Note 168 — Chapter VII · 1854-1856. THE WAR IN THE CRIMEA.

An extract from Hamley’s ‘War in the Crimea,’ p. 208, will show the inability of the Treasury to realise the needs of the army in the Crimea. The Land Transport Corps was formed by an able and energetic officer, Colonel McMurdo, “who had so well used his opportunities that horses, trained drivers, escorts and vehicles were being rapidly assembled and organised. All this demanded a great outlay, insomuch that on one of the Colonel’s many requisitions, the Secretary to the Treasury, Sir George Trevelyan, had written, ‘Colonel McMurdo must limit his expenditure.’ When the paper returned to the Colonel with these words, he wrote below them: ‘When Sir George Trevelyan limits the war, I will limit my expenditure!’”