THE VETERAN RESERVE FOR LONDON.
WE note with no small satisfaction that the Territorial Associations of the City and of the County of London have begun to take in hand in earnest the forma- tion of a Veteran Reserve. As our readers will see from the letter in our correspondence columns (published to-day in the London newspapers) signed by the Lord Mayor, the Duke of Fife, Lord. Esher, and Sir Evelyn Wood, an appeal is made to all the trained men resident in London who no longer are in touch with any military unit to come forward and register themselves in the Veteran Reserve. As our readers will doubtless remember, the county of Surrey has already formed a Veteran Reserve. These Veterans paraded last year on Waterloo Day to the number of some fourteen hundred, and showed that those who are officially described as " Veterans " by the War Office are in no sense grizzled old warriors, but men in the prime of life, though men in many cases who have had a wide experience of war, and have shown their quality upon many a stricken field. In case, however, there may be some of our readers who do not yet recognise the nature of the Veteran Reserve, its aims and objects, we had perhaps better give some description of the force, even though it must necessarily involve the virtual repetition of our articles of nine months ago.
The best way to explain the nature of the Veteran Reserve is to tell shortly the story of the Surrey Veteran Reserve. We must begin by pointing out that Surrey's success was not due to any exceptional advantages or to any special or peculiar circumstances. What Surrey has done, and what we are glad to think London is now going to do, can be done, and must be done, by every Territorial Association in England and Scotland. Indeed, instead. of Surrey having any advantages, it may be said to have been disadvantageously placed for forming a Veteran Reserve. Owing to nearness to London and tie changing character of the population, and still more owing to the fact that there is no clearly recognised capital for the county, Surrey always finds concerted action very difficult. Again, there are so many persons of all kinds, rich and poor, who only sleep in Surrey, but live and work in London, that Surrey men are very apt to have a divided allegiance. All that Surrey did was to recognise earlier than other counties that there were a great many trained men living within its borders, that these men would be willing to register their names and addresses in a. Veteran Reserve to be celled upon for active service at any time of great need, and that the material provided by these trained men was of first-rate quality.
The action taken by the Surrey Territorial Association was as follows. They appealed through the Surrey news- papers to the trained men living in the county to send in their names and addresses. This appeal met with an instant. response, and on Waterloo Day the Surrey Veteran Reserve may be said to have materialised. Practically no one had seen a Surrey Veteran, or at any rate not more than an isolated example, till the afternoon of Waterloo Day. The business of forming the Reserve had been conducted almost entirely through the post, and the postcards were the only outward and visible signs of the Reserve. When the time drew near for the parade, letters were sent to the men who had registered their names and addresses by postcard. inviting them to the parade, and asking them, if able to come, to state from what place they desired a railway ticket. The tickets were then sent to them, and they were told to be on the Horse Guards Parade at 2.30 on Saturday, June 18th. At that hour the paper scheme became a very striking reality. The men not only assembled in their hundreds, but proved to be of remarkable physique and intelligence, and, as we have said, many of them with brilliant records of active service,—these being found, not only among the ex-Regulars, but also among the old Volunteers and Militiamen. Surrey sent considerable contingents into the Imperial Yeomanry, into the service companies, and into the C.I.V. Further, the Militia regiments recruited in Surrey sent many men to war. Still, as we have said, the force before June 18th, 1910, had only existed on paper and postcards, and there were some doubting spirits who could not believe that the equivalent of two fairly strong battalions would actually put in an appearance. Yet they did so ; and these men who had never seen each other before, and still more, had never seen the officers who were to handle them on the parade, were without fuss, trouble, confusion, or difficulty marshalled, into some fifteen companies, and. drawn up in a three-sided formation in order to be inspected and addressed by the Secretary of State for War and the Adjutant-General. Since last June the Surrey force has received a simple and elastic organisation, which puts no burden upon the men, and gives them no trouble or worry, but yet at the same time is a source of pleasure and pride to them, and brings them into touch with each other. We are glad to note also that since the parade the Surrey Veteran Reserve has been growing. Some critics thought that just the reverse would be the case. They argued that it was easy to get men to come up to a spectacular parade and. have a pleasant day in London, but that it by no means followed that men who were willing to do this would be willing to remain in the Reserve. Happily, however, these gloomy prognostications have proved untrue. The Reserve has now reached very nearly two thousand, and men are constantly coming in, not merely to replace those who have reached the limit of age, but to add to the total number At present there are something like seventeen strong companies located throughout the county, each with its commandant, and. in almost all cases with another officer in addition. Again, thanks to the generosity of the High Sheriff of Surrey, each Veteran has had a badge presented to him which acts as a passport to many public functions. Remember that this Reserve is a pure addition to our military strength. It had no exist- ence before last spring, and it draws away from and • denudes no other force. It is a case of using material of a high quality which was otherwise running to absolute waste.
