse I received for
introducing concurrent long and short service enlistment, and
for saying that the only way to save the Militia was to turn
them into ' Short Service Territorial Regulars,' I rub my
eyes. But I have not come quite to the end of my pro
phecies yet. There are two, if not three, more steps equally
inevitable, which must be taken before long."
To the same, from Bad Nauheim, he wrote in Sep
tember : —
" I have been watching the Hessian manceuvres round
this place. They interest me greatly ; but they make me
more angry than ever with our absurd policy of military
make-believe at home.
" This Army would simply eat up our County Council
Territorial Army about which we talk so much, and for
which we are maiming our tiny regular Army. Amateur
soldiery in presence of the real thing is about as useful as
amateur surgery in an operating room, or amateur sailoring
on the bridge of a flagship.
" I must say I am utterly sick about the whole Army
business. If I thought that soldiers of experience believed
in the new scheme I should be amazed, and I should not
agree with them. But I could always comfort myself with
the thought that the unanimity of professional men was an
indication that I was wrong, or that, at any rate, there was
a way — not my way — which others had found out, and
which would ultimately lead to the goal we all profess to be
in search of. But, alas ! I have no excuse for cherishing
any illusions of this kind. When I say that the soldiers do
not believe in the new scheme, and only tolerate it because
they believe it will come to smash, and that Conscription
must follow, I speak not of what I think, or conjecture, but
of what I know. The evidence is overwhelming and con
clusive. I have pages and pages from nearly every officer
of importance in the Army laying down the true principles
of Army organisation. The opinions of which I have the

328 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
record are emphatic and unanimous. They coincide with
the opinions of soldiers in every other country ; and they
not only differ from, they directly, in clear phrase, and with
unmistakable precision, contradict and condemn the opinions
which are now put forward as those of our leading soldiers,
and which are the foundations upon which this system is
built up. . . .
" I am profoundly unhappy about the Army. It is not
much use my talking or writing, at any rate just now. All
I said would be put down to stupid motives, though in
reality it would merely be the repetition of what I have been
saying for twenty years. For a while the popular thing will
hold the field ; but at what a cost ! Believe me, armies are
not made in this way, and all the fine speeches in the world
won't alter the fact. We are preparing for peace and not
for war. Heaven help us if we find ourselves confronted
with the latter, and have to rely upon our un-officered,
fortnight-trained men."
"The Abbey Garden,
i 6th October 1907.
" Many thanks for your letter. It is next best — longo
intervallo — to having yourself. I wonder when we are
going to have you again ? Don't you think that two or
three weeks in town with an invalid brother would be very
fitting ?
" I have had two fairly good days ; that is to say, days
free from acute pain. ... Did you see a short article of
mine in the Standard on Socialism? It has had a good
reception, and seems to represent the views of many people.
I have been asked to write more, and perhaps I may do so,
as the article as it stands is merely a suggestion, and there
is much that I should like to add. But I can't say I expect
to do much writing just now. I ought to, for I have plenty
of leisure. But I find that pain is a great enemy of work ;
partly in its direct effect— for when I am in bad pain I
can't work ; and partly because the long continuance of it
is discouraging, and the energy to begin a bit of hard work
is lacking. However, doubtless I shall improve in this
particular."

SOCIALISM 329
The letters on Socialism that are here referred to were
published in the Standard in the autumn of 1907, and were
also made known to a very large newspaper-reading public
in the provinces by the co-operation of Mr. Pearson and
of Mr. Gwynne the editor of the Standard. Some months
later, as the demand for them still continued, they were
partly rewritten, and were published in book form by
Messrs. Smith, Elder, & Co. under the title English Socialism
of To-day. These letters were the outcome of a course of reading
which had long occupied Oakeley. He had for some time
past been studying all the modern literature that he could
obtain concerning the different types of Collectivist teaching
that we group together under the common name of Socialism.
During months when he was kept almost entirely to his
bed and sofa he read much, and on this and on the other
subjects on which he worked he made complete and carefully
arranged series of notes.
It was his friend Mr. Maxse who suggested, when we
came back to London after a visit to Nauheim in the
autumn, that Oakeley should put into written form the
facts that he had thus collected, and the conclusions that he
was forming, as to the political importance and the tendency
of the movement.
He was drawn especially to study the teaching that was
being given by the Socialist leaders, because he had imagina
tion enough to realise vividly how powerful and moving the
appeal may be that is made by this gospel. Conditions of
unequal opportunity and unequal happiness give to it its
force. "It is an appeal made to the unhappy and the
unfortunate," to those who have not known, or who have
lost opportunities of hope and enjoyment, and it is because
there are so many persons in this country who are included
in these sorrowful categories that the teaching even of
extreme Socialists is received and welcomed. But the pic
tures of the social conditions of England as they are painted
in the Socialist books and Press are very misleading, and
have the dangerous quality that half-truths often possess.
They tell a part of the story, and a sorrowful part, but they
do not tell the whole.

330 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
" It is lamentably true that the distribution of wealth in this country
is grossly unequal — so unequal that it cannot be good for the body
politic. It is true that there is great suffering and great poverty. . . .
But it is not true that the majority of the people of this country are
living in abject and hopeless poverty. . . If many are incapable of
making provision against evil days, there are many who can and do
make such provision.
Above all, it is absolutely untrue to suggest, as so many Socialist
publications do suggest, that there is a bitter and conscious class war
being waged between two great sections of Englishmen. The sharp
line of demarcation which they seek to draw between the capitalists and
proletariat does not exist. There are infinite gradations with respect to
wealth and opportunity and education throughout English society ; and,
common to every class of society, are the great qualities of love of
country, sympathy with suffering, zeal for the public service, and an
earnest determination to make government equal and just for all." x
Any book on Socialism must necessarily begin with
some definition of terms, for the name of Socialism is used
to describe not one but several different things, and is applied
to at least three widely distinct schools of thought and
action. The Socialism with which this book is concerned
is a thing quite apart from the theoretic Socialism of the
philosophers, and from the municipal Socialism or corporate
action which forms part of the organisation and machinery
in every modern state, and in the widely extended area of
municipal enterprise. The Socialist teaching with which
Oakeley's book deals is the teaching that is being given to
the people of England by the recognised leaders and active
propagandists of the Socialist creed. It is a tangible and
concrete policy which is being urged with great force and
ability by such bodies as the Social Democratic Federation,
the Independent Labour Party,2 and the Fabian Society.
In making clear the nature of the proposals of the
Socialist leaders for the regeneration of society, Oakeley
confined himself strictly to the actual words used in the
authorised publications issued or circulated by the two
principal Socialist Associations, most of his quotations being
taken from their authorised official "Programmes." The
reforms that they suggest are detailed, and the Socialist
promises examined. His aim in writing these chapters
1 English Socialism of To-day.
2 It is fair to state that the more extreme utterances of the Socialist press are
not to be attributed to the I.L.P., and that their authorised programme stands
on a much higher plane than that of the S.D.F.

SOCIALISM 331
was to prove that, for the evils that exist in our body politic,
Socialism can never supply a remedy. He believed that if
their proposals were fully understood and realised they
would never commend themselves to the people of this
country ; and that the more clearly they could be set forth
in the actual words of their authors the less inclination there
would be to adopt them. The object of his review was
frankly and strongly critical. Having discussed what he
believed to be these very dangerous and mischievous aspects
of Socialism, he turned in his concluding chapters to the
consideration of some points which are to be found in the
Socialist programmes which stand in a different category,
and which, however they may be eventually decided, will
have to be carefully and fully considered upon their indivi
dual merits. And finally he dwelt briefly upon certain
constructive suggestions which he thought contained the
germ of a more permanent and practicable solution for some
of the evils which we all see so clearly, but which it is so
much easier to see than to remove. " The policy that has
no ideals," he wrote in one of his early articles in 1885,
" will never vivify or inspire a people." It was the principal
if not the only virtue that he saw in Socialism that it pro
fessed to be actuated by a spiritual motive, and to depend
for its accomplishment upon the acceptance of an ideal.
Firm as his belief was that in its practical working Socialism
involved much that was cruel, selfish, and impracticable, the
fact that it had such an ideal gives it, he was convinced,
a strength which it could not otherwise possess.
His own ideal and hope for his country lay in a future
that he looked forward to, which he saw not as a shadow, or
as a dream, but as a clear and living picture of what citizen
ship of the Empire ought to be made, and might become, to
every individual citizen of it. In the gradual filling up, the
consolidation, the wise direction and government of the
Empire to which we belong, he saw " such a field of work
and opportunity as has never been given to any other
people since the world began. ... Not to despair, not to
deny our faith, but to try and level upwards, and to open to
all the people of this country the opportunities which are
now enjoyed by a few of them." This was his ideal and

332 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
hope — an ideal which will indeed never fully be reached,
but an ideal to which we may at least come nearer and
may gradually approximate.
The summer of 1 908 brought to Oakeley some welcome
relief from pain. He spoke once or twice in the House of
Commons without ill effects. Knowing my anxiety, Mr,
Alfred Lyttelton wrote to me of one of these speeches : " I
must send you a word of congratulation on the fine and
gallant effort of this afternoon. I must confess to have
been most deeply moved to see the victory of the spirit over
all obstacles ; the contrast of the delightful full-blooded
pride in the country and her noble past, the wide and precise
grasp of the subject and all the continental illustrations of
it, the prompt and stout courage in debate, with, alas, the
still suffering look and bearing. But all the same this after
noon's feat does give me good hope. It is difficult to
believe that it could have been accomplished unless there is
a great reserve of physical strength which every such effort
attests." A few days later Oakeley wrote to his sister : —
" My best love and good wishes to you for your birthday.
There is nothing in the world so precious as affection ; how
richly we have all been endowed, and how little other things
matter when we old people can think of each other with
just the same feelings as those which filled our little minds
in that very far-off day when we were children.
" But the love of the aged ones is really better, more
mature, more tried, more certain than that of the boys and
girls. . . . Yes, I did speak in the House the other day, and the
speech did very well. Nor was I any the worse after speak
ing. But I am under no illusion. I may possibly be able
to speak on special subjects from time to time. But this is
no good. I see quite clearly now — indeed, I think for the
matter of that I have seen it from the beginning— that in
public life there is no place for any one who ' rides on the
step.' One must be inside, or outside altogether. So the
sooner I get off the step the better. I can do no good.
The process is not pleasant, and it is not easy to be a philo
sopher except on other people's account. But the facts are
there, and there is no getting away from them, I am not

PROVERBS AND TRANSLATIONS 333
well enough to go on, and I am not going to be.
Mercifully I am as a rule free from pain now. I can and
do do many things that I like, and every one is heavenly
good to me. So I have precious little to complain of. . . .
" Mary has told you that we went to the garden party
at Windsor and enjoyed it, though I must confess I was
rather tired by it. The papers record my presence at
various other functions this week, but I have not really
been to them."
It would be giving a very untrue and misleading im
pression if, in speaking as I must from time to time of the
suffering which so changed the tenor of his life, the more
cheerful side were to be left out of the picture. His natural
and spontaneous gaiety lightened life for him to the very
end, and brightened it for all those who lived with him. It
was never really subdued even by illness or by pain. Few
forms of courage are perhaps higher than the unselfish
courage, which, having looked steadfastly at the future, and
faced death and all else that can befall, still meets daily life
under such conditions as Oakeley's, with unfailing cheerful
ness and brave spirits. " Every heart that beats strong
and cheerfully," Robert Louis Stevenson said, " has left a
hopeful impulse behind it, and bettered the tradition of man
kind." And there was in Oakeley much of the same sweet
and gay courage that is so memorable and touching in the
Letters from Vailima. That note of natural gaiety will
always be remembered as most characteristic by those who
knew him best.
One day in the summer of 1908, I amused myself by
recalling various " saws and modern instances " together with
various translations that he had made at different times.
In writing down these proverbs and the very free
translations which were such spontaneous bits of his talk,
they must inevitably lose something of their freshness ; for
dried fragments of talk, like dried flowers, give one but little
impression of the pleasant waywardness of the original ; but
they may perhaps recall to those who knew him something
of his gaiety and of the humorous fancy which came out in
many of the skits and articles contributed to the St. James's

3 34 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
Gazette, and which played such a notable part in his talk
and in his appreciation and enjoyment of life.
Here are a few of the " proverbs " that I remember : —
" Half a loaf is better than no walk."
" The hound's meet is the fox's poison."
" He who drives fresh horses should himself be fresh,"
was suggested to console me for the tipsy driving of our
charioteer. The experience of many London dinner-parties
confirmed the truth of " The greater the gun the bigger the
bore." And a " daffodil dinner " suggested " Lent-lilies are
better than borrowed plumes."
The Paris hats of the pretty ladies whom we saw at
Uriage gave us, " It is the last straw that makes the lady
smart." " Better a supper at the Ritz and contentment there
with, than a dinner of herbs in a two pair-back," seemed a
timely inspiration when we were driving home after dining
with friends who were trying, too strenuously for comfort, to
lead the " simple life."
" Chacun a son gout " has been often quoted and
appropriated since the day, long ago, when Oakeley used it
to describe the varying forms of gout from which his friends
in the House of Commons were suffering.
Mr. Chamberlain, when Secretary of State for the
Colonies, was speaking in the House of Commons of the
difficulties attending the construction of the Uganda Railway,
Numbers of natives who were engaged in laying the line had
been seized and devoured by lions. Oakeley, sitting at a
little distance, wrote a hurried note to the friend who sat
immediately behind the Colonial Secretary : " Ask J. C. to
speak of it as ' The Lyons Mail' " He told his sister this
story soon afterwards, and she added to the natural history
of the Uganda Railway by telling us that a ticket office
had just been raided by elephants ! " Oh," said Oakeley,
" of course, they came to register their trunks ! "
" You will travel with most safety by the Midland
Railway " was an appropriate translation of " Medio tutis-
simus ibis," in a speech made to the Midland Railway.
"Un succes fou " — "a successful fool," and "facile
princeps " — " an easy-going prince," were two of the last

PROVERBS AND TRANSLATIONS 335
of many such translations ; and on one of the last days of
his life, when I described to him a lunch party, where the
footmen in red plush knee-breeches and powder had been
conspicuous —
" Oh ! " he said, " if I lived in a palace my motto would
be ' knee plush ultra ' — ' no more powdered footmen.' "
I find among my letters this note of his on the subject
of motors : —
" Who doesn't feel the English language a failure when
he has to speak of a petroleum motor car, an electric motor
car, or a steam motor car ? Half the time these inventions
are calculated to save is wasted in describing them. I offer
you some useful, well-finished, working English terms. Thus :
Petrol motor cars should be ' oil-wain ; vulgo — smell-wain,
or stink-wain.' " Steam motor cars should be ' steam-wain ; vulgo — puff-
wain.' " Electric motor cars should be ' spark-wain.'
"These terms are all copyright, but as I am persuaded
' they meet a felt want,' I have decided to bestow them on
the public without any royalty, for the enrichment of our
language and the happiness of our daily life."
How pleased he was when, as happened more than once
to us, some jest contained in one of his short articles in the
St, James's Gazette was remembered and quoted long after
wards by some one who had never known their authorship.
"Yes, I remember how M. and I laughed over it
together," said Oakeley, smiling.
In the course of the holiday journey which took us in
July and August 1908 to the Dauphine country, a part of
France which we had never hitherto explored, and which
had fresh charm for Oakeley, the following letter to his
sister Florence was written : —
"BOURG d'Oisans, 2nd August 1908.
... I thought much of dearest mother yesterday.
She would have loved this mountain country, with its green
Alps low down, half-way up, or on the top of the lower
hills, and the great snow mountains towering up above. She
loved the little fields with their little owners gathering their

336 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
crops into little carts a thousand feet above the valley. I
remember how valiantly the dear one used to walk with us,
with her straw hat tied down on either side of her soft
beautiful face. What a long way off those days seem !
and yet some of the pictures of them in my ' memory book '
are among the dearest and brightest in my great and varied
collection. " We have now got to Bourg d'Oisans, a beautiful little
town among the mountains. The light railway which comes
up the valley from Grenoble ends here, and further com
munication is by the diligence road over the Col du
Lautaret to Briancon. It is by this road that the French
armies have so often passed on into Italy. The frontier line
is now very strongly fortified, especially on the French side.
I regard this place as my selection in opposition to Uriage,
to which, I may say, I was driven by the pressure of the
combined persuasions of M  and W  . The two
places are typical. Uriage, a gay haunt of fashion, much of
it not altogether reputable, with its gaming-tables, its horse-
racing, and its theatre, where plays of the very stiffest order
are performed nightly, represents the preference of my wife
and child. Bourg d'Oisans, looked down upon by the pure
and eternal snows, fanned by the fresh air of heaven, and
where the wearing of the flannel shirt bears eloquent- testi
mony to the living of the simple life — Bourg d'Oisans
represents my choice. So strangely and so sharply are
tastes and sympathies divided, even in families apparently,
and to the outward view, united.
" Please tell Mademoiselle  that France is a delightful
country, in which almost everything is perfect ; but in which
the inhabitants cannot make toast, and in which no chef,
however eminent or however humble, can be induced to cook
' cock's eggs ' for more than two minutes — which is deplor
able. But despite these drawbacks, the country and the
people are delightful."
During this journey we stayed for some little time at
Briancon, where Colonel Frique, who was the Director of
Artillery for the fortress and district, gave Oakeley facilities
which greatly increased the interest of his visit. A fortress,

