an acre of ground, and for serious depreciation to his property, all parties to the agreement having been perfectly satisfied with the award. T. J. had added an expression of hope that the person who had, possibly inadvertently, spread abroad this calumny, would have the decency to apologise. While the Committee anxiously awaited the return of the Assistant Secretary, the Director of Military Operations was invited to make a reconnaissance from the adjoining room, which overlooks Whitehall Gardens. The D.M.O. was no alarmist, but his soldier's instinct taught him that this was no time to raise delusive hopes. He felt it to be his duty to report that the females were of unyielding aspect, and that their forces had been disposed with a tactical skill that was positively uncanny. The gloom aroused by this pessimistic exposition of the situation was, however, dispelled by the return of the Assistant Secretary with the encouraging tidings that everything was settled, that a couple of step - ladders had been fixed, and that there was somebody in the ducal grounds ready to usher the party of Ministers out on to the Embankment. The Ministers at once began putting on their coats and hats and hunting for their umbrellas. The First Sea Lord had been waiting patiently for this psychological moment. He had learnt by experience that decisions of the most vital importance to the State were invariably arrived at by the Committee when its members were putting on their coats and hats. He now urged that some conclusion should be come to with reference to the naval and military measures to be taken with reference to the defenders of Fort Letemalkum. The Inspector-General of the Forces chimed in. Surely those left might constitute themselves a sub-committee and get something settled: could not the War Minister remain behind?-but that statesman's boyish figure was already disappearing down the stairs. So the Service members, under the general superintendence of Lord Sandown, had to content themselves with watching the passage by their ministerial colleagues of the obstacle which shut them off from the grounds of Dalkeith House. The movement was carried out in conspicuous good order and without mishap, although, owing to his unfortunately stepping on the end of his coat as he topped the summit of the wall, the Secretary of State for India very nearly, as the Director of Naval Intelligence expressed it, capsized. Safely arrived in the grounds of Dalkeith House, the illustrious group were taken charge of by a person whose manners were courtly, whose bearing was distinguished, whom the Chancellor of the Exchequer took to be, and addressed as, the Duke, but who in point of fact was his Grace's butler. Emerging on to the Embankment, they reached the House of Parliament unmolested and almost unobserved. The Committee reassembled detachment. The Neveluezan on the following forenoon forces appeared to have de(Friday), Whitehall Gardens cided to confine their energies being strongly occupied by thenceforward to starving the mounted and by foot police. garrison out. A proposal by The Ministers present were in the Secretary of State for the high spirits, in view of the emin- Colonies that, Gobango being ently satisfactory course which a colony, the question of the the Irish debate had taken on relief of Fort Letemalkum the previous afternoon. The should be considered by the Chief Secretary, in a speech Colonial Defence Committee which scintillated with daintily was negatived. A remark phrased pleasantries, and the made by one of the Service tone of which was as admir- members with reference to the able as its tenor was abject, need of keeping down expendihad expressed regret at the ture in view of the state of the action of the Local Govern- national finances, elicited from ment Board in connection with the Chancellor of the Exchequer the Board of Guardians at the gratifying intelligence that, Knockmasilly, and had ex- inasmuch as the result of inplained that the error had creasing the duty on spirituous been committed by permanent liquors by 20 per cent had been officials without his concur- to reduce consumption by only rence. The leader of the 40 per cent, and not 50 per Nationalist party had been cent as had been alleged by good enough to consider the ill-disposed persons, the nett Chief Secretary's apology ade- loss to the revenue over the quate, and had invited his transaction was not so great honourable friend to withdraw as was generally supposed. his motion, on the understand- Then, after some discussion, it ing that that sort of thing was was decided that three batnot to occur again. News had, talions and three cruisers moreover, come to hand from should be despatched to GoGobango that Fort Letemal- bango, and that, so as to kum was still holding out and create the greatest possible that an assault on the work moral effect, the cruisers and had been repulsed, that two the troop-transports should sail 3-pounders landed from the across the Atlantic in comImpudenza Damnosa were ap- pany. The two Departments parently doing little damage to concerned were to take the the fort in spite of a heavy necessary steps. expenditure of ammunition, and that an improvised carriage on which one of the ship's 6-inch guns had been mounted to bombard the defences had incontinently collapsed on the gun firing its first round, seriously injuring several of its On returning to the War Office from Whitehall Gardens, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff prepared a memorandum which, it is hardly necessary to say, was a model document of its kind. It informed his colleagues the Quartermaster-General of the Adjutant - General and of-date notions on the subject of men of action acting instead of discussing, it is not impossible that, had he been present at his office that Saturday morning, he might have committed himself and his colleagues to the taking of some premature step. As it was, his private secretary took the paper to the senior Director present in the A.G.'s branch. The Director promptly repaired to the apartment of the Quartermaster - General, laid the document on the table before that distinguished official, and proposed that they should between them settle the matter forthwith. The Q.M.G.'s sense of humour