10 NOVEMBER 1917, Page 15

"HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE."

(To ran Emma or ran " SPEGTSTOR."1 SIR,—As we all know, Mr. Lloyd George's speeches are more famed for picturesqueness than for facts. But ;surely the Spectator ought not to have forgotten that it was the Indian Army which " held the breach " until both the New Army and the Territorials' were ready. No doubt Mr. Lloyd George wanted to bolster up a dis- credited colleague, whom Ile thanked for " that organization which came to the rescue of the Empire at such a critical hour," ix., Ac. " That organisation." we all know, was put on the shelf at the beginning of the war, mid it is doubtful when it was first used in France, probably not until after the advent of the first hundred thousand of the New Army. Certainly, individual Territorial battalions went out when considered fit—exactly as they would have done if their name had never been changed from Volunteers to Territorials—and after further training in France, were brigaded in the "organization " of the Regular brigades to fill gape—for instance, a battalion of Yorkshire Territorials were brigadid with Goorkhas—but that was not the much-advertitexl Haldane "organisation"! After all that we here seen happening before our eyes, the ignorance on this subject is amazing.-1 am,

[While we dissent from our correspondent's estimate of the value of the Territorial organization, we heartily agree that nor debt to the Indian Army should never be forgotten.--En. Spectator.]