OPEN SPACES FOR THE VOLUNTEERS. [To THE EDITOR OF THE
"SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—While congratulating you upon the result of your advocacy of the use of Richmond Park for the training of Volunteers, I should like to call attention to the fact that such open spaces, while useful up to a certain point, are not the most essential item for the proper training of an army for home defence. Lord Stanley in his reply in the House of Commons speaks as if they were ; but if an enemy were to land in this country, we should not invite him to come out to battle in the open spaces and waste places of the land, either at Aldershot or Salisbury Plain, but he would have to be met by hedgerow fighting in enclosed country. An army for home defence cannot be called property trained until it has had such experience of this mode of fighting that even the youngest lieutenant or corporal has no hesitation, when placed in any field, in deciding at which hedge he ought to fight or where it is desirable to make gaps for lateral communication, and in front and rear, for attack and retreat. This cannot be attained by training our troops only in the open, or at all until the Government acquire the same rights of manoeuvring over private property as are enjoyed by the armies of our great military neighbours. I should like to add that in my opinion the army told off for the defence of London has not been properly trained for that purpose until it has manoeuvred over the country between that city and every probable landing place for an invader, and is well acquainted with the defensive positions and the lines of communication which are available. —I am, Sir, &c., LIEUTENANT-COLONEL.
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