SAVING THE MILITIA.
THERE seems good reason to believe that, thanks to a timely suggestion by Mr. Balfour and to the wise and conciliatory attitude adopted by Mr. Haldane, the Militia has been saved, though at the eleventh hour, and saved by means of a compromise such as we ventured to set forth some weeks ago. We suggested that, if in no other way, the destruction of the Militia could be avoided by making the force supply both drafts and units on the mobilisation of the Regular Army. At the close of the Committee stage of the Army Bill on Monday Mr. Balfour asked Mr. Haldane whether it would not be possible to allow the English and Scottish Militia battalions to fulfil the functions which Mr. Haldane intended that the Irish Militia should fulfil,—namely, that of providing drafts, and also remaining as separate units. Mr. Balfour went on to point out that if a compromise could be made upon this point, the passage of the Bill through Parliament would be very greatly facilitated. This no doubt was meant as a hint that the strong opposition to the Militia clauses of the Bill as originally introduced, which was sure to be developed in the House of Lords, would be avoided. Mr. Haldane, though he very naturally would not pledge himself absolutely on the spur of the moment, promised to give the question his best consideration. Since then it has been stated, notably in a leading article in Wednesday's Times, which we do not doubt had official inspiration, that the Secretary of State for War has decided to adopt Mr. Balfour's suggestion, and that the Militia, instead of being destroyed, will remain sub- stantially as it is, or rather in the form in which it existed before the abolition of the Militia Reserve. As we understand the compromise, the Militia battalions, or at any rate the greater part of them, will for most purposes be taken out of the Territorial scheme, and will become once more the third battalions of Regular regiments. They will, that is, perform the mobilisation functions which were to be performed by Mr. Haldane's special Reservists. Those men, it will be remembered, were to receive a six months' training at the depOts, and then to pass at once into the Reserve.
. We presume that under the new system Mr. Haldane will make it obligatory on all Militia battalions to train their recruits in future for six months. We trust that he will go further, and arrange that regiments shall also only be called out each year for a fortnight, and that in addition considerable latitude will be given to commanding officers to permit men who find it difficult to be out for the whole fortnight to attend camp for a week only after, say, the completion of their first two years. We are, of course, aware that this will interfere with the smartness of the battalion ; but we believe that such a loss will be com- pensated for by the improvement in the class of men taken by the Militia. Our experience with the Spectator Experi- mental Company convinced us that the necessity under which a Militiaman now labours to come out for a month every year seriously impairs his prospects in civil life, and that therefore a very large number of men who would like to join the Militia, and who could, and would, join if the annual obligation were less, now avoid the force. The six months' preliminary training, on the otherland, will not, we believe, prove an impedi- ment, but the reverse. Before a lad settles down to civil employment he will find six months' good food and regular physical training a very great benefit. It is the annual obligation, which now extends so much beyond the ordinary
holiday claimed and enjoyed by the ordinary working man, that frightens the intending recruit. He dreads having to tell his employer that he is in the Militia, because he expects the answer : "Well, then, my man, you won't do for me. You will require a month's holiday in the year, and I cannot possibly give my hands more than a fortnight." To ask an employer to arrange that a man's holiday shall be given him at the time when his Militia battalion is out for a fortnight is a very different thing from requiring double the holiday given to other employes. At present very few men, except those who mean to resign themselves to casual labour, can afford to join the Militia. Under the six months' system plus an annual fortnight, we believe that the field of recruiting would be immensely enlarged. We sincerely trust, then, that the Militia commanding officers will not prefer a month a year to the six months' thorough training and the prospects of obtaining a better class of recruit owing to the lessening of the annual obligation. The reduction of the annual training to a fortnight will have the further advantage, from the War Office point of view, of making the six months' preliminary training no extra burden on the Exchequer.
If Militia battalions are to provide both drafts and units, it is, we consider, absolutely necessary that the regimental establishment should be increased. We would do this by means of a new form of Militia Reserve. After the period of Militia service has ceased, we would offer a bounty of, say, .t1 a year to all Militiamen who join the Militia Reserve. We would allow that Militia Reserve to bring the total force of the battalion on the calling out of the Militia Reserve up to fourteen hundred men, and from this Militia Reserve should be supplied the drafts required for the Line battalions to which the Militia battalion was linked. Such a plan is, we admit, in certain respects a return to the old system of the Militia Reserve, though it is not open to all the objections of that old Reserve, and would not deplete the Militia unit in the way in which it was formerly depleted.
Before we leave the subject of the Militia and the proposed compromise we desire to endorse the appeal made by the Times to the chief commanding officers of Militia battalions not to set their faces against the new proposals. It is true that the compromise will in certain respects be open to many of the objections upon which they have insisted so strongly. But though we recognise the force of those objections, it appears to us that it would be an enormous mistake to insist on them at the present moment, and to allow the Militia to be abolished rather than waive them. In our opinion, the essential thing is to preserve the Militia as a separate entity with its own traditions and its own place in our military system. If that is done, it will be possible at some future time to give the Militia that further development which we believe it is fully capable of receiving under a wise and judicious system of reform. We see no reason why the Militia should not be gradually developed into a most useful and important short-service army composed of men anxious and willing to undertake oversea service in time of war, but equally anxious to remain citizens during peacetime. Such a force, as our history shows, is well suited to our national and Imperial needs, and is also well suited to the spirit that belongs to the adventurous youth of Britain.
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