tTo vas EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR.") SIlitj - 4 have only
lately seen the Spectator of April 28th. You there say, in the "News of the Week," that the main idea of the Experiment is that "it may afford a means of giving us a Militia Force which shall be large in numbers, strong in training and discipline, drawn, not from the casual labourers, but from the soundest stratum of the civilian popula- tion [my italics], and consisting of men who are both thorough civilians and thorough soldiers."
Might I ask you to insist, again and again, upon this point of tapping a stratum very different from that from which the vast bulk of • Militia recruits come ? This may seem superfluous. But yon have used such expressions as turning "men of the Militia class" into competent infantry soldiers in six months. This is liable to the interpretation, which I have heard placed upon it, that you mean that this can be done with the present class of Militiaman. Your Experiment is of such far-reaching importance that no such misconception should be allowed to be possible, even to the few.
To give your readers some idea of what the Militia raw material is at present, I have looked up the measurements of one hundred consecutive Militia recruits enlisting at an average infantry dept)t. The one I have selected should, as far as so small a number can, yield a fair general sample, as it draws from town and village alike. Indeed, it happens that in this hundred the proportion of boys from rural and urban parishes is almost exactly equal. It is probable that recruits from rural areas, such as Suffolk or Somerset, might show a better physical average, as those exclusively from a town population might give a worse ; but I think that most men who have had to do with recruits will recognise the averages below as fairly typical of Militia recruits from mixed sources. For the sake of comparison, I repeat the statistics of the Spectator Company, as given by Colonel Pollock in your paper of April 21st:— Age. Height. Chest. Weight.
yrs. mtlis. ft. in in. st. lb. Spectator Experimental Coy. 19 10 ... 5 7i ... 354 ... 9 8
100 Militia Recruits ... ... 18 7 ... 5 41 ... 34,1* ... 8 Si
-(• This measurement is that of the chest when fully expanded, the "blown- out recruit" which caused some merriment in the House two or three years since. To arrive at the equivalent chest measurement as understood by a civilian at least two inches should be deducted from the above.)
Now the difference in age and physique of these two groups is most noticeable. But this is not all. The special correspondent of the Times, in his letter of April 26th, most pertinently remarks that such averages as those of the Spectator Company make "the class" of these recruits clear. Pounds and inches are not every- thing - but the occupation of these hundred Militia boys goes far to confirm this statement. Seventy of them are "labourers" ; and of what use is an eight-and-a-half-stone labourer ? Of the remainder, eleven describe themselves as " carmen." I should be much surprised if the Spectator Company did not contain far more promising material than this.
May you be the means, Sir, of proving that such better 'material is available under suitable conditions, and of showing, as I am sure you will, how much can be done with it.
£.S.—it may be said by some that whilst Colonel Pollock's recruits approximate to the Guards standard, these Militia lads are of a physique not much inferior to that of the recruits for the Regular infantry, and that the latter turn out useful soldiers in time. This is to a large extent true. It is really wonderful how many of these boys develop. But they take an expensive year or two to do so, and there is considerable wastage. Neither of these factors is admissible in your six months' programme. Hence there must be fair physique to start with.
f*** A subscription of £2 has been received from "A. A. M., Glasgow," on behalf of the Spectator Experiment in Militia Training.]
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