APPENDIX. 467 ' Upon this I can only say that my zeal and vigilance have ' never slackened, and I am wholly at a losa to conceive to what ' your lordship alludes in speaking of the strict routine of depart- ' mental etiquette. I have never heard the word mentioned, nor ' has any question in allusion to it been brought under my notice.* ' Tiiere has always been an officer of the Quartermaster- Gen-
- eral's staff at Balaclava. For a very considerable time there
' have been two, and these are not to be surpassed in efficiency ' by any officers in the army. Their names are Major Mackenzie ' and Captain Ross.f Lieutenant-Colonel Harding, late aide-de- ' camp to General Pcnnefather, is the commandant, and capitally ' does he do his duty. ' + Note 77.- — I say ' not intelligently,' because, though informed that the construction of a road had been prevented by want of 'hands,' he continued to 'harp' on the subject without even attempting to show how ' hands ' for the work could have been found. Note 78. — 'I have never doubted your deep pei-sonal anxiety ' for the safety and wellbeing of your army : all that I mean to ' say is, that while asserting your constant and uni'emitting study ' during the dreary months of winter, to overcome your difficulties, ' you have never furnished the Government with any details of ' your arrangements, so as to enable them to support you against ' those who taxed you with indifference to, and ignorance of, the ' real condition of your troops ' It is with 2)leasure that I learn your frequent visits to the ' different parts of the camp, as it enables me now to contradict ' the oft-repeated assertions to the contrary, on the authority of ' your own word, which I hold to be irrefragable.
- Despatch to the Secretary of State, 3d March 1855.
f The well-known excellence of the subordinate officers serving in the Quartermaster-General's Department was not mere good fortune, but ou the contrary, resulted from the wise measures taken by General Airey. In anticipation of vacancies, he called upon the generals of divisions to send him in the names of officers who might consider them- selves qualified for the Qnartei-master-General's Department, with speci- mens of their work in military surveying. He then used to see the officers themselves, in order to judge of their general ability, and be- sides, caused each of them to furnish him with a sketch and a military report illustrating and describing some particular tract of ground which he selected for the purpose. By these means he learnt beforehand who would be the fittest men for tlie dej)artment, and was ready, when a vacancy occurred, to make his recommendation upon thoroughly satis- factory grounds. It was almost always by these recommendations that Lord Raglan governed his choice. — Address of General Airey before the Chelsea Board of Inquiry, p. 55. X Letter marked confidential, March 3, 1855.
