 This scheme could of course not be implemented whilst the South African War was in progress, but even in peacetime it was slow to take effect; in March 1903 a report gave the Fifth and Sixth Corps as "not yet formed", large numbers of the component units for other corps were unavailable, not yet organised, or simply quartered in the wrong locations, and perhaps most remarkably, the First Corps had no brigadiers to command it—they were to be assigned on mobilisation.Shortly thereafter, Hugh Arnold-Forster was appointed Secretary of State for War.One of his first acts was to appoint Lord Esher to chair a committee on War Office reform; this would culminate in the Esher Report of 1904, which called for a number of administrative reforms, including the formation of the Army Council.