 British Army officers often complained that many of the Canadian officers were inexperienced, incompetent or politically well connected with the worse offender being Colonel Hughes who regarded himself as above taking orders from anybody.Lord Dundonald, the British Army officer who commanded the militia after the Boer War suggested the idea of a "skeleton army" of well trained militia officers who would form the nucleus if the militia were mobilized for war again.Dundonald's ideas were generally adopted, but Dundonald's attempts to involve himself in Canadian politics led to his dismissal on 10 June 1904 as the government announced it was intolerable that a serving officer should be speaking on political issues.