FRIENDSHIPS IN FRANCE 337
artillery store, and field guns had powerful attractions for
him, and Colonel Frique's kindness and hospitality made
our stay very pleasant.1
It was always one of Oakeley's greatest pleasures to be
given opportunities and introductions that enabled him to
become acquainted with French people. Some of the
acquaintances thus made grew into real and lasting friend
ships — friendships which made an additional reason for
our almost yearly visits to France. His sociable habit of
mind also made him love to draw chance fellow-travellers
into talk, and some of the passing acquaintances he made
were very interesting ones. I remember on that last journey
in France how much he enjoyed the conversation of a young
doctor from Tunis, of a Jesuit professor, of an eminent
engineer, and of a village cur6, and also the pleasant
company of the French visitors at our hotel.
We returned to England after a short stay at Annecy,
and a few days in Paris. Oakeley still continued well, and
all who saw him in Scotland in the autumn were struck
by his air of better health. The look of suffering which
was often written on his face seemed so wonderfully lightened
and lifted that these weeks seemed a time of welcome relief
and sunshine. A few happy days were spent on our way
south with Miss Arnold at Fox How, and with his cousin,
Mrs. Whitridge, near Tring. The idea of avoiding a winter
in London appealed to him at this time very strongly, and,
wishing to have our son Mervyn with us, we took a little
house near Watford, and let our London house for the
winter months.
He wrote to his brother, Edward Arnold-Forster, in
October : —
" It is not easy to tell you how much I value your letter.
The announcement respecting my retirement which you saw
in the paper was premature and unauthorised, but I have
no doubt at all that the break will have to come, and to
come soon.
" You absolutely interpret my feelings. It is, it must be,
a great grief to me to give up my life's work, especially at
1 In 1909 our friend Colonel Frique carried out the translation into French
of Oakeley's last book, Military Needs and Military Policy. Z

338 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
a time when, in some respects, I feel more fit to pursue it
than ever before. To say that I do not feel unhappy, and
that at times I do not resent the inexorable fate, would be
untrue. But I can say with perfect sincerity that the
compensations and consolations which unite to temper this
bitter wind are so great and so real that, if I do not bear
my troubles with a light heart, I do not let them become
an oppression to us. Among these consolations I place in
the first rank the sympathy, the understanding, and the
affection of the people whose opinion I care about more
than anything in the world. You stand, and have always
stood, so very high in that list that your letter is a real joy
to me." Very soon afterwards he spoke at Croydon for the last
time. It was evident that the effort of addressing meetings
had become a strain far too great to be continued, and as
soon as a future candidate had been found in Sir R. Hermon
Hodge, Oakeley's letter to his constituents was published, in
which he explained the reasons of health which made it
impossible for him to contest the seat again.
" Of course it is a great grief to me to have to give up
Croydon," he wrote to his sister, " which means giving up
Parliament. But I have looked the thing in the face for so
long, and have so fully satisfied myself that I have no
alternative, that the actual appearance of my letter comes
to me rather as a relief than as an added bitterness. I
should have made the announcement long ago had not my
friends in Croydon been very anxious to be ' on with a new
love ' before they were entirely ' off with the old one.'
" I quite approve of the choice of Sir R. Hermon Hodge,
who is a good friend of mine, a capital yeomanry officer, and
a very pleasant fellow. ... I agree with every word you
say about the German Emperor's letter ; it is the most un
fortunate indiscretion ; all the more to be regretted because
I am certain that it accurately represents the mind of that
odd, interesting man, the Kaiser, in one of its many
kaleidoscopic phases. Another half turn and the pattern
would change entirely, but for a moment it was really
there. No good of any kind can come from the publication.
To the possible evil there seems scarcely any limit. The

LETTER TO MRS. VERE O'BRIEN 339
wisest man can only hold his tongue, and without ostenta
tion wring his hands. The unwise, and their name is
legion, and they include all the ' very clever people,' will
give tongue each after his kind. Already we see the result
in every capital. Most dangerous of all, perhaps, is that
solid hatred which springs from well-meant overtures
rejected ; spretae injuria formae. The whole outlook is
deplorable. ... I hope you will read a series of articles
which I have contributed to the Standard, and which has
also appeared in various provincial papers."
" Cole King's, Watford,
14th Nov. 1908.
" We had a pleasant card from you to-day telling us
that you have just finished Spanish Gold. We also have
just come to the end of it, much to our regret. I wish
there had been more of it. What a capital book it is —
one of the brightest I have read for a long time. I can't
say that my reading of late has been very extensive or very
varied. My chief stand-by has been my Memoirs of the
Duchess of Abrantes (Madame Junot), a work in no less
than ten volumes. I am just beginning the tenth and last
volume, and I shall part company with my dear, courageous
Duchess with real regret. It is not everybody's book, but
it is certainly mine. It goes through the whole of the
great Buonaparte drama in a way that fascinates me. To
my mind it is far more effective and dramatic than a book
like the Dynasts, which assumes that there is a drama and
then proceeds to describe it. Madame Junot describes it
from her standpoint — the standpoint of a very clever,
bright -spirited woman, and the drama and the tragedy
unroll themselves with the force and fatefulness of a Greek
play. The Duchess's relations with the Buonaparte family
are very curious, and give a peculiar interest to the book.
Lieutenant Buonaparte, the young unlicked cub that was to
develop into so formidable a wild beast, was a sort of tame
cat in the house of Madame Perman, Madame Junot's
mother ; he was sheltered by the Permans, and borrowed
money from them with shame in his heart for having to
do so ; and, strangest of all, according to Madame Junot,

340 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
proposed to and was rejected by Madame Perman, a rebuff
he never forgot, and never quite forgave.
" I have been rather full of aches and pains during the
past week, and have been able to do very little. But I
have not been altogether idle, for I am about to bring out
my Standard articles on the Army in book form ; and as I
am rearranging them, and nearly doubling the text, this
gives me plenty of occupation. Smith & Elder, I hope,
will publish it. I was pleased the other day to meet Lord
Roberts, who was most friendly about my work, telling me
how good he thought it was, and how much he agreed
with me. ' There is very little difference between us,' he
said. And this is true enough.
" I had a talk with Arthur Balfour about the taxation of
Land Values. I think great pressure will be put upon the
Government next year to do something violent in connection
with this. They are so restless, and in such a mess about
money, that there is no knowing what they may consent to;
though, as a matter of fact, there is no money to be made
out of such a scheme. I said that my fear was that some
legislation should be passed, which, once passed, like the
death duties, would be irrevocable. That would be a great
calamity ; and to guard against it we ought to be prepared
beforehand to deal with the case, which is a complicated
one. I wanted to know what line he (A. J. B.) proposed
to take. He said he was opposed to the suggested taxation.
I said if that were thoroughly understood we could go
ahead, but it was no use working unless we knew we
were advancing in the right direction. My own view, I
told him, was that we should unite on one or two big
principles, viz. : —
" I. That no taxation should affect existing contracts.
" 2. That the principle of betterment should only be
adopted concurrently with the principle of worsement, or
deterioration. " Both these propositions are essentially just, and the
adoption of either knocks the bottom out of any scheme
the Government is likely to propose.
" You will laugh, perhaps, on reading all this story, at
the idea of my taking so much interest in what is going

LITERARY WORK 341
to happen, and indeed it is rather absurd, for I am no
good, and can do practically nothing myself. But there
it is, as long as I remain in the House, I can't help taking
advantage of every opportunity that offers. . . . Your
affectionate brother."
Oakeley was occupied through the winter in rewriting
and enlarging the letters on the Army which had appeared
in the Standard, and of which our friend Mr. Reginald
Smith had undertaken the publication in book form.
He was writing a fresh chapter for this book when a severe
illness interrupted all his work.
His book, Military Needs and Military Policy, was pub
lished in March 1909, in the week in which he died. It
was written under circumstances of great difficulty and
acute suffering. To this book — the last of a long series
of Oakeley's writings on our Army — the next chapter is
devoted.

CHAPTER XXIII
" On ne badine pas avec la guerre."
Military Needs and Military Policy — Last Book on Army affairs — Lord
Roberts' Preface — The question of invasion — The Territorial force
— The Special Reserve — Compulsory service — A summary of the
results of the Army policy of the present Government.
Military Needs and Military Policy is the second of the
two books that Oakeley wrote during the last three years
of his life — after he left the War Office.
The earlier of these books, the Army in ipo6, has already
been spoken of in a previous chapter. Military Needs and
Military Policy was written with the object of convincing
his fellow-countrymen that the military policy which Mr.
Haldane had embarked upon, was a policy which made it
impossible to secure such an Army as Oakeley believed to
be required by this country ; and to show that the regular
Army had been weakened by the measures taken since
1 906 ; and that the Territorial Army which had been
provided, and which had been so greatly extolled, is, by
its nature, unfitted to fulfil our needs.
In the introduction which Field Marshal Lord Roberts
contributed to this book, he says : —
" The greatest source of danger to this country lies in the extra
ordinary indifference of the rulers — in other words, the general public —
to the problems of national defence. The tendency to forget the lessons
of past events, as soon as these events are over, seems to be almost
irresistible. Nothing, apparently, but absolute disaster is likely to
cure us of the inveterate belief that, somehow or other, we are exempt
from all the laws which have governed the rise and fall of nations,
and can always rely upon some miraculous interposition of Providence
to see us through the hour of danger. The whole mechanism of our
public life tends, even in the case of those interested in military affairs,
to an unconscious acquiescence in the plausible self-deception which
persuades us that, if we can successfully carry out this or that par
ticular scheme — devised with no regard to our strategical needs, — we
342

'MILITARY NEEDS & MILITARY POLICY' 343
have solved the problem of national defence, and exorcised all dangers
from our path.
It is these tendencies which Mr. Arnold-Forster has set himself
to combat in the present work. Into the purely controversial issues
raised in it I do not propose to enter. But I can wholly echo Mr,
Arnold-Forster's insistence on the supreme importance of maintaining
at the very highest standard both the strength and efficiency of our
regular Army. England may be an island, but the empire is a Conti
nental Power with vast land frontiers in India and in Canada which
have to be defended, and for the defence of which we must, in the main,
look to the regular Army. That the regular Army should be strong
in numbers and efficient in training, that it should be wholly available
for its oversea duties, and that it should be capable of great expansion
in war, these, to my mind, are primary conditions, the necessity for
which cannot be too strongly insisted upon. . The question at
issue is not whether the Territorial Army will attain the standard which
Mr. Haldane has set before it, but whether it will fall short of the
standard by which it will be measured on the field of battle. Amateur
artillerymen may make remarkable progress in a fortnight, but the
enemy's shrapnel makes no allowances. This, I apprehend, is the
whole gist of Mr. Arnold-Forster's criticisms, and for that reason
this book is deserving of the careful consideration of all who are
interested in the vital problem of national defence.''
No more accurate description of Oakeley's purpose in
writing his book could be given.
What the actual military needs of the country are —
Whether our present organisation is the one best fitted to
meet them — these were the main questions that he desired
to set out.
There is a certain divergence of view as to the nature
and extent of the dangers that we have to guard against ;
but on one point every one is agreed — namely in believing
that this country may be involved in war over sea, and
for any war over sea we must rely in the future, as we have
done in the past, upon our regular Army acting in conjunc
tion with the Navy. On this we are all agreed, but directly
we go a step farther than this, we find ourselves face to face
with a great difference of opinion.
" Some persons believe T — and I admit I am of the number — that
provided the Navy be maintained in a proper state of efficiency, the
danger of invasion is not one which need be contemplated.2 . . There
1 Military Needs and Military Policy.
8 "This principle" (that the Navy itself at its present strength is capable of
defending us against invasion) "is," said Mr. Haldane, "the principle of the
Government, it is the principle of the Defence Committee, it is the principle of

344 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
are others who hold that, although what is called an ' invasion in force '
is not to be anticipated, attack by a limited number of selected troops,
arriving in ships which will have eluded the vigilance ofthe fleet, may suc
ceed in landing on our shores and doing great mischief. The party which
believes in ' raids ' of this kind is a considerable one, and the theory
has at times received official recognition. It should be said, however,
that there are also many persons who believe that the same considera
tions which apply to the case of invasion, apply to the case of a raid,
and who think that the true and only protection against a landing of any
kind is the Navy. They do not all assume that the Navy is at the
present moment adequate to afford the necessary protection, but they
take the view that, if it be not strong enough, the proper course is to
make it stronger, and not to spend money and energy upon the multi
plication of land forces, which will be more costly and less effective than
destroyers or submarines. . . .
It is not necessary, for the purposes of the present argument, to
combat, or even to question, the correctness of the views of those who
believe in invasion, or of those who limit their belief to the possibility
of raids. It is not my object to take part in what bids fair to be an
endless controversy, but to demonstrate that, while we at present fail
to provide against the one danger as to the existence of which all parties
are agreed, and are permitting incalculable injury to be inflicted upon
the regular Army, we are doing nothing whatever to cope with either
of the two perils, about the existence of which there is, indeed, some
doubt, but which a very large section of the community believes to be
real and pressing.
While, however, I propose to accept, for the purpose of my argument,
two propositions which I believe to be unsustainable, and to assume
that an invasion of this country is possible, and that a raid is not only
possible but probable, I think it just to point out that there is no
evidence whatever that these views are accepted by the Government or
by the Committee of Imperial Defence. . . . On the theory that no
port will ever be attacked, that no troops will ever be landed, that no
hostile shot will ever be fired upon British soil, the Admiralty have
deliberately destroyed the elaborate and perfect system of mine defences
constructed with admirable skill by the Royal Engineers. They have
wholly or partially dismantled the few forts we possessed ; they have
allowed the land defences of the great naval ports to be abandoned. . . .
In other words, the Navy has definitely committed itself to the view that
no landing is possible ; that by naval means, and by naval means alone,
can an enemy be prevented from setting foot upon our shores. ... If
in the opinion of the Admiralty there were the remotest chance of an
armed force landing in the neighbourhood of our great ports, the policy
they have followed would be almost criminal. Meanwhile the Army
Council . . . are acting on the hypothesis that the Admiralty are en
tirely in the wrong . . . ; they are spending ,£4,000,000 a year not to
prevent a landing, but to neutralise its effects after it has taken place.
the Navy, it is the principle ofthe Army Council, it is the principle of the present
Government. . . . We have bed-rock fact here for the organisation of our
defences." — Hansard, 8.3.06.

'MILITARY NEEDS & MILITARY POLICY' 345
On this point there is no room for doubt. To enlist 300,000 men and
boys, who, in the event of war, are by the terms of their engagements
and lay the law of the land tied to the soil of this country, would be a
crazy performance if its authors did not assume that fighting in this
country was not only possible but probable."
If we seriously face the question of how an invasion
once effected may be defeated, " there is only one conclusion
at which reasonable men can arrive." " An invading Army
of picked Continental troops," wrote Lord Roberts, " cannot
possibly be repelled by a scratch force whose training and
organisation are based, not on the principle of efficiency, but
on that of individual convenience." l Or, in Oakeley's words,
" If we are going to be invaded we must do what other
nations which are confronted by the same danger are com
pelled to do. . . . We must arm, we must train, we must
prepare, and we must pay like other people. The man who
believes in invasion believes in conscription ... he cannot
believe in the policy which is destroying the regular Army
in order to create the Territorial force."
But it has often been contended that if the Territorial
force cannot be relied upon to protect us against an in
vasion in force, it will guarantee us against raids. If this is
really its object, it is, he contended, " the most curiously
unfit instrument that has ever been devised for such a
purpose." " The problem is to defeat a force of highly trained, well-
organised, and well-equipped regular troops, who, as the
result of a surprise, have been landed upon our shores. The
attack will be sudden and unexpected ; clearly, therefore, the
force which is to resist it must be one that can move instantly,
which need not wait for mobilisation, but is ready to take
the field at twelve hours' notice. The hostile force being
composed of picked men, very highly trained, and under
carefully selected officers, the force which is to meet and
beat it must be superior to it in numbers, and at least equal
to it in physique, discipline, and training. The purpose of the
Army being to strike a very heavy blow in a short time, the
force which is to prevent it from striking that blow must be
at or near the point at which the enemy is likely to strike.
1 Preface to Military Needs and Military Policy.

