TOPICS OF THE DAY.
• THE NEW ARMY SCHEME.
WE congratulate Mr. Brodrick most heartily on the new Army scheme which he explained to the House of Commons on Friday week. There are, as we shall try to show, various faults in the scheme, but take it as a whole it is well thought out, and shows the impact of an able, businesslike, and resourceful mind on a great national problem. It shows, in fact, that Lord Salis- bury was amply justified when be selected Mr. Brodrick as War Minister. The general attitude taken up by Mr. Brodrick in regard to the Army proves that he realises what are the true functions of the supreme civilian in deal- ing with the Army. He evidently knows, on the one hand, where and how to trust the soldiers and the experts, and on the other, where and how to use his own judgment and to accept the final responsibility. We have given else- where the details of the scheme, and shall therefore deal Isere chiefly with the points in which we think the scheme liable to criticism. Before we do so, however, we will shortly enumerate what we consider its special advan- tages,—advantages which even if the defects are not set right, as we hope they may be, mark an enormous advance in our military organisation. In the first place, the formation of the garrison battalions is excellent. It conveys a double blessing. It gives an opening for those soldiers who desire to make the Army a lifelong career, and it sets free and renders mobile a considerable portion of that great Imperial police force which we call the Regular Army. The raising of five Indian regi- ments for tropical garrison duty and the placing of the smaller coaling stations under the Navy have a similar effect, and are equally to be commended. The proposal to increase the Yeomanry and to give that force a very real and definite status in our military system is also a subject for great satisfaction, and so is the extra attention to be given to the Militia and the large increase in the numbers and efficiency of that force. As to the increase in the artillery there can of course be no two opinions. The more we rely upon half-trained men such as Yeomanry, Militia, and Volunteers, the more necessary is it that we should possess an artillery force unrivalled for the number and efficiency of its weapons. We ought to be able to say : "If we have not got the vast numbers of men supplied by compulsory service, at least we have an artillery force, both Regular and Volunteer, which has no equal in the world." Hitherto we have never been able to say that, but we trust and believe that in future we shall be able to make that boast, and with truth.
We will now take in order our criticisms of Mr. Brodrick's scheme, both as regards the things not done in quite the right way and as regards the things not done at all. In the first place, as regards the Regular Army. We think that he was quite right in not increasing it and in not altering its general character, but we hold that he was wrong in not somewhat developing the inducements held out to the recruit. We do not desire any very great or very sensational increase of pay, but we hold that the recruiting sergeant and the recruiting advertisement ought to be able to say, and say truthfully, to the•would-be soldier that he will have from the first moment he joins the colours "a shil- ling a day and all found and well found," and that there will be no deductions whatever therefrom except for neglect or misconduct. That is, the recruit ought to be able to feel that if he goes into the Army, and behaves himself, and does not show wasteful negligence as regards his clothes and accoutrements, he will be well housed, well fed, and well clothed, and have a shilling a day pocket-money. The effect of that knowledge on the recruit would, we believe, be most attractive. No doubt the deductions are much less than formerly, but still they exist, and when exaggerated, as they always are in talk between the soldier and his civilian friends, they have a most deterrent effect. If men could feel that once in the Army they were always sure of the clear shilling a day to spend or save as they liked, and that they would at the same time be well fed, housed, and clio lied, as they are, the effect in attracting men would, we believe, be out of all proportion to the extra expense. Every shopman who succeeds knows, and trades on, the effect of a clear round sum on the mind of the public. If the War Office is wise it will take a lesson from the trader, and try the effect of a truthful offer of "a shilling a day and all found and well found." We have got very near this ideal already, but, unfortunately, by not having quite attained it the attractive effects of the recent increases in pay are almost all lost. When, we have reached it then such extra inducements as separate cubicles in barracks- & matter to which we attach great importance—and other " comforts " will have a double force in attracting men. Again, we think that in addition to the reduction in barrack-square drill and "sentry-go" announced by Mr. Brodrick, something should be done to decrease the labour of the soldier in cleaning his uniform. Needless to say, the soldier must be made to keep himself and his uniform smart and clean, but his dress should be designed so as to produce the minimum, and not the maximum, of labour in this respect. Look at the Metropolitan Police. Their uniform is smart and clean, but there is nothing in it which involves great trouble and worry in cleaning. Next look at the Guardsman with his cloth that shows every stain, his metal buttons of the kind that want perpetual polishing, and his belts that are always in need of pipe- clay or blanco, and then ask whether the useless burden involved in keeping the soldier's uniform smart and clean is one which it is wise to impose in the case of a voluntary Army. In our opinion, then, Mr. Brodrick may still do a great deal to increase the attractiveness of the Regular Army without imposing any excessive extra burden on the Treasury.
The Yeomanry proposals strike us as extremely gnod in general outline, but as an alternative to paying the Yeoman ,Z5 a year for a horse we would make the Yeoman's horse belong to Government, and use it as a recruiting agent. The Government should buy strong, useful cobs of the kind now used to train the mounted infantry — not • showy, well- matched animals, but what the man who talked to Mr. Briggs in Punch called "poor men's 'oases," le., horses that would go and not prance—and then let it be known that they wou1,1 present a horse to any man who would join the Yeomanry, provided that he would engage to feed him and keep him properly, and produce him at the training. All the rest of the year he could use him on his farm or small holding. After six year. he would become theabsolute property of the Yeoman. This would be cheaper for the Government than paying £5 a year, and. would greatly help recruiting. A farmer, or a farmer's son or younger brother often finds it very difficult to raise the £30 required to get a horse. If he has a horse of his own, be is tempted to realise the £30. If not, he finds it difficult to get such a sum as £30. To such a man the offer of a useful horse which he can ride or drive, or do what he will with except for a month in the year, merely at the cost of the animal's keep, is an immense temptation. Unless the farmers of the United Kingdom are very different from what they appear, the knowledge that joining the Yeomanry would mean the acquisition of a horse would, we believe, prove far more attractive than the offer of .£5 a year to the man who has already got a horse or the offer of the loan of a registered horse during the training. It will be said, perhaps, that some Yeomen would illegally sell their cobs, and that others would lose them through accidents. We would provide against the former by branding the horses and making it a penal offence to buy a Yeomanry horse branded "W. D.," and against the latter by a system of insurance.
