14 SEPTEMBER 1901, Page 5

A HOME DEFENCE RESERVE AND OLD-AGE PENSIONS.

(VTR readers will remember how we have again and V again pressed upon the country our scheme for the formation of a Home Defence Reserve formed out of all the trained men in the country, the inducement for becoming trained men and for enrolment in such a force being an old-age pension at the age of sixty. Our reason for again returning to the subject is to be found in two items of news that have appeared. in the papers during the past week. The first is the announcement that a Conference is about to meet to consider the whole question of old-age pensions,—a gathering which is sure to be the cause of a • general discussion in the Press of the old-age pensions question. The other is the announcement made in the Daily Express of Thursday that Mr. Brodrick- and the Government are about to consider the question of forming a Volunteer Reserve,—i.e., a Rome Defence Reserve formed out of the men who have passed through the Volunteers, who have, that is, become trained men, but who for various reasons are no longer willing or able to remain active members of Volunteer battalions. Our desire is that before anything definite is done under either of these two heads our scheme for old-age pensions to be earned by trained men through enrolment in a Home Defence Reserve should be seriously considered by all those who are interested in either or bah of the problems involved.

Let us consider the matter first from the point of view of the advocates of old-age pensions,—i.e., of those who desire that the veterans of industry shall be provided with some provision for old age other than that afforded by the Poor-law. The crux of the question is,—how can the men who deserve a provision for their old age be endowed with pensions without our giving universal pensions ? It is felt, and rightly felt, that a man ought to do something to earn a pension, and. to show that he has made some personal effort to provide against old age. The State, that is, should only help those who have proved willing to help themselves. One of the ways originally suggested by Mr. Chamberlain was that the State should double the pension which a man had secured for himself by voluntary contributions to a Friendly Society. That is, if a man had given evidence of thrift by obtaining a pension, say, in the Oddfellows or the Hearts of Oak, the State after sixty would double it,—i.e., would add a 55. State pension to the voluntary pension already secured. The plan, which is in fact a bounty on thrift in the shape of pensions, has much to recommend it, but it does not meet the difficulty of the man who, either from low wages or owing to the calls on his purse, is not able to belong- to a Friendly Society, and so to purchase an old-age benefit. To meet this difficulty it has been asked : "Is there no way in which a man can be allowed to earn a State pension except that of a direct money • con- tribution ? " Our answer is : "Yes ; let him earn it by service done to the State. Let him purchase it, not by money, but by money's worth,—i.e., by doing a certain amount of work. for the State." The kind of State service 'which we desire to see e as available for the pur- chase of pensions is work in defence of the State,—i.e., soldier-service. We would, that is, allow any man to buy an old-age pension from the State, but to pay, not in gold, but by a certain 'amount of soldier service. The sort of soldier service which we should consider exchangeable against an old-age pension can best be stated as follows. We desire that the State should say to all its citizens :— 'If you will first acquire a military training in one of the armed forces of the State, and will on leaving that force. or at any time within the year following, enrol yourself on a Home Defence Register, and will remain on that Home Defence Reserve Register till you are sixty, we will at the age of sixty secure to you an old-age pension of 7s. a week. We will, that is, immediately on your joining the Home Defence Reserve as a trained man present you with a Post Office pension policy for 7s. a week after sixty, and all that you will be required to do to keep it alive and good will be to present yourself twice a year at an appointed place (say the nearest post-office to your place of residence) and there to endorse your name on it, such endorsement being an acknowledgment of your membership of the Home Defence Reserve. If when the age of sixty has been reached all these identification endorsements have been made, the pension is yours and inalienable. The acquir- ing of a soldier's training and the membership of the Home Defence Reserve, coupled with the identification endorsements, constitute the, valuable consideration for which the pension is granted "to you by the State.' It remains to define a trained man. We suggest that a trained man—i.e., one endowed with the right to k)ut himself on the Register and obtain his pension policy (subject to the identification endorsements)--should be defined as any man who had served (1) in the Regular Army, and completed his time in its Reserves ; (2) in the Militia or Yeomanry, and completed his time in their Reserves ; (3) in the Volunteers, and had been an efficient for, say, four years running ; (4) in any specially raised corps, such as the Imperial Yeomanry; (5) in the Navy, and had completed his time in any of the Naval Reserves, but not acquired a naval pension. Further, the War Office should have power to grant a certificate declaring a man to be a trained man to any person who had acquired a military training in some way not enumer- ated above. For example, suppose a man who had been trained in some Colonial corps, and had seen service therein, came to reside in England, he should be allowed to enter his name on the Home Defence Register, and by such entry acquire his old-age pension,—provided, how- ever, in such a case that the applicant was not over forty- five years of age.

So much for the scheme from the old-age pension point of view. It would clearly give a very considerable number of persons a right to receive an old-age pension, and they would all be persons who had done something definite to earn their pension. We must next consider the scheme from the military point of view. Would the Home Defence Reserve be of any practical value ? Most assuredly we believe it would. Consider for a moment what the Home Defence Reserve would consist of. Probably it would ultimately number in all about a million men. Of these no doubt half would be'somewhat "rusty " —their age does not matter, for the old Boers have been amongthe best and fiercest fighters—but theother half would be men fairly fresh from training, and excellent material. If ever the call to arms came for the Home Defence Reserve —it would, of course, only be made in case of imminent peril of invasion—we believe that the Government would find ready to their land the very best possible material out of which to organise a home defence force. It would be quite easy to work out without expense a system of rendezvous by means of which the Home Defence Reserve could be organised when called out, and quickly embodied in regi- ments and brigades The plan of making the men appear twice a year to endorse their policies at the post-office nearest their residence would make it easy for the authori- ties to know where the men were localised and where they could assemble at a call. That, however, is a matter for consideration if and when the force is created. The main thing to insist on from the military point of view is that it would be of immense value to have such a reservoir of trained men to dip into in case of imminent peril. Though the Home Defence Reservists could only be forced to come out in case of danger of invasion, it would. be quite possible to call for volunteers from among them for service outside the country, and specialty good terms could be given to them, for their membership would be a guarantee that they were trained. men. In an emergency thirty thousand trained men could probably be got from them without much difficulty, and the material could be depended on to be good. In a word, we believe that in case of an emergency the War Office would realise that they had gained an immense advantage by keeping in touch with ;he trained men in the country through the Home Defence Reserve Register. They would be able for all sorts of pur- poses to put their hands quickly upon trained men, for they would. never lose touch of them as .they do now. Just think how at present we lose touch with our veterans. The Imperial Yeomanry have come home all not only trained men but veterans. The same may be said of the C.I.V. and the members of the Service Volunteer Companies. We shall soon be saying the same of the new Yeomanry, and the men in the Militia and the Reserve, when they come home and take their final discharge. Almost all these war-trained men will pass absolutely out of the ken of the War Office, and at the next emergency the authorities will be groping wildly like men in a fog to find them again. Is that wise, is it businesslike ? Would it not be worth while to make some effort to keep in touch with the trained men? But if touch is to be kept with them, could there be a better plan than that of a Home Defence Register, with an old-age pension at the end ? The expense would not be very great, and. besides keeping in touch with the vast majority of the trained men in the country, our scheme would go some way towards solving the problem—" How is a working man to provide for his old age ? " It gives as an answer to that question -7-" By qualifying as a trained man, and then entering his name on the Home Defence Register."