346 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
" With which of these necessary conditions does the
Territorial force comply ? The answer is that it complies
with none of them."
" Tlie Territorial force is not ready, and by the very con
ditions of its existence never can be ready in case of a
surprise." (Mr. Haldane has told us repeatedly that the
Territorial army must have six months' continuous training
before it could have a chance of competing with a disciplined
army.) The force which is to meet and defeat the enemy
must be able to march at twelve hours' notice. Yet every
body knows that there is not a regiment or a battery of the
Territorial Army which can do anything of the kind.
" The force which is required must be more numerous than
that of the enemy, and it must be of at least equal quality!'
We do not know what the numbers of the Territorial
Army are eventually going to be, or what proportion of
their nominal total will ever be available in any time or
place, but if we assume a superiority in numbers, the force
which we could get together would eventually be inferior
in training, organisation, and command. " The new organisa
tion of the Volunteers is an undoubted and great improve
ment upon the old, but it cannot achieve the impossible,
and it is useless for the purpose of securing rapid
mobilisation and immediate fitness for war." Feeling thus
strongly about the danger of the policy to which the
country has, during the last few years, been committed, it
was inevitable that Oakeley should feel strongly about
the action of soldiers who, in direct contradiction of
previously expressed and officially recorded opinions, were
ready to lend their support to the system, on the plea
that it was no part of the duty of military officers, entrusted
with the responsibility for the Army, to question the
expediency of the policy which they might be directed to
carry out.
" The sorrowful part of the business," he writes, " is
that those who ought to be the foremost in telling the
truth are in many cases foremost in encouraging the
delusion. There are many soldiers in this country who
know the truth perfectly well. Nay, more, there are many
who, both officially and privately, have stated those truths

COMPULSORY SERVICE 347
with a force and conviction which are beyond criticism.
But how rarely do we see any one of those experienced
officers giving to the public the inestimable advantage of
his knowledge ? It need hardly be said, that this reticence,
whatever its cause, is greatly to be regretted, because it
encourages and strengthens the belief of an uninstructed
public in certain propositions, which are as unfounded as
they are dangerous."
Besides the chapters which deal with the regular Army
and with the Territorial force, another chapter in Oakeley's
book deals with the question of compulsory training and
compulsory service. It was his own belief that our one
great military need, next to the maintenance of a powerful
Navy, is the need for strengthening the regular Army, and
for increasing its reserve-making power. But there is a
large and growing number of people who believe that
something more than a great Navy and a highly efficient
regular army, capable of great expansion in time of war,
are required to guarantee our safety, and who believe that
compulsory service or conscription, or compulsory training
in some form or other, is necessary for this end.
The ideal of national duty thus taught is one so
honourable, and based on so true a conception of citizen
ship, that Oakeley approached it with great respect and
with a real desire to find opportunities of agreement rather
than occasions of difference with those who advocated it.
Numerous and influential as are the advocates of a
universal military training, it is, he believed, very doubtful
whether, without compulsory service in time of war,
compulsory training would be of any great military value
to the country.
In his view, the teaching of history proves that men
who do not undertake during peace time to serve in time
of war, cannot be relied upon to assume that obligation
when they are most needed, and the inference that he drew
from the experiences of the past was that " the corollary of
national training is compulsory service," and this corollary
many earnest and capable men accept as inevitable.
If we accept the possibility (a possibility which he did
not himself admit) that this country may have to resist

348 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
an " invasion in force," then, and then alone, he believed,
compulsory service to be not only reasonable but inevitable.
" If we are to be exposed to the dangers which threaten
continental nations we must take the same precautions as
other nations have adopted. . . . To begin with, we must
have an immense corps of officers and N.C.O.'s. We must
have grown men in the ranks, and those men must receive
an amount of training which will enable them to meet and
defeat the enemy. There may be many opinions as to
what the character of this training ought to be. But
unless the military authorities of every other country in
the world are wrong, and we alone are right, it ought to
bear no resemblance whatever to that which we think
sufficient for our Special Reserve and our Territorial force.
To begin with, we must enlist men — not boys. ... It is
only the manhood of this country that can hold the field
against the manhood of another nation. The period of
initial training must greatly exceed that which is considered
sufficient under the make-believe system."
It is a training, military and physical, of the kind given
to the great continental armies that we must adopt if we
are seriously to adopt national service. " A training that
improves the physique of the people, which inculcates
habits of discipline and order, which exhibits obedience to
lawful orders and self-sacrifice for a common ideal, as
virtues, must be good for a nation."
That it has grave disadvantages and can produce some
great evils will not be denied. Opinions will always differ
about it.
" My own opinion," wrote Oakeley, " is that even gold
may be bought too dear, and that unless it is absolutely
necessary for the nation we are on the whole better without
it. But the main point to bear in mind is that while the
real thing may be of value in more ways than one, the
make-believe variety must always be an unmitigated curse."
Compulsory service in any form must involve a great
expenditure. Unlike other countries, we must always have
two armies, — the regular Army for oversea service, the Navy
maintained as it is at present, and in addition, we should have
a vast conscript army tied to the soil of this country. Nor

'MILITARY NEEDS & MILITARY POLICY' 349
can any saving be effected in the cost of the regular Army,
for the necessity for maintaining it, and its reserves will,
as Lord Roberts has pointed out, remain unaltered, and
compulsory service or national training gives us no help
towards the greatest of our military needs, the expansion of
the regular Army for service oversea ; no one as yet having
come forward to advocate conscription for oversea service.1
The vast cost of what would be a twofold Army seemed
to Oakeley a most formidable obstacle.
" I do not myself believe," he concluded, " that this
country can or will bear the cost of an adequate Navy,
an adequate regular Army, and an efficient conscript or
national service Army. I greatly fear that in the attempt
to obtain these three objects, we may find ourselves left with
an inadequate Navy, an inefficient regular Army, and an
inefficient and useless conscript army. . . ."
Anxious as he was to understand and meet the views
of the advocates of compulsory training and service, he
could not convince himself that the remedy that his friends
proposed was the one most appropriate to our needs.
Those, however, who on this most difficult subject differ
from his view, and have come to a conclusion with which
he could not agree, will acknowledge that years of thought
and study had gone to his study of Army problems, and
that in all that he wrote and said he was inspired by a
deep sense of public duty, by a great love for the Army,
and by the single-hearted desire that the Army should be
made and kept strong and efficient for the country's needs.
His book was published in the week that followed his
death. A soldier who had known him well, and who had
worked with him, wrote of it : — -
" It is a final appeal to the common sense of the British
public ; a call to them to throw off the lethargy which has
bound them when matters so vital to their defence and
future existence have been at issue. It is a last appeal to
all who have the interests of their country at heart that
they should constitute themselves the judges on the issues
1 A suggestion made by his friend, Mr. L. S. Amery, was, in Oakeley's
opinion, the most practical of all the proposals for compulsory service that he
had seen, and he was greatly struck by it, and often alluded to this plan.

350 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
to which he devoted the few last months of his strenuous
life. In his own words ' he has laid the evidence before
them, wishing for no better jury than one composed of
impartial readers who, discarding any question as to the
merits or demerits of the advocates on either side, will give
their verdict according to the evidence.'
" The British nation has proved itself generous, even
lavish, in the erection of monuments to the memory of its
sons who have died for their country. Those who were
privileged to work with Arnold-Forster during the last few
years of his life know full well that no soldier who met
death on the battlefield can ever have given his life more
consciously or bravely than he did in his country's service,
It is to ask but a small return of those to whom his last
book was dedicated — his countrymen — that they should
read, and consider carefully for themselves, the case which
he spent his last year of life in preparing for their verdict.
If but a tithe of those who profess a patriotic care for the
future of the British empire will spare a short time for
the perusal of his last book, I am sure that the tribute to
his memory which he would personally most have desired
will be forthcoming, in the future reality of the measures
which will be taken to render our land forces efficient for
the work for which they are maintained — ' To gain the
victory in any war in which the empire is likely to be
engaged.' "
At the end of Military Needs and Military Policy a
table is given showing the relative strengths of the various
branches of the Army Service in October 1905 and October
1908 respectively. The summary which here follows brings
the comparison as far as possible down to the present time,
though the date of publication has prevented the inclusion
of the figures for October 1 9 1 o.
I
In 1 910 the strength of the REGULAR Army is less
than it was in 1905 by (approximately) 18,400 officers and
men. In October 1905 the strength was 186,177 N.C.O.'s and men;
7895 officers.

A COMPARISON 351
In the estimates for 1910 the establishment was given as 170,887
N.C.O.'s and men ; 7776officers; the present strength being about 3000
men and 100 officers short of these establishments.

II
In 1 910 the strength of the SPECIAL RESERVE is less
than that of the Militia in 1905 by 18,408 N.C.O.'s and
men; and 575 officers.
In October 1905 the Militia numbered 85,814 N.C.O.'s and men;
2448 officers.
In March 1910 the Special Reserve numbered 67,406 N.C.O.'s and
men ; 1873 officers.
A very large proportion of this total of 67,406 consists of men who
have been transferred from the Militia to complete their terms of
service. For instance, in the Special Reserve Infantry, out of a total
strength of 55,823 (March 1910), no less than 30,981 were transferred
Militiamen, who will soon become time-expired. Of the remainder a
large proportion consists of boys under 20, who would not be fit for
service abroad.
On October 1, 1908 (the latest return available) the number was
16,444, and this proportion will increase as the men who have been
transferred from the Militia complete their terms of service. The
Special Reserve is (March 19 10) 1 1 83 subalterns short of establish
ment. Ill
In 1910 the strength of the TERRITORIAL FORCE is
about the same as that of the Volunteers and Yeomanry
in 1905. Volunteers and Yeomanry, October 1, 1905, 275,474 all ranks.
Territorial Force, October 1, 1909, 270,041 all ranks.

IV
In 19 10 the Regular Reserve, in consequence of the
Short Service enlistment opened by Lord Midleton, will
reach its maximum strength, 121,754 (exclusive of Section
D). But its future condition gives cause for grave anxiety.
In order to maintain the Regular Reserve, and at the same time to
furnish the foreign drafts, the experiment was started in 1905 of
concurrent enlistment for long and short service. This was stopped by
the present Administration on the change of Government in 1906, and
Long Service enlistment (7 years and 5 in the Reserve) adopted for
the Army, thus reverting to the system which had already been proved

352 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
by experience to be inadequate to furnish a sufficient Reserve in time
of war. Furthermore, the establishment of every Home battalion has been
reduced (thus making smaller reserve-producing units, and increasing
the demand for Reserves).
And lastly, nine reserve-producing battalions have been destroyed.
As a result of these steps the Regular Reserve will be greatly
reduced. In Appendix C of a memorandum issued by the Army Council in
June 1909, it was stated that between January 1, 1906, and April 1,
1 909, the gross number of officers and men liable for foreign service
increased by 107,025. This number is obtained by the inclusion of
the whole of the Special Reserve — the Militia being excluded from the
figures for 1906 in this comparison — on the ground that it was not liable
for foreign service. In practice, however, the Militia always volun
teered for foreign service, and a Bill to make this obligatory for the
force was passed by the Lords and introduced in the Commons in 1905.
The remainder ofthe increase is due to the addition of 36,615 regular
reservists in consequence of the Short Service enlistment opened during
the South African War. Since the publication of this memorandum
opportunity has been given to members of the Territorial Force to
accept liability for overseas service.

CHAPTER XXIV
" Our life is but a little holding, lent
To do a mighty labour." Vittoria (G. Meredith).
Grave illness, November 1908 — A stranger's letter — Last words in the
House of Commons — The Special Reserve and the Army — Last
Days — March 12, 1909.
When in November 1908 the illness began which so inter
rupted the writing of Military Needs and Military Policy,
we had come up for a few days to a London hotel. The
autumn session of Parliament and other engagements had
made it necessary for Oakeley to be occasionally in London,
and he came up fully intending, if possible, to take part in
the debates in the House.
This attack of illness was so sudden and severe that we
were obliged at once to move him to a nursing home.
Weeks of great suffering followed, through which he was
helped by the skill and devoted care of his friend Dr. Henry
Huxley. Oakeley never seemed to lose patience, and his
ready gratitude for any help given to him was very touching
to his nurses, and to all who served him.
One day, when the pain had been so long continued
and so severe as to tax even his great habitual fortitude,
he looked up to me with a strange expression that was
almost triumph in his face, and he said, " I do not know if
I can explain it to you ; I do not know how or why it is.
It is all a great mystery, but I do know that this terrible
pain is somehow making me better. It is good, and I
would not spare or undo now what I have gone through."
He told me early the same morning that he had been
reading certain psalms and prayers that his mother had used
and loved. The spirit was much stronger than the frail
353 2 a

3 54 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
body, and seemed to shine through and master it. He liked
me to read aloud to him for as long as possible in the day,
and I read him many books. On one day of his illness he
was cheered by Lord Roberts's kind letter promising a
preface for the new book ; the letter and promise gave him
great pleasure.
When he was a little better we moved him by ambulance
to the house of my cousin, Miss Moggridge, under whose
kind care, and in whose quiet and sunny house, he made a
more rapid recovery. Our sons joined us there, brightening
and cheering Christmas for him, our youngest son, Christopher,
arriving from Gibraltar in the Albemarle. In January, as
our own house in Westminster was still let, we took a little
house in Hereford Square, temporarily, until we could return
to the Abbey Garden, and there, and at Basset Down, the
last two months of his life were spent.
The Wiltshire air seemed for a time to give him fresh
strength, and to restore him as it had often done before.
However ill he might be, he used always to feel that if he
could but be moved to Basset Down he would soon get
better ; and again and again the high clear air of the
Downs seemed able to work this miracle for him.
Before settling down again in London he was very
anxious to see for himself, with his own eyes, the actual
conditions and training of the Special Reserve soldiers in
their depots. With this object he made a short motor
tour, which enabled him to visit several of these depots. It
had been the habit of his life thus to see for himself; and,
whether it was ships and dockyards, or whether it was the
armies of the continent, or the men, guns, and stores of our
own Army, this practice had been steadily followed, and
gave to his statements an authority which no hearsay
information could have given them.
We returned to London, and he took up some of his
work again, and was able to see many of his friends, though
he had generally to receive them lying down on his sofa.
His much-loved cousin, Mrs. Wodehouse (now Lady Sand
hurst), was a frequent visitor, and many friends came from
the House of Commons. He was presently well enough to
dine out occasionally, and enjoyed this nearly as much as

GRAVE ILLNESS 355
ever, though he was so quickly tired that I lived always
with the fear of his bringing on pain by over-exertion.
A letter written by one who was a stranger to us, who
visited him during a previous illness, when he was confined
to his room at the Abbey Garden, gives, it seems to me, a
very vivid and true picture of him as his friends saw him,
of his eager, quick talk, and of his wide interest in books
and men : —
" All the obituaries of Mr. Arnold-Forster which I have
seen," wrote this correspondent of the Liverpool Courier, in
March 1 909, " lay heavy stress upon his vehemence, his
occasional ' waspishness,' and constant habit of acerb criti
cism. But it was a precisely contrary impression that I
carried away when I had a private interview with Mr.
Arnold-Forster some eighteen months ago. The illness
which had been steadily undermining his strength for some
time past was just then especially malignant, and he was a
close prisoner in his house at Abbey Garden, all outside
activities forbidden, but when he learned the nature of my
errand (which was a purely literary one) he brushed his
doctor's orders on one side, and received me with extreme
graciousness. He was too weak to rise from his couch, and
the hand with which he welcomed me was as white and
delicate as a woman's ; but his fine blue eyes were full of
eagerness, and his talk was agitated and swift-running. It
was almost wholly bookish talk, but it was very living none
the less ; the talk, that is to say, of a man to whom litera
ture was a real and vital thing. There was nothing ' stuffy '
about it, nothing pedantic. It began with modern French
fiction (a yellow - back lay on the floor beside him, I
remember), and flashed vividly about from point to point —
from twentieth-century journalism to the Elizabethan drama,
from books for children to the philosophy of Mr. H. G.
Wells and the art of Mr. Henry James.
" It was good talk, full of delicate charm and gracious
ness, and full, too, of a fine intellectual humility and
bonhomie ; and I came away with a singularly pleasant
picture — although a picture not altogether untouched by
pathos — of the prisoner scholar lying there in his great
guarded room, bearing his ill-fortune with a fine cheerful-

356 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
ness, and following with a catholic sympathy every new
literary sally and adventure. And the room itself, and the
whole house helped to complete that impression of a delicate
and sweet-tempered monasticism, for its windows looked out
across the mists and mild colours of an autumn garden to
the lawns and cloisters of Westminster Abbey itself, and in
the roadway which leads to it — one of the most silent and
secluded streets in all London, in spite of its closeness to
the racing piston of an Empire — the leaves were quietly
floating down through the soft October sun. No, it was
not of Arnold-Forster, Secretary of State for War and
scolder of Parliaments that I found myself thinking as I
passed by Westminster a few moments later. It was of
Hugh Oakeley Arnold, the grandson of Dr. Arnold of
Rugby, and the close kinsman, by temper as well as by
birth, of the great poet who wrote The Scholar Gipsy. And
I cannot help feeling now that there were qualities in the
dead man's character which many of those who met him
daily were never permitted to see."
Throughout these weeks in February, during which his
health seemed to be gradually improving, his heart and
mind were set on one thing — he was quite resolved that
when the time came he must and would speak on the
Army Estimates ; and on March 4 he spoke for the last
time in the House of Commons. I tried to dissuade him
from an effort that must necessarily be so great, but could
not move his determination ; he felt impelled to give utter
ance to the beliefs that he held so strongly. " There are
times," he said to me, " when I feel that this thing is ' laid
upon me ' to do, and I must do it."
His speech followed Mr. Haldane's introduction of the
Estimates. The gist of these, his last words to Parliament
and to his fellow-countrymen, may be summed up in this
sentence : —
" I regard the Army from one point of view alone,
and that is the point of view of war. I desire to examine
the proposals that have been made to the House from the
standpoint of one who asks, What would be the effect in war
of all these changes which you are making ? " From that
standpoint he dwelt especially upon the grave danger that

