In the House of Commons on Wednesday the Secretary for
War made a statement on the Army Estimates and explained, in accordance with his recent memorandum, that these would be reduced by £16,500,000. The Geddes Committee had pro- posed arednetion of £20,000,000. Sir Henry Wilson, in a maiden speech, declared that the argument that we could afford to disarm "because the German menace had been disposed of" was quite irrelevant. Our military responsibilities had greatly increased since 1913. Egypt, India, and Ireland were then peaceful, but they certainly were not so now. There were, moreover, commit- ments on the Rhine, in Palestine and Mesopotamia. Although the German and Austrian armies had been broken up, there were more men under arms in Europe than in 1913. Some people consoled themselves with the thought that savage tribes could be dealt with more easily and with,fewer troops nowadays owing to the improvements in instruments of war. He could not agree. The armies required on the Indian frontier to-day were larger than that with which Lord Roberts marched to Kandahar.
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