Mr. Arnold-Forster, at a dinner of the Liverpool Conser- vative
Club on Thursday, delivered an excellent speech on Army reform. We must not, he said, confine our attention to the Report of the War Commission, and waste time trying to apportion blame, when so many things were waiting to be done. The part of Prometheus rather than of Epimetheus was that which the British people should play. After a generous tribute to the work which had already been done, particularly the reforms of Sir Henry Brackenbury, he dealt at length with the faults of our existing military system. He anticipated the best results from the Committee on War Office Organisation now sitting, and from the Committee of Defence, with the Prime Minister as chairman; but there were many matters not included in the province of these Committees which demanded reform. Our existing Army system does not allow the despatch of a single battalion on emergency service abroad without mobilisation; and on mobilisation Reservists, instead of supplementing the force with the colours, have to take its place, because the force with the colours is largely a paper force. We do not sufficiently recognise that our Army is a voluntary Army, and that a soldier's present comfort and future prospects must be attended to. We must have a large competent reserve force for actual defence ; but if we are to get it, we must see that its organisation is elastic, and that the interests of the classes composing it are fairly considered. After an admirable passage on the Volunteers, he pleaded for a little less scolding for the Army and a little more encouragement. "Give to the regimental officer the interest in his profession he is entitled to ask, and the work to do which be is only too ready to take, and you will be better served by your regimental officers than any country in the world."
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