LAST WORDS IN HOUSE OF COMMONS 357
he believed to be incurred by reliance in time of war on
the " Special Reserve." He pointed to the weakness of this
force, the major part of it composed of former militiamen,
who were only finishing in its ranks their terms of service ;
to the large number of boys who were simply passing
through it as a passage way into the Line ; and to the
residue. ..." Boys who respond to the appeal to go
into the Special Reserve instead of into the workhouse.
These boys enlisted at sixteen or seventeen . . ., never
join their regiment . . ., they enlist for general service,
and do not know what their regiment is till they are
actually summoned to it on the declaration of war. . . .
They never see their officers or non-commissioned officers,
and never see, except accidentally, their comrades ; and these
boys, turned adrift at seventeen and a half into the street
are to be called out (some of them with the addition of
fifteen days' training), and put into the front rank of the
British Army in time of war." The prospect was appalling
to Oakeley. " One must see the kind of thing that is
done in other countries, and the battalions that are being
prepared in the great armies of the Continent, and then
one must go down and see these boys in the depots to
realise what folly it is to suppose that we can do, by magic,
what no other nation in the world except ourselves con
ceives it possible to accomplish. ... I have another reason
for my conviction that this force is not one on which we
ought to rely. There is the unanimous opinion stated in
public documents, before a great tribunal, by every single
one of the right hon. gentleman's military advisers as
to what was the minimum term of service necessary to
make a soldier. They say it is two years. ... If he turns
to the Report of the Commission he will find the opinion
of officer after officer, — some of them his advisers now
and some of them his advisers in the past, — every one
of them stating in no uncertain manner that two years'
training is necessary to make a soldier."
The idea underlying the " Special Reserve " embodied
a principle that Oakeley himself had strenuously advocated.
" The principle of a short service Army intended to serve
in this country in time of peace, and to recruit the regular

3 58 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
Army in time of war." But the methods by which this
principle has been carried out in the organisation of the
Special Reserve — its period of only six months' training,
its dearth of officers, the want of any connection between
officers and men — fulfilled none of the conditions which
he looked upon as essential in the short service Army
that he advocated.
Passing from this question of the Special Reserve, he
spoke of the regular Army. He spoke with great earnest
ness of the reductions which were being made in its
numbers, and above all of the reductions of our regular
and trained Army officers "at a time when officers are
the greatest of the needs of our military organisation."
He spoke briefly on the subject of the Territorial Army,
and also about the old and insanitary barracks, long since
condemned but left untouched.
And " lastly," he said, " the right hon. gentleman has
not provided that most important requirement, the large
Reserve which we know we want when the Army is fighting
abroad. So far from providing it, he has done everything
in his power to diminish the existing Reserve. In another
couple of years that Reserve will melt away like snow from
a bank in an April shower. If the right hon. gentleman
believes that the " Special Reserve " will in any way take
its place, I think he will be lamentably disillusioned. I
have striven to put before the House what is the net result
of the changes that have been made. My conclusion is that
where you have saved money, you have laid up a certain
and much heavier expenditure in the future. You have
destroyed the Militia, and have put in their place a
smaller number of men, not a whit more competent, to
serve in time of war ; you have destroyed portions of the
regular Army which were the very flower and pick of it.
You have destroyed over i ooo men of the Royal Engineers,
6000 of the Royal Artillery. You have got rid of a
battalion of the Guards, with its Reserve ; and you have
got rid of eight battalions of our best infantry.
" I believe the right hon. gentleman has diverted public
attention to a lamentable extent from the true problem
of the regular Army ; and he has made people believe

LAST DAYS 359
that an Army (the Territorial Force) which is attractive
and popular is a real Army. It is not ; and to that extent
he has put off enquiry as to the work that has been done,
and made us less likely to be able to meet the enemy
in time of war."
Mr. Alfred Lyttelton wrote to me hardly a week later :
" I am glad to think that (though I discouraged his
speaking in the House of late) I was present on the last
occasion when he made so brilliant and impressive a speech ;
and looked after him and persuaded him to go away to
rest after its delivery. I felt it a fearful risk ; but he could
not avoid taking it No one could fetter that dauntless
spirit. No one who has had my opportunities can ever
forget the marvellous courage and self-sacrificing love for
his country that Arnold was possessed of. His example
must ever uphold and strengthen those who try to serve the
public." Oakeley told me when he came home, after making this
speech, that he had been sorely afraid that the pain would
overmaster him, and prevent his saying the thing that
he had felt it imperative to say. " If my pain had got
much worse," he said, " I couldn't have done anything
at all." He wrote on March 7 to his sister, Frances Arnold-
Forster : —
"... You will be glad to hear that I got through my
speech without difficulty. After I had once started I had
no trouble at all. But I must confess that I was very
uncomfortable before I started. I was not well, and I was
naturally anxious about my powers, after such a long bout
of illness as I have had. However, as I say, all went well.
I am none the worse."
How amused he was at the account in a Liberal paper
of his " trenchant and vigorous speech, delivered with pluck,
vigour, and resource ; . . . although to the Liberal mind
he seemed altogether on the wrong road, for he attacked
Mr. Haldane's Army scheme from a continental point of
view ; as if this country needed an Army as highly trained
as the French or German armies. . . . Liberals," it added,
" were irritated by his harping on the deficiencies of an

360 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
Army that was never intended to compete with German
militarism." " But good Heavens ! who is our Army going
to compete with ; and what is it for if it is not going to
fight a continental army ? " Oakeley asked.
During these last days he rested a good deal. His
great effort had been made, and he was more content. On
Saturday, he got up to go out to lunch with his friend
General Sir Herbert Plumer, and joined eagerly in the talk
with the soldiers who were present. On Monday, we dined
with Mr. and Mrs. Colefax ; he enjoyed the talk, and was
keen and animated, but he came away early, and he seemed
to me so tired, that I felt sure that yet another page was
being turned, and that another of the pleasures he had
enjoyed so much must in future be renounced. When Dr.
Huxley saw him on Tuesday he counselled bed and com
plete rest for three days ; and, though Oakeley was very
eager to hear the rest of the Army debate, I persuaded him
finally and with difficulty to give this up. " You do not
realise how I feel about this Army business," he said when I
had been dissuading him from further exertion. " Yes," he
added gently, " you do realise wonderfully ; but who else
would?" He stayed in bed, therefore, on Tuesday, Wednesday,
and Thursday, and dictated for some time each morning to
his faithful secretary, Miss E. Davies, to whose devoted
service for seventeen years we owed so much. She wrote
from his dictation a letter to the Standard on the " Special
Reserve " ; the first part of which appeared on Thursday the
iith — the second part appearing on the day of his death.
He began during these days to write a long letter to Mr.
Balfour, and as he wrote it, he read this letter aloud to me.
For the rest of those days I seldom left him, but sat with
him, reading aloud a good deal to him, and working whilst
we talked together.
On Friday morning the 12th, an advance copy of the
Navy Estimates came, and he became very much absorbed
in reading them. He then dictated for a short time, in
tending to get up presently to go out to a lunch to be
given by Tariff Reformers to Mr. Balfour.
I went to his room at eleven o'clock, and told him that

MARCH 12, 1909 361
I was going to meet our sister, Florence Vere O'Brien, who
had just arrived from Ireland. " I know my Flo will come
and see me to-day," Oakeley said, and gave me messages of
his love and loving welcome to his beloved sister. Having
an engagement, I told him that I might be out for some
hours in the afternoon. He smiled and said that it would
be "a fearful waste " if I were away from him for so long, and
that if he were well enough he should come and fetch me
home. When I was about to leave him and to go out, he said,
That there was something he wanted to read to me, and
some things also that he was very anxious to tell me. I
put off going out, and sat by him whilst he read to me the
letter he had been writing to Mr. Balfour and his colleagues,
but which was not yet quite finished. He told me that he
felt this letter to be the vindication of his policy and work
for the Army, and that he wished not only Mr. Balfour, but
all his " colleagues in the late Cabinet " to see it. " I think
some of them will be much interested," he said, " some of
them I know will care very much." This letter, which is
given in full at the end of this book, began thus :¦ —
" Dear Mr. BALFOUR — The sands of my Parliamentary
life are, alas, running out very fast. Before long I shall no
longer have the opportunity of troubling you about current
politics, or the desire to do so. This must be my excuse for
asking you to read what I have to say about a subject which
is very near my heart, and about which I should like you to
understand my position before I say good-bye to public life.
" After having served for two years under you — a fact of
which I shall always be proud — I am not unnaturally anxious
that you should feel that during these two years, despite
the great difficulties under which I worked, I was not
mistaken in the advice which I tendered to you and my
colleagues . . ."
This letter goes on to state the reasons which convinced
him that circumstances would inevitably compel the abandon
ment of the Army policy initiated by Mr. Haldane, and would
render inevitable a return to the cardinal principles of the
Army policy of 1904-5 ; and goes on to show that in many

362 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
directions, steps taken by Mr. Haldane had already been
retraced, and a return to those principles had definitely
begun. The copy of the Naval Estimates was lying by his side ;
he had been busy reading it before I went in. He took it
up as he talked to me, and went cursorily through its pages.
He was in the habit of making careful notes on the Estimates
as he read them, but, before writing these down, he often
liked to talk them over, and to tell me the substance of
what he thought. The gist of what he said would be
embodied in the notes that he made afterwards and kept.
So in this case, as he turned the pages, he spoke about the
different votes as he came to them. He spoke with great
gravity about the programme that was laid down (a pro
gramme that was afterwards increased by the Government).
I think that he dwelt on it with the more emphasis
because of late there had weighed much on his mind the
thought of the immense burden of the armaments of the
future, of the vast spending capacity of Germany and of the
United States, which must be reckoned with in making our
calculations of naval strength, and the immensity of the
armaments that will be necessary if we act up to our accepted
principle of a "two-power standard, plus 10 per cent" as
the standard of our Naval strength. He had dwelt on this
aspect lately in speaking to me about the naval preparations,
but when he saw the Estimates for 1909-10 he was deeply
impressed by their inadequacy, and he seemed eagerly anxious
to explain to me why he looked upon them as insufficient.
He spoke of the inadequate provision of " Dread
noughts " — of the need for the provision of more Destroyers ;
and he spoke of the abandonment by the Government
of the " loan policy," which would have enabled them to
hasten the construction of Rosyth, and of the great need that
existed for such a harbour and dock as Rosyth upon our
eastern coast.
" These," he said, in his eager way, holding up the
Estimates, " are fallacious Estimates, as all this Govern
ment's Estimates are. They throw all the burden forward,
and it will fall with crushing severity in the years to come.
The stores have been depleted in the past, and a part of this

MARCH 12, 1909 363
money is only making up what they have taken out, and not
replaced, since we were in office."
When I left him at last, he gave me messages of affec
tion for his sister. He rose presently to dress, to go out to
meet Mr. Balfour. And at the same moment, Dr. Huxley
called. We had not expected this kind friend to come on
this day, but being near us he was inspired to come in.
Oakeley called to him to wait for a moment until he had
dressed a little ; and Dr. Huxley waited. Hearing a sound,
he thought he had been called. Knocking, he got no
answer, and hurried in to find that Oakeley had sunk back
on his bed.
Death had come, as he had ever prayed it might come,
very quickly, in the midst of life, a life which, up to its last
hour, was gladly given to working for the country he loved
so much. Death had seemed very near to him for months and
years past ; and he had looked it in the face steadily ; being
resolute that it should not affect the manner in which his life
was to be lived, nor the work that he would continue to do
so long as strength was given to him — nor have power to
alter at all his brave and cheerful outlook on the world.
In the letters of those who knew and loved him best —
the letters of friends and colleagues, there recurs over and
over again the same thought — that this was indeed the way
that he would have chosen. With all his powers unimpaired,
greatly loving and loved, able to spend himself on his work
for his country to the very end, death was not " suffered to
take so much as an illusion from him."

Mr. Balfour, speaking of him at a great meeting in
London some weeks later, said : " He was a man of a higher
temper of courage that I have almost ever known. He had
a single eye to the great national and imperial needs which
are filling now so much of our thoughts. He cheerfully and
gladly faced death for many years, conscious that every
great effort he made, by speech or otherwise, might end, as
as it ultimately did end, in his sudden decease ; and yet,
with the shadow of death for ever hanging over him, never

364 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
did I know a man more absolutely absorbed in a great and
unselfish desire to carry out his own public duty, and to see
that the great imperial interests of which he was one of the
trustees did not suffer while he had anything to do with our
national destinies."

THE LETTER TO MR. BALFOUR AND TO HIS COL
LEAGUES THAT WAS LEFT UNFINISHED, MARCH
12, I909. 27 Hereford Square, S.W.
Dear Mr. Balfour — The sands of my Parliamentary life, are, alas,
running out very fast. Before long I shall no longer have the
opportunity of troubling you about current politics, or the desire to
do so. This must be my excuse for asking you to read what I
have to say about a subject which is very near my heart, and about
which I should like you to understand my position before I say
good-bye to public life.
After having served for two years under you — a fact of which
I shall always be proud — I am not unnaturally anxious that you
should feel that during those two years, despite the great difficulties
under which I worked, I was not mistaken in the advice which I
tendered to you and to my colleagues.
I do not pretend to think that you can follow my speeches and
writings very closely ; but, nevertheless, I think you will be aware
that I have from the very outset opposed the new Army policy. I
have not opposed it in any personal or vindictive spirit. I did my
best to co-operate with Haldane, but he would not listen to me ;
and he had not been three months in office before he almost osten
tatiously destroyed that which I had done. What I had done was
in accordance with the beliefs which I have cherished all my life,
and which I still entertain. I opposed the new policy because I
was confident that it could not possibly succeed. I have studied
Army matters for thirty years, and in the light of what I had learnt,
I felt justified in declaring that the new policy must fail ; that it
must fail because it was directly opposed to certain main principles,
the acceptance of which I was certain was necessary to the existence
and welfare of the Army. I went farther. I said in 1906, and I
have continued to declare ever since, that not only would the new
policy fail, but that the force of circumstances would inevitably
compel a return to the old policy.
Now what I should like you to understand is that in regard to
365

366 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
this matter I have been justified by the event. Of the policy as
it was unfolded in 1906 not one stone remains upon another.
No doubt I was considered by many — by you doubtless among
the number — to be a curmudgeon and a prophet of evil, for
saying that no part of the scheme was practicable. And yet time
has proved that I was right. The main principle of the unification
of the Volunteers, Militia, and Yeomanry has been abandoned ;
the transfer of the Militia to the County Associations has been
abandoned; the "Special Contingent," as originally designed, has
disappeared ; the drafting of the Militia by companies has gone ;
the reduction of the pay of the Yeomanry to that of the Regular
Cavalry has been given up ; the imposition of the ^5 fine upon
Volunteers failing to complete their term of enlistment is not to
be enforced. The promised exclusion of Volunteers who cannot
accept six months' embodiment has been abandoned. The reduc
tion of the Horse and Field Artillery by 67 officers and 3712 men
had been abandoned ; the original estimate of cost of the Terri
torial Army has been abandoned. I might continue the list, but it
is unnecessary to do so. I will only point out once more that while
I received little enough support in my contention that none of the
proposals referred to could possibly be effective, time has proved
that I was correct.
The scheme of 1906 has been followed by various other schemes,
parts of which still hold the field. Of these new schemes I have
expressed very much the same opinion as I did of the original
proposals ; and I will ask you whether after all, there is not already
ample evidence that I was justified in my condemnation.
I condemned the reduction of the Horse and Field Artillery,
and declared that the policy laid down that 67 officers and nearly
4000 men were to be abolished was wrong and must be reversed.
As early as March 1906 I objected to the policy of turning the
whole of the Militia Artillery into regular Field Artillery. I con
tended that if the thing were done at all, it should be limited to
the dimensions of the experiment proposed in 1905. I said that
on the scale proposed it ought not to succeed, and could not
succeed. It has now failed, and the experiment is to be reduced to
the exact dimensions advocated by me in 1905.
As you know well, the enlistment of some thousands of regular
artillerymen for short service formed an integral part of the scheme
of 1905. The plan was denounced in all the moods and tenses,
and the present Secretary of State, I might almost say con
temptuously, reversed what I had done. But what do we see
now ? Five thousand artillerymen are to be enlisted on the exact
terms I proposed.
I was reviled for suggesting that men enlisted for short service
should be retained at home save in time of war. Much eloquence

