25 MARCH 1916, Page 3

Last Saturday an Army Order was issued stating that the

Sovereign had deemed it expedient to authorize the formation of a corps to be entitled the Royal Defence Corps, the corps to be a corps for the purposes of the Army Act, and the rates of pay of the officers and men to be those of infantry of the line. Though no official explanation of the Order has yet been given, the newspapers have published an explanation which, we presume, is semi-official. This is to the effect that the creation of the new corps is a preliminary to the utilization of the Volunteer Corps when they are given a definite military status under the Volunteer Act. The Volunteer Training Corps when they become Volunteers in the old sense will be largely used in the work of patrol• and guard duties at vulnerable points, and thus take over duties at present performed by what have been cumbrously called f" supernumerary companies of Territorial units." Those super- numerary companies have, in fact, had nothing to do with the Terri- torial units to which on paper they are attached, but are, in truth, sections of the National Reserve, disguised under an alias.