Army Reform .Mr. Duff Cooper won deserved applause when in
intro- ducing the Army Estimates in the House of Commons on Tuesday- he announced the reforms to be introduced in the Army. They are not in any way surprising ; as the Secretary for War. admitted, • some of them have been advocated for three-quarters of a century ; but they may succeed in giving Mr. Duff Cooper what he and most of the country want- " an Army-popular, pleasant and attractive to well-educated men:" The Army, as a career, is to be improved by giving added opportunities for vocational training, and the numbers of commissions from the ranks increased. The quality and quantity of the feeding will be improved ; butter will be substituted for margarine, and the soldier will receive four meals a day. Above all, stoppages from pay to provide equipment will be abolished ; and men will be released from the extra year's service abroad at the end of their period of service. These are handsome concessions to those who have for so long pressed for reform, and Mr. Duff Cooper is to be congratulated. They will make the soldier's-life an easier and a better one ; but though Mr. Duff Cooper gave interesting details of the mechanisation of the Army, he had to postpone any definite statement on the future of the Cardwell "linked battalion" system, nor was he entirely reassuring on the output of medium and heavy tanks.
Previous page
