EDUCATION AND THE ARMY.*
" OUT of the eater came forth meat, and out of the Army education." The Master of Balliol's remark seems as paradoxical as Samson's riddle, but Lord Goren shows in his interesting new book that it is the literal truth. A demand for education became manifest in the New Armies as the war went on. The demand began to be supplied by private initiative at home and in France. The higher authorities favoured the idea. In face of great difficulties the Armies after the Armistice, while in process of demobilization, were supplied with educational facilities. When the new Regular Army came into being, it had been decided, in the words of Sir Henry Wilson, " to weave education into the life of the soldier." The creation of the Army Educational Corps last autumn opened a new era. In every battalion, wherever it is serving, part of the soldier's • Education and the Army. By Colonel Lord Goren. London : B. =ford. Dee. net.]
time is devoted to study, and the rank and file as well as the non-commissioned officers have to undergo examinations at intervals in the subjects which they have been taught. The commanding officer is held responsible for the mental as well as the physical training of his men—for their instruction in literary and scientific subjects as well as in military matters. The officers who teach and the men who are taught will benefit alike from this new and remarkable scheme for adult education,
which has come into operation quietly and naturally. " There is no reason," as one of the official pamphlets says, " why the
Army should not come to be regarded as the people's university course." The ex-soldier should at least be better qualified than ever before to take his place in the community as a worker and a citizen.
Lord Gorell, to whose enthusiasm, persistence, and tact the new movement owes much, describes in detail its origin and development. We are glad to find that Army education was not imposed from above, but was a spontaneous growth from below. In 1917 the idea was " in the air " and had occurred to many persons. The military authorities of the Dominions took it up promptly. In England the Army Council had decided that the immature boys enlisted must have a course of elementary education under Army schoolmasters. But at Brocton Camp, Cannock Chase, Major (now Colonel) Lascelles, with the assist- ance of the Master of Balliol and the Rev. R. Brook, now Principal of Liverpool College, devised in the spring of 1917 a more interesting scheme of instruction for the young recruits, in their parade hours, and allowed the older men to attend, if they wished, in their leisure time. Captain (now Colonel) Egerton, on his transfer from Cannock Chase to Brentwood, introduced the new scheme to the 23rd Army Corps, with skilled eivilian help, in the autumn of 1917. Simultaneously in France Brigadier-General (now Colonel) Bonham-Carter had arranged for Colonel Borden-Turner to travel about and give lectures on current topics to the troops. The lectures wore so popular that the Young Men's Christian Association was asked to organize lecture-tours, and then to supplement the Army classes for immature lads with unofficial classes for older men at the base depots. On the eve of the German offensive Lord Haig gave his hearty approval to these classes, and ordered the General Staff to draw up a scheme of education for the troops, " to give men a wider view of their duties as citizens of the British Empire, and to help men in their work after the war." Major- General Guy Dawnay took up the question at once, and the order was issued on March 8th, 1918. The German attack delayed but did not extinguish the new scheme. In May, 1918, the War Office held a conference to consider the question, and in July it appointed the author to act as " the co-ordinating link " between the work that was being done at homo and the work that had been begun in France and Flanders. Lord Milner, to whom Lord Gorell pays a special tribute, saw the importance of the question and expedited the issue of an Army Order in September, 1918, authorizing the new educational enterprise. The objections of the Treasury and the opposition of a very few senior officers were overcome. Lord Gorell admits that he almost regretted the conclusion of the Armistice because his new organization was not ready to face the immense demand for educational facilities which came from all the armies as soon as fighting ceased. Much more might have been done if the new scheme had been launched a year sooner. Nevertheless, many thousands of men benefited by the primitive and incomplete arrangements which were made for their instruction at home and in the field during the winter of 1918-19 and through the period of demobilization. Leading civilian experts like Sir Robert Blair, Sir Henry Hadow, and
Professor Findlay and many others gave their services un- grudgingly, and the soldiers were eager to turn their minds from war to the studies of peace. Even in ice-bound Murmansk and in Mesopotamia classes were organized for the troops in occupation. Lord Gorell describes the elaborate organization which was set up for the Army of the Rhine, with its three central colleges for technical training and a network of classes. The difficult
and somewhat disheartening task of providing classes for armies elsewhere that were rapidly being broken up was manfully faced,
though the expert teachers as well as the students were dis- appearing all the time as they were returned to civil life. Finally, when the Army began to resume its normal proportions, Mr.
Churchill took up the matter and decided, firmly and wisely, that education should henceforth be a part of the military routine. The Army schoolmasters were merged in the new
Army Educational Corps, a number of officers were trained as instructors, courses were drawn up, and in June, 1920, the Royal Warrant giving full authority to the new system was issued, thanks in no small measure to the hearty support of Sir Henry Wilson. Throughout his book Lord Gorell testifies to the broad and enlightened views which he found prevailing in high quarters in the War Office. Nothing could be less true than the belief that good soldiers are necessarily narrow and reactionary in their ideas. It is important to mention this, because it is a guarantee that the educational system will have every possible chance of succeeding. Much will depend on the regimental officer, but he has never failed us yet. Apart from the immense advantages of an educated Army, it is clear that the officers, who have to teach, will be brought into still closer contact with their men, and that the new relations should strengthen the best kind of discipline which is founded on respect and confidence. Lord Gorell's book deserves attentive reading. It will help the movement for which he has done so much by making it intelligible.
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