On Tuesday the Secretary of State for War presided at
the annual meeting of the National Association for Employment of Reserve and Discharged Soldiers. Mr. Haldane in a striking speech described the Association as a manifestation of the national desire to attend to the welfare of the Army. The profession of soldier must be made attractive, or the voluntary system could not endure, and to secure this provision must be made for the time when men left the Service. All trades were becoming more dependent on experts, and it was more and more difficult to fit into the industrial system a man who had been away for some years from civil life. The Army, too, had raised its standard, and the soldier's time was more fully occupied than it was a generation ago. But still, much could be done in the years of service to prepare a soldier for his subsequent civil life, since most of his Army work was really of a civilian nature. This was the point they must concentrate their efforts upon,—to see that as far as possible the training of a man during his years with the colours was of the kind not only to make him an efficient soldier, but to equip him for a civilian profession. Mr. Haldane paid a high tribute to the work of the Association, and to the strenuous efforts made by his predecessor at the War Office to deal with the same problem.
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