LETTER TO MR. BALFOUR 367
was expended to prove that these men could never be regarded as
soldiers, and that their existence side by side with long-service men
was incompatible with the interests of the Service. And yet within
the last few days it has been admitted in response to a question,
that the whole of the 5000 artillerymen now to be enlisted are to
serve upon these very conditions, and are not to go abroad, except
in time of war.
I protested, and in this case I admit I had some support,
against the reduction of 33 batteries to impotence by placing
them upon a two-gun establishment. I contended, as I have
done for years past, that so far from having too much artillery, we
had too little. That the Indian Army and the Auxiliary Forces
both required regular artillery, and that apart from this, casualties
in the field might always be expected to reduce the regular
artillery. Again, what has happened ? The greater part of the
condemned batteries are to be resuscitated, and the correspondent
ofthe Times, who was foremost in condemning me, is now equally
forward in supporting my contention that we require a surplus for
the purposes to which I have referred.
I condemned the reduction of the infantry battalions, and also
the general reduction of the infantry. Again what has happened ?
Through the reduction we have lost over 500 trained ofiicers and
nearly 2000 N.C.O.'s. Haldane has admitted that all the infantry
establishments must be raised, though he proposes to leave the task
of raising them to his successors. The military correspondent of
the Times declares it to be essential that the 10,000 infantry who
have been got rid of should be replaced by 12,000 fresh men.
About the Special Reserve I have from the beginning been
perfectly consistent. I have said that whereas the principle of a
short service home Army, based upon the Militia, was correct, the
method of applying it as exemplified in the organisation of the
Special Reserve was absolutely wrong. I have declared that the
Reserve would be useless if it could be created on such a basis,
but that, as a matter of fact, it could not possibly come into
existence on the lines laid down. Word for word, and letter for
letter, I have been justified. I saw that you accepted Haldane's
correction of your criticism with regard to the Reserve. You could
not do otherwise. But you were perfectly correct. The Reserve
has broken down utterly, and the figures that have been given to
Parliament and the country are altogether misleading. The artillery
portion of the Reserve was to consist of 14,500 men. It is now to
be reduced to 6000 men, this part of the scheme being an admitted
failure. The Army Service contingent was to be 1000 rank and
file ; its actual strength is 50. The infantry was to number 58,588 ;
it actually numbers 55,301. But how is this figure arrived at? It
includes 37,799 men who are simply the remains of the old Militia

368 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER
serving on to finish their term. It includes also 11,055 men who
are still serving at the depots, and of whom not 20 per cent will
ever go to the Reserve at all. The total number actually dis
charged at the conclusion of their training is 7681. But, as we
have been since informed, a large number of these have since gone
on to the Army, and are, therefore, wrongly included in the Special
Reserve. Of the little remnant, the greater number are boys who
are notoriously unfit for the Army, or who, being under standard,
remain in the Reserve until they have added on the necessary
inches. Such is the real composition of this force. But no figures,
and no words that I can use, will give you a conception what the
force, as I have seen it, really is. The idea of pitting these
children against the trained troops of a European Army is as
foolish as it is wicked.
From the very outset I have declared that no officers would or
could be obtained for the Special Reserve. I have been proved
only too sorrowfully right. For an establishment of 80,000 men
exactly 100 officers have been obtained. Counting in all the
surviving Militia officers, there is already a deficiency of 1573
lieutenants on an establishment of 1907, of 647 second lieutenants
on an establishment of 1073. The sergeants, I believe, are over
2000 short. Of the new officers 50 have been obtained for the
infantry. Of these 32 are officially stated to have joined merely
for the purpose of getting into the Army by a short cut, leaving
18 officers for the whole of the 58,588 infantry. I think you will
admit that the destructive part of my criticism of the Special
Reserve has not been very wide of the mark. Perhaps you may
think this some reason for accepting my constructive view. This
was embodied in the policy of 1905. I have always declared that
in order to make the Special Reserve effective, the establishment of
the units must be increased and the length of service extended. In
other words, that the short-service battalions so ruthlessly destroyed
in 1906 must be re-created. You will see that this will be done.
I did my best to convince you and my colleagues in the Cabinet
that concurrent enlistment for long and short service was not only
the correct solution of our problem from the military point of view,
but also from the financial point of view. You may perhaps have
observed that Haldane, having now adopted the system on military
grounds, has specially pointed out in his Memorandum that it is
not only the best, but the cheapest.
And while I am on finance, I should like to point out that
here, too, the advice I ventured to give was correct. I said that,
without destroying units, the cost of the regular Army under the
Cardwell system could not be diminished. It has only been
diminished by destroying nine units and getting rid of 20,000
men.

LETTER TO MR. BALFOUR 369
The Secretary of State has officially declared that the cost of
the Army in 1905 was less than the Army Estimates for 1908-9.
You have doubtless noted that the Army Estimates for this year
are, in fact, higher than those for 1908-9.
I have steadily maintained that the estimates for the Territorial
Army were illusory and must be greatly increased. They have
already been increased by half a million, and the real cost has not
yet been touched.
With regard to barrack building and loan expenditure, I have
pointed out every session that the House of Commons was being
misled, that loan expenditure was not being transferred to the
votes, but that work was simply being left undone. We have now
an official declaration of the correctness of this statement. Haldane
has announced that a great scheme of barrack building has been
elaborated, and this year the paltry sum of ,£64,000 is taken for
new barracks. The cost of barracks, of ranges, of manoeuvre
grounds is all being thrown forward on to future years, as you will
eventually find out.
I must not forget the question of the cavalry. Presuming upon
the ignorance and apathy of the House of Commons, the Secretary
of State declared the other day that, as a result of much profound
thought, and as the outcome of the deliberations of a Special Com
mittee, it had been decided to create six large depots for the cavalry,
to abandon the system of linking, and to send men direct from the
depots to their regiments. The Secretary of State did not mention
that this policy was simply a return to the policy of 1905, which he
had deliberately arrested. There lies before me a passage taken
from my book, The Army in igo6, written in March of that year.
The passage runs as follows : —

[Letter ends.]

2 B

TITLES OF BOOKS AND OF THE PRINCIPAL
ARTICLES CONTRIBUTED BY H. O. ARNOLD-
FORSTER TO REVIEWS, 1881 TO 1909 '
88 1. A Civilian's Answer to Sir Garnet Wolseley (Nineteenth
Century).
88 1. The Gladstone Government and Ireland (North American
Review).
882. The Truth about the Land League.
883. The Balkhan Provinces in 1883 (Contemporary Review).
883. Outcast London (Nineteenth Century).
883. The Dwellings of the Poor (Nineteenth Century*).
883. Our Position as a Naval Power {Nineteenth Century).
883. The Liberal Idea in the Colonies (Nineteenth Century).
884. What to do and how to do it. (A Manual of the Law
affecting Housing and Sanitary Conditions of Londoners).
884. The People versus their Naval Officials (Nineteenth Century).
885. England on the Admiralty (Nineteenth Century).
886, Shall we desert the Loyalists? (Nineteenth Century).
886. The Citizen Reader. Cassell & Co.
886. Our Superstition about Constantinople (Nineteenth Century).
886. Pamphlets published by the Irish Loyal and Patriotic
Union and Pamphlets published by the Imperial
Federation League.
Laws of Everyday Life. Cassell & Co.
Catalogue of the Educational Exhibits sent from England
to the Melbourne Exhibition.
How to Solve the Irish Land Question (Ni?ieteenth Century).
In a Conning Tower (Murray's Magazine). Afterwards
published by Cassell & Co.
Our Estates in South Africa. Pamphlet.
889. An English View of Irish Secession (Political Science
Quarterly).
1 89 1. How to Utilise the Naval Volunteers {Nineteenth Century).
1 Letters and articles contributed to newspapers are not included in this list,
nor the contributions which he so often wrote for the Imperial Federation League,
and for the political associations in which he was interested.
37'

372 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER

1891
1893
1894
18941895189618971897 18981898
18981899190019001900190019001903190719071908 1909

This World of Ours. Cassell & Co.
Things New and Old. English History Readers in seven
volumes. Cassell & Co.
Questions in the House on Naval Matters (National
Review).
Gibraltar, an Offer and a Refusal.
The Emperor's new Clothes (National Review).
Sisyphus in Ireland.
New French Naval Programme (Cosmopolis).
History of England.
A Daniel come to Judgment (National Review).
The Army and the Government's Opportunity (Nineteenth
Century).
The Truth about the Home Battalions (United Service
Magazine).
The Coming of the Kilogram (on the metrical system).
Cassell.
Our Great City. Cassell & Co.
The War Office and the War (National Review).
Insufficient Proposals of the War Office (Nineteenth
Century).
The War Office, the Army, and the Empire. Cassell.
Report of the South African Land Settlement Commission.
The Case for Enquiry (a pamphlet on our fiscal system).
The Army in igo6. John Murray.
The Political Situation (National Review).
English Socialism of To-day. Smith, Elder & Co.
Military Needs and Military Policy. Smith, Elder & Co.

INDEX

Admiralty, Board of —
Parliamentary Secretary to, no, 127,
163-4, 167-208
Minute and Memorandum on Naval
education, 188-93
Administration, 173-8, 185-208,
320-2, 343 foil. ; see also North-
brook ; Selborne
Intelligence Department, 178, 196-
200
See also Navy
Africa, South —
Colonies: Bechuanaland, 1 15-7;
Cape Colony, 115-21 ; Chartered
Company, 1 18 ; annexation and
development of colonies, 148 foil. ;
visit to, 149-66 ; Land Settlement
Commission, 148-65 ; forests, 152
War: 143-7, I48, 155 /"#•, 182-4,
231 ; article on, 143-7 ; entry into
Pretoria, 158-60; Royal Com
mission on, 231, 236, 258, 304 ;
Commission on Stores, 282, 286 ;
lessons of, 143-7, 182-4
Anson, Sir W., 26
Army —
Army Letters, articles, etc. : 82-6,
127-8, 148-9, 157, 305-7, 326, 337,
340-1, 342-52, 360
Royal Commissions on : 84-5, 252,
255. 300, 357
Condition and reform : 41, 82-6,
144-7, 162, 198, 201, 224
Reform policy (1903-5): 231-74;
Memorandum on, 236-41, 243-4,
283 ; an Advisory Committee,
280-2 ; summary of scheme, 298-
300
Army Council. See War Office
Reconstitution Committee. See War
Office
Decentralisation Scheme : 277 foil.
Intelligence Department. See War
Office
Estimates and expenditure : 85, 146,
231-2, 234 foil, 241, 245, 247-64,
269-71, 282, 295, 299-300, 302-7,
344, 348-9, 356, 368-9

Army — continued —
Organisation of: system of enlist
ment, 235-7, 257, 265, 269, 283,
291, 303, 327, 345, 348, 351"2,
357, 366-7 ; Memorandum on,
235-41, 243 ; Army Corps, 232,
244, 250-51, 257 ; Reserve (Regu
lar), 41, 146, 236, 238, 239, 289,
29S, 351-2, 358 ; Militia, 146, 237,
261-3, 266, 268-71, 273, 283-4,
290, 299, 326-7, 351-2, 366-7, see
Reserve, Special ; Volunteers and
Yeomanry, 146, 248-9, 255, 266-8,
273, 284-5, 289, 290, 296, 299-
300, 326, 346, 366; universal train
ing, 347-9 ; General Staff, 146,
201, 237, 290-4, 358, and Memo
randum, 292-5 ; Home Service,
82-6, 238 foil., 269, 271, 275, 279,
283, 351-2 ; Oversea Service, 84,
162, 235, 237 foil, 253, 257, 258,
343, 348, 351"2 ; depots, 237, 283,
291, 294, 298-9 ; barracks, 208,
237, 358, 369
See also Defence ; War Office
Arnold, Dr., 1-3, 131, 136, 356; Mrs.
Arnold (Mary Penrose), I - 5 ;
Matthew, 3, 5, 29, 62, 356, (letters
of) 13, 14, 138-40, (quoted) 1, 3,
7, 9-10, 154-5; Thomas, 3;
Edward, 3, 5 ; William Delafield,
3, 6-10, 125 ; Frances, 3, 4, 143,
337 ; Mrs. W. D. (Frances Hodg
son), 7, 8; Edward A., 72, 78,
99-100; William, 64
See also Cropper, Mrs. ; Forster,
Mrs.
Arnold-Forster, Edward, 7, 9, 225,
337-8 ; Florence, see O'Brien,
Mrs. ; Frances, 8, 138, 251-2,
256-7, 359 ; Mrs. H. O. (Mary
Story - Maskelyne) 51, 62, 140,
169-70, (letters to) 51-2, 155-69,
213-14
Arnold-Forster, H. O.—
Birth and parentage, 1-7 ; child
hood in India, 7-9 ; Wharfeside,
10-14 ; influence of Mr. and Mrs.

373

374 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER

Forster, vii, 14-16, 21, 48-9, 65,
93-5, 114, 13$ foil., 142, 182-3,
226, 353 ; schooldays, 22-4 ; Ox
ford, 24-7 ; at the Bar, 28-30, 62 ;
work at Cassell's, 62-3, 81, 82 ;
marriage, 62; children, 78, 123,
129, 130, 133, 138, 156, 306, 337,
354 ; foreign travels, 47-8, 123-9,
272-3, 308-25, 335-7 ; recreation,
123, 126-7, 272-3; articles, etc.,
34, 40-5, 48-50, 54-6, 72-86, 114,
1 19-21, 195-200, 202-5, 219-20,
328-9, see also Army ; books, 63-5,
70-2, 132-5, 144-8, 305-7, 329-31,
341 fall. ; list of works, 371-2 ;
connection with Ireland, 21-39, 87,
93, 104, 149-66 ; organisation of
Printing Trades, 63, 80-2 ; Secre
tary of Federation Committee, 44 ;
Chairman of S. African Com
mission, 149-66 ; technical know
ledge of naval and military
questions, 53-4, 73, 128, 173, 201,
229, 354 ; leaves Liberal party,
49-51, 66-7 ; member for W.
Belfast, 87-92, etc. ; speaks in the
House, 96-ico, 102, 114, 121, 173,
178-9, 247-50, 258-61, 265-71, 284,
326, 332, 356-9 ; on Service Com
mittee, 1 10 ; Pari. Secretary to
Admiralty, no, 127, 163-4, 166-
80, 185-208 ; Secretary of State
for War, 224-95 '> member for
Croydon, 302, 338 ; his death, 363
Bacon, Lord, quoted, 120
Balfour, Rt. Honble. A. J., and his
administration, vii, 103, no, 195,
198, 220, 225, 251, 258, 2S0-1,
294, 340, 360 fall., 365-9
Balkan Provinces, visit to, 48
Basset Down, Wroughton, 62, 130, 160,
306, 307, 354
Beaconsfield, Lord, 20, 27, 64
Beckett, Mr., 257-8
Belfast, 39, 301 ; elections in West
Division, (1892) 87-93, (1895) 113,
(1900) 149-50; by-election, 234
Belfast (S. Africa), 150
Beresford, Lord C., 105, 106, 108
Berlin Conference, 27
Blouet, P. (Max O'Rell), 64-5
Bradley, Dean, 24, 170
Bright, Rt. Honble. John, 14, 64, 68
Brodrick, Rt. Honble. St. J., 235, 258,
302
Buller, General Sir Redvers, 169-70
Butler, General Sir W., 282
Campbell-Bannerman, Sir H., 261
Canada, 140, 211-13, 343
Carlyle, Thomas, 17-18

Carson, Rt. Honble. Sir E., 104
Cavendish, Lord F. , 36, 38
Chamberlain, Rt. Honble. Joseph, 43,
96, 97, 149, 209, 213-4, 217, 218,
220, 223, 252 ; Rt. Honble. Austen,
251, 252
Chartered Company Government, 118-
121
Churchill, Lord R., quoted, 86, 209^
Clarke, Sir G. S., 234, 235, 243,
280
Cobden, R., 14, 210
Coleridge, S. T. , quoted, 143
Coleridge, Lord, 29
Colomb, Sir John, 46, 1 10
Commerce, Chamber of, 105, 109, 211,
217
Connaught, H.R.H. the Duke of, 246
Cropper, Mrs. J. W. (Susannah
Arnold), 3, 42, 142
Croydon, 302, 338
Darlington, candidature for, 68
Defence —
Principles and organisation of, viii,
144-7, 173-80, 195-201, 257, 260,
264, 295, 298, 320-1, 342-4, etc.
Imperial Defence Committee, 195-
201, 243, 343 »., 344; Memor
andum on, 195 fall.
Naval Defence Act, 105
Co-operation of Services, 85, 144-5,
197-8, 275, 343
Equipment of other powers, 105-8,
147, 179, 229, 357, 359-60, 362, 368
See also Army ; Navy ; War
Delhi, 9
Dewsbury, candidature for, 69-70, 104
Dharmsala, 8
Dickson-Poynder, Sir J., 258
Dilke, Rt. Honble. Sir C, 97, 98,
no, 179
Donoughmore, Lord, 228, 234
Dudley, Lord and Lady, 309, 311, 313,
316
Duff, Sir M. Grant, quoted, 40
Education : national, on patriotic lines,
46, 63, 70-2, 132-5 ; naval, 185-
194
Edward, H.M. King, 295
Egypt, policy of Government in, 49-50
Empire —
Commerce and development of: 148
fall., 209-14, 217-21, 308-9
Defence of. See Defence
Federation of: 19, 20, 21, 43-7, 102,
140, 144-7, 212, 371 n.
Esher, Lord, 234, 242, 280
Farrer, Lord, 210

