30 NOVEMBER 1872, Page 3

Some alarm has been created by a statement that soldiers

desert at the rate of more than 8,000 a year, but it appears that the names advertised by the Police have often been counted twice over, and that the annual desertion does not exceed half that num- ber. The evil is attributed to the new method of enlistment for general service, men liking to join regiments they know something of, but it needs some better explanation than that. Men do not run away from the Queen's ships in those numbers or with that impunity, and it must be even easier for them to escape. Tbe vital question, however, is not yet touched,—the increase or decrease in the proportion of desertions.