had been so much tickled by the events in Gobango, that it was some little time before he could approach the subject with becoming gravity; but on recovering himself he pointed out that the Drafts Committee would have to be assembled. "The Drafts Committee!" ejaculated the Director in dismay. "Why, of course," rejoined the Q.M.G.; "nothing can be done in the War Office without assembling the Drafts Committee.' The Director thereupon announced his intention of getting that body together instantly, which the Q.M.G. admitted would be a judicious move; but the Director speedily discovered that, in consequence of its being Saturday, the Committee could not be assembled owing to most of its members being absent. He was, however, a strenuous person, this Director, and he took steps to ensure the meeting of the Commit The A.G. was something of a week-ender, which was fortunate at this particular junoture. Labouring as he did under the disadvantages of having commanded troops in the field and of holding out tee on Monday morning. Moreover, after examining certain statistical returns, he wired on his own responsibility to three battalions at Aldershot to hold themselves in readiness for early embarkation for active service, and he wrote a private note to the A.G. The Drafts Committee assembled at 11 A.M. on the Monday, the A.G. himself presiding, and by noon all the details with regard to personnel had been satisfactorily arranged, whereupon the A.G. proceeded to the Q.M.G.'s room and requested him to write to the Admiralty inviting the Director of Naval Transport to take up the necessary shipping. The Q.M.G. sent for the Director of Movements and Quarterings, and desired him to have the letter drafted. Scarcely had the staff of the War Office returned from clubland, refreshed after its morning's labours, when the draft letter was brought to the Q.M.G. by the D.M.Q., was slightly amended in some of its passages, and was sent its way to the Typist Section to be typed. It reached the Typist Section a few minutes before five o'clock, just at the moment when the typists were, in accordance with daily practice, forming two queues commanding the approaches to the two lookingglasses which the War Office regulations sanction for the service of fifty-five of these meritorious public servants. appearance of a file of papers at such a very inopportune juncture accelerated the move The ments of the typists to such an extent that, if current reports are to be believed, no less than three of these ladies were observed to emerge into Horse Guards Avenue with their hats pinned on at a rakish and an unbecoming angle. Next morning (Tuesday) the letter to the Admiralty was duly typed, and was sent back to the D.M.Q., who passed it to the Q.M.G. to be initialled and despatched to the Secretary of the Army Council for signature. It reached the Secretary's room soon after 4 P.M. ; but the Secretary was attending a meeting of the Army Council specially convened to discuss the subject of the artillery salute to which the Council are entitled. His Assistant was down with influenza, and as, out of the 857 persons composing the War Office staff (exclusive of the typists), only the Secretary or his Assistant may sign a letter to another Department, the communication to the Admiralty was not completed until after six o'clock. It found its way back to the D.M.Q. on the following forenoon, and was despatched from his branch to the Admiralty, reaching its destination that (Wednesday) afternoon. The three cruisers detailed to form part of the armada proceeding to the Antilles had been lying at Spithead ready to sail since the previous Saturday. The Director of Naval Transport had been privately apprised by the D.M.Q. on Monday of the details of the military force to be embarked, and had taken such preliminary steps as were practicable with regard to the securing of shipping: no vessels could, however, be actually hired and fitted out, pending an official communication from the other side of Whitehall. On receipt of the letter on the Wednesday afternoon a telegram was despatched to Southampton, by dint of working night and day the transports were got ready by Friday at noon, the troops embarked before sundown, and the expedition passed passed the Needles between 10 P.M. and 11 P.M. that night. There are persons who never tire of criticising the defensive preparations in vogue in this country, and who seem to take pleasure in railing at what they are pleased to characterise as red tape. Even on this occasion the Government had been subjected to factious criticisms in the House of Commons. A prominent member of the Op Friday Saturday Monday. Tuesday. position had requested to be informed whether the little force of armed adults and boy scouts which, under the gallant leadership of Captain Blobbs and Mr Smee, was keeping the flag flying on a portion of British territory invaded by the enemy, was or was not going to be left to its fate; and Mr Speaker had been obliged to take another honourable gentleman sharply to task for expressing the unparliamentary opinion that the boy scout who had brought the message to Captain Nouse was worth the whole gang of old women who at present disfigured the front Ministerial bench. To show the injustice of these attacks, and to make patent the remarkable rapidity with which decisive action had been taken in an emergency which could not have been foreseen, it is only necessary to trace the progress of events in the form of a chronological table: Neveluezan force lands in Gobango. C.I.D. assembles and adjourns. C.I.D. arrives at a decision. Memorandum from C.I.G.S. reaches A.G.'s department. Wednesday Letter to Admiralty reaches Admiralty. Friday On Tuesday in the following week the Colonial Office was, however, thrown into a flutter by the receipt of a cablegram from H.E. the Governor of Gobango, from whom no communication had been received for three weeks. On being decoded its purport was discovered to be as follows: On Sunday the Yorktown had returned to Darkiestown, flying a commodore's flag, and accompanied by two smaller U.S. war vessels. Commodore Nouse had come ashore, and had insisted on having an interview with him (the Governor); the Commander-in-Chief of the Neveluezan forces had de |