INDEX

375

Ferguson, Sir J., 312, 316, 31S
Fiscal systems, 209-21, 340
Fisher, Admiral Sir J. (Lord Fisher),
190, 191, 234
Forster, Rt. Honble. W. E. : 16, 21 ;
Education Minister, 20 ; Chief
Secretary for Ireland, 20, 21, 29,
30; life endangered, 36-7 ; Empire
Federation, 19, 20, 21, 44-6; re
lations with the Queen, 171 ; on
his son's career, 48-9 ; writes pre
face to Citizen Reader, 63-5 ; his
death, 65 ; Memoir, 17, 77, 139
Forster, Mrs. (Jane Arnold) : 5, 10, 16,
37, 182-3, 335-6 ; letters from M.
Arnold, 13-14; letters of, 26-8,
96-97, 139-40, 142 ; her illness and
death, 142-3
Fox How, 3-6, 137, 143, 337
Free Trade, 209-14, 217-22
Friends, Society of, it fall., 40, 6S
Frique, Colonel, 336-7
Garvin, Mr., quoted, vii
Gibraltar : described, 125-7 ; defence
of, 107, 109, 125-6, 174-5
Gladstone, Rt. Honble. and his ad
ministration, 14, 16, 20, 35, 52>
54. 57-9, 97, 98, 103
Goschen, Lord, 114, 125, 172, 175
Haldane, Rt. Honble. R. H. and his
policy, 250, 294 «., 297, 298, 300,
302-4, 326-8, 342 fall., 356, 359
fall, 36s fall.
Hamilton, General Sir Ian, 234, 246
Harris, Mr. Leverton, 218, 220, 227-8,
272, 286 foil. , 305
Harrington, Lord, 20, 84
Henley, Mr. W. E., 79, 80, 114
(quoted), 80, 167
Hodge, Sir R. H., 338
Huxley, Dr. H. , 353, 360, 363
India : 6-9 ; the Mutiny, 6, 8, 9 ; East
India Company, 9, 120- 1 ; Gar
rison army, 235, 238, 239, 343,
3&7
Ireland- Condition in 1881-2, 30-9; Land
League, 29-36, 67, 87, 89 ; W. E.
Forster's administration, 20, 21,
29, 30 ; Bills, 31-3, 38 ; Parnellite
party, 30, 31, 34, 37-8, 88, 95 ;
Kilmainham Treaty, 37-8 ; Home
Rule policy, 66-9, 97, 103-4, 301 ;
Ulster and the Union, 69, 87-92,
104; Belfast, 39, 87-93, "3, H9"
150, 217, 234, 301 ; Meath election,
95-6 ; fiscal legislation, 214-7
Jamaica, visit to, 308-24

Johannesburg, 161-2
Jones, Sir A., 308 fall.
Kay-Shuttleworth, Sir U., 105, no
Kerr, Lord W. , 191-2
Kingston (Jamaica), 309-24
Cotton Conference, 308- n
Earthquake, 308-25
Kipling, R., quoted, 73, 148
Kitchener, Lord, 156-7, 162, 165, 228,
234
Knysna (S. Africa), 153
Kruger, President, 115, 119
Lagden, Sir G., 161, 164
Lansdowne, Lord, 162, 271, 276
Long, Rt. Honble. Walter, 278
Longfellow, quoted, 123
Loring, Mr. A., ix, 149, 164, 228
Lytlleton, Honble. A., 332, 359
Marker, Major, ix, 128
May, Sir W. , 205, 206
M'Call, Mr. R. A., 28-30
Meredith, G., quoted, 353
Militia. See Army
Milner, Lord, 150, 153, 162
Milnes, Monkton (Lord Houghton),
I7> 18
Morley, Lord, 66, 68
Murray, Sir G. , 280
Navy —
Equipment and reform of: 52-61, 83,
105-9, :74> 176-S, 196, 362
Gibraltar and the Mediterranean, 107,
109, 174-6
Naval Defence Act, 105. See also
Defence
Estimates and expenditure, 56, 59,
176-80, 232-3, 260, 349, 360,
362-3
Accommodation on ships, 54, 1 10-
"3
Scheme of training, 185-94
Standardisation of dimensions, etc.,
201-6
Victualling department, 206-8
Manoeuvres, 82, 275, 305
See also Admiralty, Board of; De
fence
Newbolt, H., quoted, 131
Nicholson, Sir W., 234, 246, 293
Norfolk, Duke of, commission under,
255, 300
Northbrook, Lord, 56
O'Brien, Mrs. R. V., (Florence Arnold-
Forster), 11, 92, 140; letters to,
32, 77-9, 180-4, 191-2, 214-7, 220-
221, 226-7, 252-3, 255-6, 272-3, 276-
277, 286, 2S8-9, 291-2, 296-7, 306-7,

376 HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER

326-8, 332-3, 335-6, 338-41, 361,
363
Ottawa Conference, 140
Oxford, 24-6, 48-9
Parkin, Dr., 45-6
Parliament —
Mr. Gladstone's Government : 20,
3°-i, 33-5, 49-52, 54, 86, 89, 95,
98, 103-4, etc.
Lord Salisbury's Government: 114,
162, 163, 170
Mr. Balfour's Government : Fiscal Re
form party, 208-21 ; War Minister,
26, 224 fall., 231-95; attitude of
Government towards Army Re -
form, 198, 250-1, 261, 271, 280-2 ;
attitude of Opposition towards
Army and Navy, 179, 245, 261,
271, 284, 285; motion for adjourn
ment, 257-8 ; resignation, 294
Sir H. Campbell - Bannerman's
Government, 302, 340
Mr. Asquith's Government : Army
and Navy policy, 361-3. See also
Haldane, Mr.
Parnell, C. S. , and party, 30, 31, 34,
38, 88, 95
Peace, Thanksgiving Service for,
182-4
Penrose, John (of Gluvias), I, 2 ;
(of Exmouth), 22-3
Perceval, Dr., quoted, 2-3
Plumer, General, Sir H., 150, 228,
243, 297-8, 360
Pretoria, 156-61, 183
Pretyman, Mr., 172
Printing and Allied Trades, 80-2
Reserve, Regular. See Army
Reserve, Special, 262, 299 »., 348, 351
fall., 360, 367, 368
Rhodes, Mr. Cecil, 117-21, 153-5, l6l
Roberts, Field Marshal Lord, 9, 150,
153. ^ fall., 228, 234, 340 fall,
349- 354
Rosebery, Lord, 44, 46, 144, 147, 223
Rugby, 23
Ruskin, John, 25, 47, 64
Russell, Lord, 19, 20
Russia, Navy of : 108 ; North Sea in
cident, 276-7 ; War with Japan,
246, 254, 263, 287, 304
Salisbury, Lord, 26, 114, 163, 167,
168, 170
Scotland, visits to, 272, 287, 288-9,
337
Selborne, Lord : 26, 162, 171, 172, 175,

191 ; Memorandum on Naval train
ing, 190-3, 195
Shovel, Sir Cloudesley, quoted, 101
Shute, Colonel, 148, 155, 228
Socialism, 328-31
Somaliland Expedition, 247, 250 n.
Standardisation. See Navy
Stanley, Dean, 2, 136
Stead, Mr. W. T., 57-9
Stevenson, R. L., quoted, 333
Story-Maskelyne, Mr. N., 62, 169, 306
Tangier, visit to, 126-7
Tariff Reform, 209-21, 227, 360
Temple, Dr., 23, 24
Thames, shipping on the, 128-9, 230
Thursfield, Mr. J. R., 170, quoted, 185,
186
Townsend, Mr. Meredith, quoted, 10
Victoria, H.M. Queen, 17 1-2, 180
Volunteers. See Army
Wallas, Mr. Graham, quoted, 222
War, organisation and equipment for,
85, 100, 105, 144-7, 173-9, 195-
200, 236, 238, 239, 276, 285, 290,
295, 298-9, 303, 306-7, 328, 342-6,
357. etc.
See also Army ; Navy ; Defence
War Office-
War Ministers : Mr. Arnold-Forster,
224-95 ; Mr- Haldane, 297-369
Administration of: 146, 162, 231-2,
274, 289-90 ; officials, 228, 234,
297-8; Army Council, 241-6, 249,
251, 253, 268, 270, 272, 284, 289
fall., 344, 352 ; Intelligence Depart
ment, 196 fall., 234; Reconstitu
tion Committee, 234, 235, 241 fall.,
250, 251, 258, 277-8 ; Decentralisa
tion Scheme, 277 ; Army Orders,
277, 292, 294
See also Army
West Indies, visit to, 308-25
Westminster: 131, 229-30, 356; flag on
Victoria Tower, 98-9
Wharfeside, 10-14, 138
Whitechapel, work in, 42
Whitworth, Sir J., 201-2
Wordsworth, William, quoted, 12
Wyatt, Sir T., quoted, 40
Wyllie, Mr. W., R.A., 128-9
Wyndham, Rt. Honble. George, 102-3,
245. 251
Yarnall, Mr. Ellis, quoted, 12
Yeomanry. See Army

Printed by R. & R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh.

Telegrams : 41 and 43 Maddox Street,
« Scholarly, London. c A, c ,„,
_ , , Bond Street, London, W.
Telephone :
No. 18S3 Mayfair. November, 1910.

Mr. Edward Arnold's
LIST OF NEW BOOKS,

l9

10.

THE LIFE OF THE RIGHT HON.
CECIL JOHN RHODES,
l853— 19°2-
By the Hon. Sir LEWIS MICHELL,
Member of the Executive Council, Cape Colony.
Two Volumes. With Illustrations. Demy 8vo., 30s. net.
This important work will take rank as the standard biography
of one of the greatest of modern Englishmen. Sir Lewis Michell,
who has been engaged on the work for five years, is an executor of
Mr. Rhodes's will and a Trustee of the Rhodes Estate. He was
an intimate personal friend of Mr. Rhodes for many years, and has
had access to all the papers at Groote Schuur. Hitherto, although
many partial appreciations of the great man have been published in
the Press or in small volumes, no complete and well-informed life of
him has appeared. The gap has now been filled by Sir Lewis
Michell so thoroughly that we have in these two volumes what will
undoubtedly be the final estimate of Mr. Rhodes's career for many
years to come. The author, although naturally in sympathy with
his subject, writes with independence and discernment on the many
critical questions of the time ; his narrative is very lucid and very
interesting, and the reader is made to feel the dominating personality
of Mr. Rhodes in every phase of South African history and develop
ment. It is no small tribute to the book to say that, after reading
it, even those who never met Mr. Rhodes can well understand the
magic influence he seemed to exert upon all who came in contact
with him in his life-time.

LONDON : EDWARD ARNOLD, 41 & 43 MADDOX STREET, W.

z Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.
THE REMINISCENCES OF ADMIRAL
MONTAGU.
With Illustrations. One Volume. Demy 8vo., cloth. 15s. net.
The Author of this entertaining book, Admiral the Hon. Victor
Montagu, has passed a long life divided between the amusements
of aristocratic society in this country and the duties of naval
service afloat in many parts of the world. His memory recalls
many anecdotes of well-known men — among them the famous
' Waterloo ' Marquis of Anglesey, who was his grandfather, Lord
Sydney, Sir Harry Keppel, Sir Edmund Lyons, Hobart Pasha,
and others. Admiral Montagu is a distinguished yachtsman,
and a well-known figure at Cowes, which forms the scene of some
extremely interesting episodes. He was honoured with the
personal friendship of the late King Edward VII. and of the
German Emperor, by whom his seamanship, as well as his social
qualities, was highly esteemed. As a sportsman he has some
thing to say about shooting, fishing, hunting, and cricket, and his
stories of life in the great country houses where he was a frequent
guest have a flavour of their own. The Admiral had no love for
'the City,' and his denunciation of the pitfalls that await amateur
'children in finance' will have many sympathizers. He is a type
of the real British sailor, and is at his best in recording naval
exploits and adventures, of which a goodly number fell to his lot.
CLARA NOVELLO'S REMINISCENCES.
With an Introductory Memoir by
ARTHUR DUKE COLERIDGE.
Illustrated. One Volume. Demy Svo, 10s. 6d. net.
The forthcoming Reminiscences of Clara Novello were compiled by
her daughter, Contessa Valeria Gigliucci, from the great singer's manu
script notes. They give charmingly vivid pictures of her early life, when
Charles Lamb and all manner of distinguished literary and musical
people were frequent guests at her father's house. After her mar
riage with Count Gigliucci she lived in Italy, and there are various
interesting side-lights on the stirring times of the Risorgimento and
the unification of the kingdom of Italy.
The reminiscences are written in a pleasant, talkative style, with
out any great literary pretensions, and are marked by singular
modesty and refinement. As the writer takes it for granted that the
surroundings of music in her day are familiar to all her readers, it

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements. 3
has been thought expedient to supplement her memories by an
introductory memoir by Mr. Arthur Duke Coleridge, who, as a young
amateur tenor, had the honour of singing with Clara Novello on
several occasions. He tells us of what oratorios were like at
Exeter Hall in the days of Lindley and Dragonetti ; and describes
the singing of Clara Novello herself for those who never had the
luck to hear her. A little-known poem of Lamb is included in
the volume, which contains also several portraits of the singer and
her relations.

HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER.
21 /Iftemolr.
By HIS WIFE.
With Portraits and other Illustrations. Demy 8vo., cloth. 15s. net.
It happens but rarely that the wife of a public man is in a position
to write a memoir of him, but if it be true that an autobiography is
the most interesting of all records of a career, surely that which
comes nearest to it is the memoir written by a wife in close sympathy
with the aims and ideals, the difficulties and triumphs of her
husband. Mr. Arnold-Forster's father, William Delafield Arnold
(a son of Dr. Thomas Arnold, Headmaster of Rugby), having died
while he was still a child, he was adopted by the Right Hon. W. E.
Forster, his uncle by marriage. He was educated at Rugby and
University College, Oxford, where he took a First-Class in Modern
History. He was afterwards called to the Bar, but soon became
immersed in political life. During the stormy years of 1880- 1882
he was private secretary to Mr. W. E. Forster, then Chief Secretary
for Ireland, and shared all the difficulties and dangers due to the
disturbed state of the country. Mr. Arnold-Forster entered Parlia
ment as Member for West Belfast in 1892, and represented that con
stituency for thirteen years. In 1906 he was elected for Croydon, for
which he continued to sit until his death in 1909. His first official
appointment was as Chairman of the Land Settlement Commission
sent to South Africa in 1900. While there he received the offer of
the Secretaryship to the Admiralty, and held the post until 1903.
He then became Secretary of State for War at a critical period in
the history of Army reorganization, and went out of office on the fall
ofthe Unionist Government in 1905.
This memoir is extremely interesting throughout from a political
standpoint, It will also enable the reader to appreciate the universal
respect felt for Mr. Arnold-Forster's high motives and strong prin
ciples in Parliament, and the warm affection for him cherished by
all who had the privilege of knowing him in private life.

