10 JULY 1909, Page 9

A REGISTER OF TRAINED MEN.

WE have always held that one of the greatest of our military mistakes is the fact that we are perpetually training men in the use of arms, and then losing touch with them altogether. As soon as a man has done his Reserve service for the Regular Army—in some cases that Reserve service is actually over before a man is thirty, and in most cases before he is thirty-five—he passes entirely outside the cognisance of the State. It has no further concern with him, and this though he may be in perfect health and vigour, and though also he would be perfectly willing to register himself in a National Reserve. It is the same with what was once the Militia, and is now the Special Reserve. An even grosser example of our military profligacy is to be found in our dealings with the Yeomanry and the old Volunteers. The men who served many years in those bodies, and received there a very fair training, when they left them passed entirely out of the ken of the War Office. Again, when such special bodies were formed • as the Imperial Yeomanry and the " C.I.V.," bodies which received training under fire in the South African War, their members when they returned home were merged at once in the population, and. no attempt was made even to preserve a record of the names and addresses of these war-service veterans. Thus Britain is full of men who have received a. training in arms, and who are still in health and vigour, but with whom the State which trained them has entirely lost touch.

In view of these circumstances, we are glad to hear that the Surrey Territorial Association is taking preliminary steps to obtain a register of trained men under the age of fifty now resident in the administrative county of Surrey who are not at present attached to any unit or corps of the King's Forces. By "trained men" is meant any persons who have served for not less than three years in the Naval or Military Forces of the Crown (Home or Colonial), or who have served for not less than one year on active service. The great difficulty, of course, is to get the names and addresses of the men, since no official records have ever been kept of them. The plan which the Surrey Territorial Association is following is the only one open to them, though it would seem a perfectly crazy proposal to any foreign observer. The secretary of the Surrey Territorial Association, Colonel Ringwood, has written a, letter to be published in all the Surrey newspapers to-day stating that the Association are endeavouring to form the register, and appealing to readers of the newspapers in question who are trained men according to the definition to be so good as to send a postcard, addressed to the secretary of the Surrey Territorial Association, Caxton House, Westminster, S.W., giving— (1) Name and address. (2) Corps in which they were trained. (3) Amount of service. (4) Experience on active service, if any.

(5) Rank on leaving.

(6) Age. As an alternative, readers are asked to give this informa- tion personally to any local Sergeant-Instructor of the Territorial Force. The secretary of the Surrey Territorial Association thus describes the object of the register :— " It is desired to find out what at present is entirely unknown, that is, the number of persons residing in an area like that of the minty of Surrey, who have received a military training. It is believed that there are a very great number of such men in full health and vigour, and that the majority of them, baying already shown their sense of patriotism by obtaining a military training, would be willing in case of the imminent risk of invasion, either to enter existing Corps or to help to form a new Corps for the defence of the country. At present, how- ever, there is no intention of forming any such Corps, but merely of taking, as it were, a census of the trained men living in Surrey who do not at present belong to any military unit or organisation."

The letter ends with the following passage :—

" It is clearly understood that the sending of such particulars in no way commits the sender to any future action, or to joining any Corps or organisation. All that those giving the information asked for will have done, will be to help to ascertain the number of trained mon resident in the County who are under fifty years of age. It is to be hoped that ax-officers, as well as ex-non-com- missioned officers and ex-members of the rank-and-file, will furnish the particulars asked for above."

We understand that in addition to this request through the Press the Surrey Territorial Association are issuing forms to the commanding officers of all units under the Association, who will do their best to get them filled up. No doubt a good many names will be obtained in this way, for though the Volunteer and Yeomanry units do not actually keep any register of their old members, such old members have to a limited extent remained in touch with their corps.

We feel sure that the country will watch with very great interest the action of the Surrey Territorial Association. It may be that in spite of their efforts they will not. be able to obtain the names and addresses which they desire. If, on the other hand, they do obtain even twenty or thirty per cent. of the names of the trained men living within the county, they will have done a very good work. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that Surrey, acting in the way we have described, were able to place even two thousand names on its register, a very great deal would have been done. If two thousand trained men could be got to register themselves in Surrey, it would be safe to say that at least a hundred and fifty thousand could be registered in the 'United Kingdom as a whole. But such a potential addition to our armed forces would be a matter of very great importance. It would mean a Reserve out of which some six or seven divisions might be formed should the need arise.

We are well aware that a register of trained men would in one sense only mean the names of a mob, and that a mob of trained men, or even of veterans, is not of much more good than a mob of untrained men. If, however, the register of trained men were once established, it would be comparatively easy to arrange a skeleton organisation for the men upon it, and thus to convert the register into a Reserve. In our opinion, the best plan would be to add a Reserve battalion and Reserve to every infantry and yeomanry regiment of the Territorial Army. The gunners would, of course, go to Reserve batteries. In this way a most valuable support would be given to the Territorial Force. This, however, is a matter for further consideration. For the present, as the Surrey Territorial Association letter states, what is wanted is statistical information. If the Surrey Territorial Association can manage to obtain this, they will have laid the whole country under a very great obligation. We sincerely trust that the London Press as well as the county Press will assist in this work, for without their aid the publicity which is essential to a successful working out of the scheme canncrt possibly be obtained.