Mr. Holms, Member for Hackney, sends to the Times a
very strong statement about desertion. He says that in 1873, 2,078- recruits entered for the Cavalry, and 934 deserters were adver- tised for ; 3,479 recruits joined the Artillery, and 1,868 men deserted ; 443 entered the Engineers, and 131 were advertised ; while though 10,760 recruits were added to the Infantry of the Line and the Guards, 3,569 deserted. The bucket is kept full, but has an ever-widening hole at the bottom. Mr. Holms's remedy is a small Army, good pay, short service,' and a large Reserve coating 1.20 a year per man, but we think it inferior to the one suggested in another column. Mr. Holms's plan is the cheaper, but it is based upon the assump- tion that we could always get the Reserves when wanfed, an assumption which, in this country, we doubt greatly. We could not shoot our Landwehr in heaps, as the Prussian Government, if necessary, could and would, and the evasions when the necessity arrived would be endless. We want the men in barracks, ready at an hour's notice, not scattered over whole counties, or in cities where, as it is, a deserter can never be discovered. The enforce- ment of the contract would be the press-gang business over again, and might be as unpopular.
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