12 JUNE 1920, Page 2

A Guards Division could be much more than doubled on

mobilization. To us it seems positively insane to propose to spend three millions on red cloth and then destroy two such fine regiments with such fine traditions as the Irish Guards and the Welsh Guards have already acquired. Clearly the House of Commons was not going to allow this folly, and so the Govern- ment yielded. We _cannot imagine a better field for the friends of economy to fight on than this question of red cloth versus real soldiers. Apparently the 'War "Office idea was that one Guardsman in red cloth was better than 'two Guardsmen in khaki. That is a proposition which we can understand being popular with our enemies but not with ourselves.