In regard to the Militia and Militia Reserve we have little but praise for Mr. Brodrick'a scheme. Our only complaint is that his scheme does not go far enough as regards numbers. In the first place, we should like to see the standing force of Militia increased by fifty thousand men beyond his estimate, and next, we should like to see certain modifications as regards the four months' recruit training of the Militiaman. It is now uni- versal for the Militiaman to do his recruit training in bar- racks. In all towns and great centres we should like to see the Militia recruit treated as a day-boy and not as a boarder. He should, that is, live at home and come in to the depot to be trained, just as the workman goes into the factory to work. This used to be done in certain urban regiments with complete success. A great saving would be made as regards barrack accommodation, and the plan is infinitely more attractive to the men. They have their evenings to themselves, and, remember, what is irksome to the civilian who becomes a soldier is not the drill, or the discipline, or the obedience, or the hard work, but the confinement after the working hours of the soldier's life are over.
The Volunteer proposals seem to us the greatest defect of commission in Mr. Brodrick's scheme. We cannot help feeling that they will place too great a strain on the regiments selected to form part of the Colchester Army Corps, and so injure the Volunteer Force generally. In our belief the Volunteer Force is a most valuable one, but we must never forget that it is a VolunteerForce, and that the men who belong to it, though they have the greatest possible desire to serve their country, are not free agents. If, then, great sacrifices are asked of Volunteers, except, of course, when we are actually at war with an enemy capable of threatening the national safety, the force is bound to dwindle and wither. The great function per- formed by the Volunteers is that of giving a very valuable preliminary training in arms to a large part of the popula- tion. They provide a great fund of trained men upon which we can draw in time of need, as we did in the case of the C.I.V. We must keep that fact always in view. We do not in the case of the Volunteers so much wish to raise individual units to the highest point of efficiency as to keep all the units well filled, so that in time of real danger we might do with the Volunteers generally what we did with the C.I.V.,-1 e., give them a couple of months' strict training and convert them into troops of the highest value. We have got a most sound and useful force in the Volunteers, do not let us destroy it by trying to give it a perfection which is outside the law of its being. Of course any facilities given to Volunteer officers in the way of training themselves in military duties are to be entirely corn mended.
The most serious omission from the new Army scheme is the omission to provide some machinery for keeping in touch with the trained men who every year during peace pass in large numbers out of the ken of the War Office.— The new Militia Reserve will do so little in this respect that we may leave it out of consideration.—Every year men who have been fully trained in the essentials of drill and the use of the rifle in the Regular Army, the Militia, the Yeomanry, and the Volunteers are for various reasons severing all connection with any of the fighting forces of the nation. We hold this to be a culpable waste of good material, and we would prevent it in the following way. When a man finally passes out of the Army Reserve, or Militia, or Yeomanry, or leaves the Volunteers after having been returned as an efficient during five years, we would make him this offer :—' If you will enter your name on the Home Defence Register, you shall at once receive a policy entitling you to an old-age pension of Is. a day after sixty-five. But to keep that policy alive you must present yourself twice a year at the nearest post-office, police-station, or military depot, as shall be arranged, and get your policy endorsed after giving proofs of identification. The obligation for the Home Defence R,serve will be the liability to be called up and embodied in battalions in case of imminent danger of invasion.' In addition, a small payment might be made when the trained man first registered his name, and even when he came twice a year to get his policy endorsed in order to keep it in vigour. By such means we should not lose touch with our trained men, and we should also be able to feel that no man who had trained himself for the defence of his country, and so done her service, would ever be left in old age quite unprovided for. Under this scheme, too, no man could say that he was unable to make provision for old age out of his scanty wages, for every man could do so by becoming a Volunteer. In fact, every man would be able to buy an old-age pension by paying with personal service instead of with money. We would add that in case a man wanted to buy an old-age pension by service but not by money, and for some reason could not join the Militia or remain in a Volunteer corps for five years, we would allow him to enlist as a, one-year super- numerary at any regimental depot and do a year's training with a regiment at home, being kept, but only receiving half a private's pay. After his year he would be eligible for the Home Defence Reserve. It is not, how- ever, very likely that men who could buy a pension through the Volunteers would prefer to buy it in this way.
No doubt it will be said that our scheme for keeping in touch with the trained men would not be of much use, as they would so soon get rusty. Their registration would not keep them in training. Of course it would not, but as we saw in the case of the Royal Reserve regiments, men who have once been trained take a long time to forget their duties. In any case, and at the lowest, they are better material than the men who have never been trained, and they are already recruited. The register, at a small expense, would automatically sift the trained from the untrained, and there would always be on it some hundred thousand men or more who had not left off being trained more than five or six years.
We most sincerely trust that Mr. Brodrick and Lord Roberts will not ignore this matter, and will seriously take up and consider, if not our scheme, then some other means of keeping in touch with the trained men who at present are every year passing quite out of the ken of the War Office. When the war is over 80111e hundred thousand men, Regulars, time-expired Militiamen, Yeomanry, and Volunteers, will so pass out of the ken of the War Office. Surely it would be worth while to get these men to register themselves in some form of Home Defence Reserve.
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