4 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.
UNEXPLORED SPAIN.
By ABEL CHAPMAN,
Author of ' Wild Norway,' etc.,
And WALTER J. BUCK,
British Vice-Consul at Jerez.
With 200 Illustrations by the AUTHOR, E. CALDWELL, and others,
and Photographs.
Super Royal 8vo. 21s. net.
In Europe Spain is certainly far and away the wildest of wild
lands — due as much to her physical formation as to any historic or
racial causes. Whatever the precise reason, the fact remains that
wellnigh one-half of Spain to-day lies wholly waste and barren —
abandoned to wild beasts and wild birds. Naturally the Spanish
fauna remains one of the richest and most varied in Europe.
It is of these wild regions and of their wild inhabitants that the
authors write, backed by lifelong experience. Spain, in this sense,
is virgin ground, unoccupied save by our authors themselves. Their
' Wild Spain,' written in 1892, was widely appreciated, and for
many years past has commanded a fancy price.
The present work represents nearly forty years of constant study, of
practical experience in field and forest, combined with systematic
note-taking and analysis by men who are recognised as specialists in
their selected pursuits. These comprise every branch of sport with
rod, gun, and rifle ; and, beyond all that, the ability to elaborate the
results in the light of modern zoological science.
The illustrations have been prepared from life-sketches made upon
the spot, and include many studies of the rarer or vanishing forms
of animal life, as well as some photographs by H.R.H. Philippe,
Duke of Orleans.
FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA
By SAINTHILL EARDLEY-WILMOT, CLE.,
Lately Inspector-General of Forests to the Indian Government ; Commissioner
under the Development and Road Improvement Funds Act.
With Illustrations from Photographs by MABEL EARDLEY-WILMOT.
Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.
The Author of this volume was appointed to the Indian Forest
Service in days when the Indian Mutiny was fresh in the minds of
his companions, and life in the department full of hardships, loneli
ness, and discomfort. These drawbacks, however, were largely
compensated for by the splendid opportunities for sport of all kinds
which almost every station in the Service offered, and it is in
describing the pursuit of game that the most exciting episodes of the
book are to be found. What Mr. Eardley-Wilmot does not know
about tiger-shooting cannot be worth knowing, for in addition to
having bagged several score, he has many a time watched them

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements. 5
without intention of firing at them. Spotted deer, wild buffaloes,
mountain goats, sambhar, bears, and panthers, are the subject of
endless yarns, in the relation of which innumerable useful hints,
often the result of failure and even disasters, are given. Tbe author,
moreover, from the nature of his calling, is deeply impregnated with
the natural history and love of the forests and their inhabitants — in
fact, he possesses the power of holding up a mirror, as it were, in
which his reader can observe the whole life of the forest reflected.
Of his professional life the author gives some most interesting
particulars, and reveals to the uninitiated what a many-sided career
is that of a Conservator of Indian Forests, whose life is spent in
assisting Nature to yield her harvest of woody growth.
IN FORBIDDEN SEAS.
IRecollectfone or 5ea=©tter Ibunttng in tbe ffcurlla.
By H. J. SNOW, F.R.G.S.,
Author of ' Notes on the Kuril Islands.'
Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.
The Author of this interesting book has had an experience probably
unique in an almost unknown part of the world. The stormy wind
swept and fog-bound regions of the Kuril Islands, between Japan
and Kamchatka, have rarely been visited save by the adventurous
hunters of the sea-otter, and the animal is now becoming so scarce
that the hazardous occupation of these bold voyagers is no longer
profitable. For many years, from 1873 to 1888, Captain Snow
persevered — years of varying success, sometimes fraught with an
ample return, but more often ending in disaster and shipwreck. The
list of vessels engaged in the business over a lengthy period, which
Captain Snow has compiled, shows that scarcely a single one
escaped a violent end, and the loss of life among their crews was
enormous. Hunting the sea-otter was indeed just the sort of
speculative venture in which bold and restless spirits are always
tempted to engage. In a lucky season the prizes were very great,
for the value of the furs was immense. The attendant dangers were
also great — your vessel was always liable to shipwreck ; your boats,
in which the actual hunting was done, might be swamped in an
open sea at a moment's notice ; the natives were frequently hostile,
and there was always a risk of your whole venture ending in the
confiscation of ship and cargo by Russian or Japanese orders, and
the incarceration of yourself and company as ' trespassers.'
Captain Snow, who is a Back Prizeman of the Royal Geographical
Society, made the charts of the Kuril Islands which are used by the
British Admiralty, and before plunging into his own adventures he
gives two excellent chapters on the islands and their inhabitants,
the Ainu.
A valuable description of the sea-otter, and its place in natural
history and commerce, are found in Appendices.

6 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.
A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK.
By OWEN JONES,
Author of ' Ten Years' Gamekeeping,
And MARCUS WOODWARD.
With Photogravure Illustrations. Large Crown 8vo., cloth. 7s. 6d. net.
In this charming and romantic book we follow the gamekeeper in
his secret paths, stand by him while with deft fingers he arranges
his traps and snares, watch with what infinite care he tends his
young game through all the long days of spring and summer — and
in autumn and winter garners with equal eagerness the fruits of his
labour. He takes us into the coverts at night, and with him we
keep the long vigil — while poachers come, or come not.
Not the least interesting studies in the book are those of all the
creatures that come in for the keeper's special attention. Snapshot
follows snapshot of pheasant and partridge, fox and badger, stoat
and weasel, squirrel and dormouse, rook and crow, jackdaw and jay,
hawk and owl, rabbit and hare, hedgehog and rat, cat and dog — and
of all the little song-birds, the trees, herbs, and flowers that win the
affection of the keeper, or his disapproval, in accordance with their
helpfulness or hindrance in his work.
The authors know their subject through and through. This is a
real series of studies from life, and the notebook from which all the
impressions are drawn and all the pictures painted is the real note
book of a real gamekeeper. Owen Jones has been a working game
keeper for many years, and is the leading authority and writer on
gamekeeping subjects. In this new book he has had, in Marcus
Woodward, the advantage of a collaborator who shares his deep love
for all phases of woodcraft, and who has spent with him many long
days and nights studying the life of the woods and fields.

FLY-LEAVES FROM A FISHERMAN'S
DIARY.
By Captain G. E. SHARP.
With Photogravure Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 5s. net.
This is a very charming little book containing the reflections on
things piscatorial of a ' dry-fly ' fisherman on a south country
stream. Although the Author disclaims any right to pose as an
expert, it is clear that he knows well his trout, and how to catch
them. He is an enthusiast, who thinks nothing of cycling fifteen
miles out for an evening's fishing, and home again when the ' rise '
is over. Indeed, he confesses that there is no sport he loves so
passionately, and this love of his art — surely dry-fly fishing is an

Mr. Edward A mold's A utumn A nnouncements. 7
art?— makes for writing that is pleasant to read, even as Isaac
Walton's love thereof inspired the immortal pages of ' The Com-
pleat Angler.' Salisbury is the centre of the district in which the
author's scene is laid, and the lush herbage of the water-meadows,
the true English landscape, the clear channels, the waving river-
weeds, fill his heart with a joy and peace that he finds nowhere else.
Perhaps for his true happiness we must add a brace or two of fine
trout, and of these there was no lack. Whether or not the reader
has the luck to share Captain Sharp's acquaintance with the
Wiltshire chalk-streams, he can hardly escape the fascination of
this delicately written tribute to their beauty.

TWENTY YEARS IN THE
HIMALAYA.
By Major the Hon. C. G. BRUCE, M.V.O.,
Fifth Gurkha Rifles.
Fully Illustrated. Demy 8vo., cloth. 16s. net.
The Himalaya is a world in itself, comprising many regions which
differ widely from each other as regards their natural features, their
fauna and flora, and the races and languages of their inhabitants.
Major Bruce's relation to this world is absolutely unique — he has
journeyed through it, now in one part, now in another, sometimes
mountaineering, sometimes in pursuit of big game, sometimes in the
performance of his professional duties, for more than twenty years ;
and now his acquaintance with it under all its diverse aspects,
though naturally far from complete, is more varied and extensive
than has ever been possessed by anyone else. In this volume he
has not confined himself to considering the Himalaya as a field for
mountaineering, but has turned to account his remarkable stores of
experience, and combined with his achievements as climber and
explorer a picture such as no other hand could have drawn of the
whole Himalayan range in successive sections from Bhutan and
Sikkim to Chilas and the Karakoram ; sketching the special features
of each as regard scenery, people, sport, and so forth, and pointing
out where necessary their bearing on facilities for transport and
travel. We would make special mention in this connection of the
account of a recent tour in Nepal ; here Major Bruce was much
assisted by his unusual familiarity with the native dialects, and the
vivid record of his impressions compensates to some extent for the
regrettable refusal of the native government to permit a visit to that
most tempting of all goals to a mountaineering expedition, Mount
Everest.

8 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.
RECOLLECTIONS
OF AN OLD MOUNTAINEER.
By WALTER LARDEN.
With Photogravure Frontispiece and 16 Full-page Illustrations.
Demy 8vo., cloth. 14s. net.
There are a few men in every generation, such as A. F. Mummery
and L. Norman Neruda, who possess a natural genius for mountain
eering. The ordinary lover of the mountains reads the story of their
climbs with admiration and perhaps a tinge of envy, but with no
thought of following in their footsteps ; such feats are not for him.
The great and special interest of Mr. Larden's book lies in the fact
that he does not belong to this small and distinguished class. He
tells us, and convinces us, tbat he began his Alpine career with no
exceptional endowment of nerve or activity, and describes, fully and
with supreme candour, how he made himself into what he very
modestly calls a second-class climber — not ' a Grepon-crack man,' but
one capable of securely and successfully leading a party of amateurs
over such peaks as Mont Collon or the Combin. This implies a
very high degree of competence, which in the days when Mr. Larden
first visited the Alps was possessed by an extremely small number
of amateur climbers, and which the great majority not only did not
possess, but never thought of aspiring to. Perhaps it is too much
to say that Mr. Larden aimed at it from the outset ; probably his
present powers far exceed the wildest of his early dreams ; but from
the very first he set himself, methodically and perseveringly, to
reach as high a standard as possible of mountaineering knowledge
and skill. Mr. Larden's name will always be specially associated
with Arolla, which has been his favourite climbing centre ; but his
experience of all parts of the Alps is unusually wide. His climbing
history is a brilliant illustration of the principle which Mr. Roosevelt
has been recently expounding with so much eloquence and emphasis,
that the road to success is by developing to the utmost our ordinary
powers and faculties, and that that road is open to all.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF
BRITISH FORESTRY.
By A. C. FORBES, F.H.A.S.,
Chief Forestry Inspector to the Department of Agriculture for Ireland.
Author of ' English Estate Forestry,' etc.
Illustrated. Demy 8vo., cloth. 10s. 6d. net.
The purpose of this volume is to survey the present position and
future possibilities of British Forestry under existing physical and eco
nomic conditions. Modern labour problems and the growing scarcity

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements. 9
of timber have brought out very clearly the importance of Afforesta
tion, but in a thickly populated country any proposed change from
grazing or agriculture to Forestry on a large scale is a matter of
extreme difficulty. The Author therefore adopts a cautious attitude
in practice, although extremely enthusiastic in theory. He en
deavours to show the relative position of the British Isles among
the countries of Northern and Central Europe in matters of Forestry
and timber consumption, the extent to which a forward movement
in the former respect is required, and the economic and sociological
agencies by which it is limited. The climate and soil of the United
Kingdom, and the manner in which Forestry practice is affected by
them, are discussed. The species most likely to prove of economic
value when grown on a large scale are dealt with, and the financial
results likely to follow. Finally, suggestions are made for placing
British Forestry on a national basis, with the co-operation of land
owners, local authorities, and the State.

THE MISADVENTURES OF A
HACK CRUISER.
By F. CLAUDE KEMPSON,
Author of ' The " Green Finch " Cruise.'
With 50 Illustrations from the Author's sketches.
Medium 8vo., cloth. 6s. net.
Mr. Kempson's amusing account of ' The Green Finch Cruise,'
which was published last year, gave deep delight to the joyous
fraternity of amateur sailor-men, and the success that book enjoyed
has encouraged him to describe a rather more ambitious cruise he
undertook subsequently. On this occasion the party, consisting of
three persons, included the Author's daughter — ' a large flapper ' lie
calls her— and they chartered a 7-toner, the Cock-a-Whoop, with
the intention of cruising from Southampton to the West Country
anchorages. The reasons of their failure and their misadventures,
never too serious, are described by Mr. Kempson with great origin
ality and raciness. He is not an expert, but he shows howanyone
accustomed to a sportsman's life can, with a little instruction and
common sense, have a thoroughly enjoyable time sailing a small
boat. The book is full of ' tips and wrinkles ' of all kinds, inter
spersed with amusing anecdotes and reflections. The Author's
sketches are exquisitely humorous, and never more so than when he
is depicting his own substantial person.

10 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND LIFE
OF FATHER TYRRELL.
By MAUD PETRE.
In Two Volumes. Demy 8vo., cloth. 21s. net.
The first volume, which is autobiographical, covers the period
from George Tyrrell's birth in 1861 to the year 1885, including an
account of his family, his childhood, schooldays, and youth in
Dublin ; his conversion from Agnosticism, through a phase of High
Church Protestantism to Catholicism ; his experiences in Cyprus
and Malta, where he lived as a probationer before entering the
Society of Jesus ; his early life as a Jesuit, with his novitiate and
first studies in scholastic philosophy and Thomism. This autobiog
raphy, written in 1901, ends just before the death of his mother,
and was not carried any farther. It is edited with notes and
supplements to each chapter by M. D. Petre.
The second volume, which takes up the story where the first ends,
deals chiefly with the storm and stress period of his later years.
Large use is made of his own notes, and of his letters, of which a
great number have been lent by correspondents of all shades of
thought. Various documents of importance figure in this later
volume, in which the editor aims at making the history as complete
and objective as possible. Incidentally some account is given of the
general movement of thought, which has been loosely described as
' modernism,' but the chief aim of the writer will be to describe the
part which Father Tyrrell himself played in this movement, and the
successive stages of his mental development as he brought his
scholastic training to bear on the modern problems that confronted
him. The work ends with his death on July 15, 1909, and the
events immediately subsequent to his death.

THE DIARY OF A MODERNIST.
By WILLIAM SCOTT PALMER,
Author of 'An Agnostic's Progress,' etc.
Crown 8vo., cloth. 5s. net.
Mr. Scott Palmer's Diary is the attempt of a man of faith and
intellect to bring modern thought to bear on the ancient doctrines of
religion. His musings bear no resemblance to the essays at recon
ciliation with which the latter part of the last century was only too

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements. n
familiar. Mr. Bergson, in whose philosophy the Diarist is steeped,
somewhere speaks of the disappearance of many problems, as
thought penetrates beyond and behind their place of origin, into a
region in which opposites are included and embraced. So Mr. Palmer,
as he considers the rites and ceremonies, the theologies old and new,
which the year brings before him, and sets them in relation with the
latest or the oldest philosophical thinking or the most recent
scientific generalization, shows that there is in man, if we do but
take him as a whole and not in artificial sections, a power by which
faith and knowledge come to be at one.
The Diary covers nearly ten months — from July, 1909, to May,
1910. It is full of variety, yet has the unity due to one purpose
strongly held and clearly conceived. A rare sincerity and a fine
power of expression characterize this striking book.
The title shows that religion is interpreted in the ' modernist '
fashion ; but modernism is a method, not a system, and the writer
is more than an exponent of other men's thoughts. If there are any
leaders in the great movement to which he is more indebted than he
is to the movement itself, they are the late Father George Tyrrell (to
whom the book is dedicated), and Baron Friedrick von Hugel.

HEREDITARY CHARACTERS.
By CHARLES WALKER, M.Sc, M.R.C.S.,
Director of Research in the Glasgow Cancer Hospital.
One Volume. Demy 8vo. 8s. 6d. net.
There is probably no scientific subject which excites so deep an
interest at the present moment as that which is dealt with in Dr.
Charles Walker's book. Mankind has always vaguely recognized
the fact of heredity ; fortes crsantur fortibus et bonis somehow or other,
but it is only recently that more precise information has been sought
and achieved as to how and to what extent mental and bodily
characteristics are transmitted from parents to their offspring.
With this increase of information has come also a realization of the
immense practical importance of obtaining correct conclusions on
the subject for persons concerned with almost every department of
social progress. Such persons will find in Dr. Walker's book a
lucid and concise statement of the nature of the problems to be
solved, the present state of scientific knowledge on the subject, and
the steps by which that knowledge has been arrived at. Dr. Walker
makes it clear that he is very much alive to those more remote
bearings of the inquiry to which we have referred above, but he
does not himself pursue them. His object has been to enable those
who are interested in the main question, without being biological
experts, to form a judgment on it for themselves.

