Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/191

Rh Queen, and he did not see what advantage would accrue to him from having that power. He was a political official serving in the Cabinet, and it would matter little to him that the army should know whether it was the Duke of Newcastle or Lord Panmure who made the appointments. But to the Commander-in-Chief of the day it was of great importance that he should keep up that kind of connexion between himself and the Crown, so that the officers might know that the appointments proceeded in a certain degree upon the recommendation of the Commander-in-Chief, a privilege which had existed for the last 100 or 200 years.

He acknowledged his responsibility for advising the establishment of proper means of transport for the army, the medical arrangements, and the equipment. But with an army in the field, the commander of that army would call upon the Commissariat to furnish all transport, as the Commander-in-Chief at home would know nothing of the arrangements, which could only be made on the spot. He stated, moreover, that instructions with regard to stores for every branch of the army in the field were contained in the orders issued by the Treasury to the Commissariat Department.

With reference to equipment, military stores, &c., he remarked that ample provision had been made when the army left England. When asked whether the duty of providing general hospitals devolved on the authorities in the War Office, he said: 'Cer-