In Parliament on Thursday, March 8th, the House of Commons
took the Army Estimates, in which. the reduction. of half a million was attributed by. the Secretary of State to economies, to the reduction in the cost of living, and to a third less welcome cause, the slackness, of recruit-, ing for the regular Army (which may raise cynical. comments on destitution and the unemployment of young men, but only thirty-three per cent, of _those who offered themselves were acceptable) and to a diminution of numbers in the Territorial Forces, due to the smaller reward offered for service. Two old friends of the. soldier, the horse and the lance, figured largely, in the debate. They received praise for work done in the past and the use of the horse in the, future was recognized. But the machine, in the air or upon land, was admitted to be ousting him from much of his work. Sir Robert Hutchison critieized the new staff organization, in particular the office of Deputy Master General of Ordnance, as Lord Haldane did the otherday....in_ the House ,of„ -ta-Ming—ifoitliington-Evans gave a happy account of his Indian tour. Mr. Duff Cooper ansivered admirably later on for the War Office.
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