12 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.
PREACHERS AND TEACHERS.
By JAMES GILLILAND SIMPSON, M.A., D.D.,
Canon of Manchester; Recently Principal of the Leeds Clergy School.
Author of 'Christian Ideals,' ' Christus Crucifixus,' etc.
One Volume. Crown 8vo. 5s. net.
' Preachers and Teachers ' opens with a study of famous and
characteristic English, or more accurately British, preachers.
These are Hugh Latimer, Robert Hall, Edward Irving, Robertson
of Brighton, H. P. Liddon, C. H. Spurgeon, and John Caird,
representing very different types of pulpit eloquence. This is
followed by chapters descriptive of the personality, teaching, or
method of certain Christian doctors, ancient and modern : St.
Augustine, St. Martin of Tours, Bishop Butler, and Edward Irving.
The last of these, having been dealt with briefly as an orator in
Chapter L, is here described more fully as a leader of religious
thought, with the help of private documents in the possession of the
writer, which present, as he believes, a more accurate picture of the
man and his true place in the history of religion than the somewhat
distorted portrait of popular imagination. The volume contains
also a survey of preaching in the Church of England during the
seventeenth century, beginning with Lancelot Andrewes in the age
immediately succeeding the Reformation, and passing on through
Laud and Jeremy Taylor to Tillotson, who verges on the Georgian
age. The whole book is designed to lead up to the final chapter on
the Modern Pulpit, in which the Author discusses the principles
which ought to guide the preacher in his presentation of the Christian
message to the men and women of to-day. This chapter frankly
accepts the ideal of the Christian preacher as the prophet who is
bound to deliver the one Truth, as he is able to see it, to the critical
conscience of his hearers. This involves, among other matters, a
discussion of the pulpit and politics, which is not likely to pass
unchallenged.
A CENTURY OF EMPIRE, 1800-1900.
VOLUME III., FROM 1 867-1 900.
By the Right Hon. Sir HERBERT MAXWELL, Bart., M.P.,
Author of ' The Life of Wellington,' etc.
With Photogravure Portraits. Demy 8vo. 14s. net.
Little need be said with regard to the concluding volume of Sir
Herbert Maxwell's great history, which covers the period from 1867
to 1900. In one important respect it differs from its predecessors.
Only a small minority of readers can have a personal recollection of
the events dealt with in even the latter part of the second volume,
but the third treats of matters within the memory of most of us, and

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements. 13
might well be called ' A History of Our Own Times.' This fact
alone would be enough to give the third volume an enhanced
interest, but there can be no doubt that the subject-matter is also
more picturesque and arresting than the somewhat humdrum story
of political and national life during the middle period of the century.
The year 1867 marks a merely arithmetical division, and has nothing
epoch-making about it, but 1870 saw the opening of a new and
momentous chapter in the history of Europe and the world, which
is very far from being closed yet. Sir Herbert Maxwell's clear and
compact narrative cannot fail to help us to realize its earlier
development in their true perspective.

THE SPIRIT OF POWER.
Zbe Cburcb in tbe JEarlg Second Centura.
By the Rev. ERNEST A. EDGHILL, M.A., B.D.,
Sub-Warden of the College of St. Saviour in Southwark ;
Hulsean Lecturer in the University of Cambridge ; Lecturer in Ec^lesia tical
History in King's College, London, etc.
Crown 8vo., cloth. 5s. net.
These studies are preliminary to a larger work on Early Church
History which the Author has in hand. The method adopted in the
present volume will be seen from the following summary of its
contents :
Chapter I. Power and Weakness. The Religions of the Early
Roman Empire. — II. The Power of Attraction. — III. The
Power of Purity : The Church's Moral Message. — IV. The
Power of Suffering : the Origins of Persecutions in the First
Century. — V. The Causes of Persecution. — VI. The Results
of Persecution. — VII. The Spirit of Love. — VIII. The Spirit
of Discipline.

THE BOOK OF BOOKS.
¦R Stu&B of tbe JSfble.
By Canon LONSDALE RAGG, B.D.,
Rector of Tickencote and Prebendary of Buckden in Lincoln Cathedral.
Crown 8vo., cloth. Probable price, 5s. net.
An attempt to represent from the point of view of the ' New
Learning ' the various aspects of the Bible. Its themes are the
diversity in unity embodied in the canon of Holy Scripture; the
problems raised by present-day criticism and archaeology ; the

14 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.
nature and scope of inspiration ; the influence of the Bible (past,
present, and future) in the education of mankind ; the romance of
the English Bible ; the debt which the Bible owes to the land of its
birth ; the new aspect assumed by the old controversy with Physical
Scientists ; the principles on which the Bible may be compared with
other ' Sacred Books ' ; the permanent value of the Bible — its
meaning and its message. But many other questions are raised on
the way, which cannot, in every case, be answered at present. The
Author is one of those who are convinced that the Bible has a great
future before it, a future which is all the brighter and not the
gloomier as a result of modern criticism ; and he endeavours to
exhibit to the thoughtful reader, in language as little technical as
possible, some of the grounds of his conviction.
In the present volume the Bible is treated in a more general way,
though concrete illustrations are given to make clear the principles
enunciated. There are two other volumes in contemplation in
which the Author proposes to deal with the Old Testament and the
New Testament separately, and to describe (still as far as possible
in untechnical language) what may be known of the origin and
growth, on the human side, of the various elements of those two
sacred literatures.

HOW TO DEAL WITH LADS.
21 Ibanoboofc ot Cburcb Tirnorfc.
By the Rev. PETER GREEN, M.A.,
Rector of Sacred Trinity, Salford.
With a Preface by the Right Rev. LORD BISHOP OF
GLOUCESTER.
Crown 8vo., cloth. 2s. 6d. net.
This book, which should be of real interest and value to all who
are engaged in work among lads, attempts to describe in detail how
to deal with a working boy from the time when he leaves day-
school and goes to work till he settles down as a married man, the
object throughout being to make him a useful, intelligent, and
attached member of his Church.
The worker, and the qualifications necessary for the work, are
first discussed, and the popular view of the importance of athletic
ability for success with lads is controverted. The Lads' Club and
its organization is then treated, with special reference to its con
nection with the Church, and to the question of religious tests.
Social, athletic, and recreative agencies in connection with the
club are considered, and the Bible-class, with the kindred subjects
of Church attendance, private prayers, and visitation during sickness,

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements. 15
is gone into very fully. This leads to a chapter on Confirmation
and one on First Communion, with the preparation necessary for
each. A special point is made of the need for keeping hold on the
lad after his Confirmation, and means to this end are fully discussed.
The last chapter deals with special cases, with soldiers and sailors,
and with boys who have moved away to live elsewhere. The whole
book claims to be a record of methods which have been put to the
test of experience, and the Bishop of Gloucester, under whom the
Author served at Leeds Parish Church, contributes a Preface.

THE LITTLE WIZARD OF WHITE
CLOUD HILL.
By Mrs. F. E. CRICHTON,
Author of ' Peep-in-the- World.'
With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.
This story, chiefly intended for young people, centres round the
attractive personality of a little boy called Basil, whose happy and
adventurous doings can hardly fail to delight both children and
'grown-ups.' White Cloud Hill is the entrance to the land of Far-away, a
wonderful fairy region of Basil's imagination, which he loves to visit
in his dreams. His adventures begin when he goes to stay with
Cousin Marcella, a stern lady who has had an unfortunate quarrel
with his father, and whom Basil has always thought of with
alarm. The visit, however, has the best of results, for Basil, by his
irresistible charm, effects such a happy reconciliation between his
elders that he earns the very name which he would have most
desired for himself—' The Little Wizard of White Cloud Hill.'
The thread of seriousness woven into the story does not interfere
with its charm of freshness. The Author's handling of all her
characters is most sympathetic, and she shows a wide understanding
of children and their ways. Her pages, moreover, are full of little
things about children, such as children love. A capital book for
reading aloud or reading to oneself.
New Edition.
SIX RADICAL THINKERS.
By JOHN MacCUNN,
Professor of Philosophy in the University of Liverpool.
A New and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo., cloth. 3s. 6d. net.
'Professor MacCunn's studies of eminent Radicals deal with men of very
diverse powers and attainments, yet with a critical detachment from all kinds
of sectional politics that is indeed admirable.' — Westminster Gazette.

1 6 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.
NEW NOVELS.

HOWARDS END.
By E. M. FORSTER,
Author of 'A Room with a View,' ' The Longest Journey,' etc.
Crown 8vo., cloth. 6s.
Readers of Mr. Forster's former books, of ' A Room with a View '
and ' The Longest Journey,' will heartily welcome this fresh work
from so facile and felicitious a pen. In ' Howards End ' the author
thoroughly fulfils the expectations raised by his earlier works, and
adds still further to his reputation as a novelist. For the subject of
his new story of English social life he has chosen an old Hertford
shire country-house, round which centre the fortunes of that interest
ing group of characters which he handles with that delicate and
skilful touch with which his readers are already familiar. Here
once again we find the same delightful humour, the same quiet but
mordant satire, the flashes of brilliant dialogue to which this author
has long accustomed us. A thread of romance runs through the
story, from which depend like pearls those clever pen-pictures and
exquisite character sketches, in the portrayal of which Mr. Forster
has already shown himself so much of an adept.

THE RETURN.
By WALTER DE LA MARE.
Crown 8vo., cloth. 6s.
' The Return ' is the story of a man suddenly confronted, as if by
the caprice of chance, with an ordeal that cuts him adrift from every
certain hold he has upon the world immediately around him. He
becomes acutely conscious of those unseen powers which to many,
whether in reality or in imagination, are at all times vaguely present,
haunting life with their influences. In this solitude — a solitude of
the mind which the business of everyday life confuses and drives
back — he fares as best he can, and gropes his way through his
difficulties, and wins his way at last, if not to peace, at least to a
clearer and quieter knowledge of self.

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements. 17
THE LITTLE GRAY MAN.
By JANE WARDLE,
Author of ' The Pasque Flower,' 'Margery Pigeon,' etc.
Crown 8vo., cloth. 6s.
The writer is one of the very few present-day novelists who have
consistently followed up the aim they originally set themselves — that
of striking a mean between the Realist and the Romanticist. In her
latest novel, ' The Little Gray Man,' which Miss Wardleherself believes
to contain the best work she has so far produced, it will be found
that she has as successfully avoided the bald one-sidedness of mis
called ' Realism ' on the one hand, as the sloppy sentimentality of the
ordinary 'Romance' on the other. At the same time, 'The Little
Gray Man' contains both realism and romance in full measure, in the
truer sense of both words. The scheme of the book is in itself novel,
the intrigue being set out in the words of one of the characters — a
supremely selfish, worthless young man — who is as little in sympathy
with the nobler-minded Gentry, the unconventional ' hero,' as with
the arch-villain Mandevil himself. The self-revealing touches by
which Carfax is made to lay bare the worthlessness of his own aims
make up an extraordinary vivid character, while at the same time
acting as foil to the others with whom he is brought in contact.
No less vivid are the studies of Gentry himself, of the two brothers,
round whose life-long feud the plot centres, and of Joan, their
daughter and niece. A pleasant love-interest runs through the
story, in conjunction with an exciting ' plot.'
THE PURSUIT.
By FRANK SAVILE,
Author of ' Seekers,' ' The Desert Venture,' etc.
Crown 8vo., cloth. 6s.
That the risk of being kidnapped, to which their great riches
exposes multi-millionaires, is a very real one, is constantly being
reaffirmed in the reports that are published of the elaborate pre
cautions many of them take to preserve their personal liberty. In its
present phase, where there is the great wealth on one side and a
powerful gang — or rather syndicate — of clever rascals on the other,
it possesses many characteristics appealing to those who enjoy a
good thrilling romance. Mr. Savile has already won his spurs in
this field, but his new tale should place him well in the front ranks
of contemporary romancers. The protagonists of ' The Pursuit '
are Anglo-American, with a background of Moors, and the action is
laid round the person of the little grandson of ' the richest man in
America.' It would not be fair to readers to adumbrate the plot
further, but they may rest assured that they will find here a fine
open-air tale of modern adventure, with interesting clean-cut
characters, and some really full-blooded villainy.

i8 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.
NEW SCIENTIFIC BOOKS.

PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY.
Jte ^Bearing on JBtoIogs ano /IBeofcfne.
By JAMES C. PHILIP, M.A., Ph.D., D.Sc,
Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Imperial College of
Science and Technology.
312 pp. Crown 8vo., cloth. 7s.6d.net.
The advances of Physical Chemistry have an important bearing
on the study of all living structures, whether included under Biology,
Botany, or Physiology proper. The present book gives the results
of the most modern researches in the application of physico-chemical
laws to the processes which are characteristic of the living organism,
and illustrative examples are specially chosen from the fields of
biology, physiology and medicine. An elementary knowledge of
physics, chemistry, and mathematics is alone assumed in the reader.
THE PRACTICAL DESIGN OF
MOTOR-CARS. By JAMES GUNN,
Lecturer on Motor-Car Engineering at the Glasgow
and West of Scotland Technical College.
Fully Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
A book for all designers and draughtsmen engaged in the practical
manufacture of petrol engines and chassis for motor-cars. Each
part of the mechanism is taken in detail, and the leading types of the
various parts are compared and discussed, often with criticism based
on exceptional experience in practice, yet always without bias or
prejudice. The simple descriptions and clear diagrams will also
render the book of value to the non-technical man, who as owner or
prospective buyer of a car is interested in its mechanism.
MODERN METHODS OF WATER
PURIFICATION.
By JOHN DON, A.M.I.Mech. Eng.,
And JOHN CHISHOLM.
Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 15s. net.
Mr. Don, whose paper on ' The Filtration and Purification of
Water for Public Supply ' was selected by the Council of the Insti
tution of Mechanical Engineers for the first award of the ' Water
Arbitration Prize,' has here collaborated with Mr. Chisholm, the
manager of the Airdrie, Coatbridge and District Water Works.
The book will interest, not only the water engineer and Public
Health Officer, but also all who recognize the paramount importance
to modern towns of a water-supply above suspicion. A full
description is given of modern methods of filtration.

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements. 19
ARNOLD'S GEOLOGICAL SERIES.
General Editor: DR. J. E. MARR, F.R.S.

THE GEOLOGY OF WATER-SUPPLY.
By HORACE B. WOODWARD, F.R.S., F.G.S.
320 pp. Crown 8vo., cloth. 7s. 6d. net.
A full account of the geological water-bearing strata, especially
in reference to Great Britain, and of all the various sources — wells,
springs, streams, and rivers — from which water-supplies are drawn.
The influence of the rainfall, percolation, evaporation from the soil
and by vegetation, as well as other allied subjects, are discussed.
THE GEOLOGY OF BUILDING STONES.
^ By J. ALLEN HOWE, B.Sc,
Curator of the Museum of Practical Geology.
Crown 8vo., cloth, js. 6d. net.
Since the appearance of Professor Hull's treatise in 1872, no
single book has been brought out in this country dealing exclusively
with the Geology of Building Stones. Many valuable papers have
been written on special branches, and lists of building stones, etc.,
have been incorporated in the standard works upon building con
struction, but in few of these has the geological aspect been developed
so as to link up the facts concerning the occurrence, physical
properties, and resistance to wear of the natural materials as they
exhibit themselves to a geologist.
In the present volume the author has especially studied the
requirements of architects in Great Britain, so that it should prove
not only a useful guide for the student, but also a reliable and
handy book of reference for the practising architect. Although
building stones occupy the bulk of the space, most of the points
where geology and architecture meet are shortly touched upon.
A TEXT-BOOK OF GEOLOGY.
By PHILIP LAKE, M.A., F.G.S.,
Royal Geographical Society Lecturer in Regional, and Physical Geography
in the University of Cambridge;
And R. H. RASTALL, M.A., F.G.S.,
Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge ; Demonstrator in Geology in the
University of Cambridge.
Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 16s. net.
The authors here give within moderate compass a complete
treatise suitable alike for the student and for all who desire to
become acquainted with Geology on modern lines. The first part
of the book deals more particularly with Physical Geology — that is,
the study of the earth as it exists to-day, the moulding processes
which we can now see at work, and the land and water formations
which thence result. The second part deals with Stratigraphical
Geology, or the unravelling of the earth's previous history, the
stratigraphy of the British Isles being considered in detail.

20 Mr. Edward Arnold's New Books.
RECENTLY PUBLISHED.

WAR AND THE ARME BLANCHE.
By Erskine Childers, Editor of Vol. V. of '"The Times"
History of the War in South Africa.'
With Introduction by Lord Roberts. 7s. 6d. net.
' Whether be be right or wrong, Mr. Childers's subject is sufficiently serious,
and his indictment of present views sufficiently convincing, to command attention
and an answer equally logically argued.' — Spectator.
ACROSS THE SAHARA.
From Tripoli to Bornu.
By Hanns Vischer, M.A., Political Service, Northern Nigeria.
With Illustrations and a Map. 12s. 6d. net.
1 Mr. Vischer's narrative is one of enthralling interest.' — Daily Graphic.
A SUMMER ON THE CANADIAN PRAIRIE.
By Georgina Binnie Clark.
Second Impression. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo., 6s.
' Miss Clark tells the story of two English girls' first visit to Canada with a
lightness and reality of touch that make it more readable than many a novel.' —
Daily Mail.
A HISTORY OF THE LONDON HOSPITAL.
By E. W. Morris, Secretary of the Hospital;
With numerous Illustrations. 6s. net.
ANNE DOUGLAS SEDGWICK'S NEW NOVEL.
FRANKLIN KANE.
By Anne Douglas Sedgwick, Author of ' Valerie Upton,'
' Amabel Channice,' etc. 6s.
' A figure never to be forgotten.' — Standard.
' There are no stereotyped patterns here.' — Daily Chronicle.
' A very graceful and charming comedy.' — Manchester Guardian.
A STEPSON OF THE SOIL.
By Mary J. H. Skrine.
Second Impression. 6s.
' Mrs. Skrine's admirable novel is one of those unfortunately rare books
which, without extenuating the hard facts of life, maintain and raise one's belief
in human nature. The story is simple, but the manner of its telling is admirably
uncommon. Her portraits are quite extraordinarily vivid. '—Spectator.

LONDON : EDWARD ARNOLD, 41 & 43 MADDOX STREET, W.

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