15 JULY 1916, Page 3

Now in our opinion it is of the utmost importance

that, though all the National Reservists available have been called up, the machinery of registration should be kept intact, and that for regis- tration purposes a grant should still be made to the Territorial; Associations. When the war is over, and the work of disbandment. begins, the Associations would be able at once to register the names; and addresses of time-expired men, whether in the Regulars, the Territorials, or the New Army. Surely we are not going to make; the appalling error which we made after the South African War, the error of not preserving the names and addresses of the trained men,- :but of allowing thereto merge in the population. When, followilag

out the idea originated in the Spectator, we began the looking up and registering of all the men in the country who had received a military training, but were not attached to any existing unit—pot, that is, officially known to the Army or the Navy—we had a laborious hunt for the needles through a thousand bundles of hay. Not a single name and aAress of Regular Reservist, Militiaman, or Volunteer had ever .been kept after the man ceased to draw pay.