The Surrey force is on a small scale what the London force will be on a large, for we cannot believe that Londoners are less patriotic and less alert than the men of Surrey, and we are quite sure that, owing to the quickness with which news travels in London as compared with rural districts, the trained Londoners—the men eligible for the Veteran Reserve—will hear much more easily of the for- mation of the Veteran Reserve than did the ex-soldiers of Surrey. If London only does as well as Surrey, the Veteran Reserve ought very soon to reach the number of fifteen thousand, and to be composed of the very finest military material, for London is the place to which the best men amongst the ex-Regulars gravitate.—In London there are an enormous number of berths suitable to old soldiers of good character.—But if London does, as we think she ought to do and will do, a good deal better in pro- portion than Surrey did, the numbers of the Veteran Reserve might very well reach twenty-five to thirty thousand. If, then, the response is as quick and as good as we believe it will be, there is no reason why one of the most memorable functions of the Coronation year should not be a parade of twenty thousand. London Veterans in Hyde Park. We sincerely trust it may prove possible for some such assembly to take place, for so visible a proof of the value of the Veteran Reserve could not but stimulate the growth of the Reserve throughout the country. If the London Associations manage the business properly and get the men, we do not hesitate to say that the country will be astounded by the show which they will be able to make. No attempt, of course, can be made to give the men uniform. Just as in the case of the parade of the Surrey Veterans, the men will form up in their ordinary clothes. But this, strange as it may seem, will not make the parade any the less striking or less moving. On the contrary, it will show more clearly than could. be shown in any other way the tremendous military asset, hitherto unused, which we possess in the Veteran Reserve. Twenty thousand men parading in uniform would only look like ordinary Regulars or Territorials. Twenty thousand men parading in mufti will prove to the country how negligent the military authorities have hitherto been in losing touch with such splendid fighting material. A word or two must be said as to the uses to which the Veteran Reserve should be put. When the War Office, having seen what Surrey was doing with its Register of Trained Men, ordered the various counties of England to form Veteran Reserves, they stated that those Reserves would be used, in case of invasion, to assist the police in guarding bridges, driving off cattle, 8re. We venture to say that these restrictions on the uses of the Veteran Reserve are not likely to last. The War Office recognised at the Surrey parade that the men were a great deal too good for these duties,—duties highly important, but none the less not exactly combative duties. What we feel sure about as regards the future of the Veteran Reserve is this. The Veteran Reserve will remain a Territorial force,— that is, directly under the County Associations. In peace- time nothing will be asked of the men except such things as they may like to do for themselves in the way of parades and fraternisation. If, however, these islands should be invaded, and the single obligation which the men are to accept comes into force—namely, that of defending their country in case of deadly peril—we do not doubt that the Veterans will be used to reinforce the Territorial battalions when those battalions take the field. Undoubtedly the addition of a couple of Veteran companies, or perhaps even more, to each Territorial unit, and the formation also of an extra battalion of Veterans, would prove of the greatest possible use. Many of the Veterans are of such character and calibre that they could at once be used as non-commissioned officers. We need not, how- ever, dwell upon this point at present. The first thing, and the great thing, is to get the trained men of London registered in the Veteran Reserve. If ever these islands are invaded and. the country placed in imminent peril, the men will, we are sure, like true soldiers, do whatever the military authorities ask them to do in defence of their country, whether it be guarding bridges or reinforcing the Territorial battalions.
We will only add one word to the statement of the signa- tories of the appeal. It is to ask the trained men of London to make an immediate success of the movement by filling in their postcards and sending them in without delay to "The Secretary, Veterans, Friars House, New Broad Street, E.C." It is of the utmost importance that they should lose no time in doing this. If the London Veterans are to play, as they ought to play, and as all their friends want them to play, a great part in the Coronation ceremonials, no time is to be lost. It is necessary that the numbers of men registered should be ten or fifteen thousand by the end of the first two months of the year, and if possible sooner. If that is done, then the London Veterans will have no difficulty in asking that a parade of their force in Hyde Park may be one of the features of Coronation year. If his Majesty the King is to be asked to do them the great honour of inspecting them, it is essential that their numbers shall be worthy of London. The capital of the Empire cannot afford. to do things by halves. It is not enough, then, for a man to say that he will register some day when he has time. He must, as soon as he sees the appeal which comes out to-day, take his postcard, sit down, and fill up the par- ticulars of his corps and length of service,—particulars which in many cases will send a thrill of pride through those who read them. They will be records of service to England in tropical forests, in high mountain passes, in fever-stricken swamps, on arid plains, on wind-swept tablelands, by the waters of the Nile and of the Vaal, beside the Indus and the Ganges.
To make London's Veteran Reserve the success it deserves to be, prompt action, then, is absolutely necessary. And men must not be content with sending in their own postcards. They must look up their comrades and see to it that they do the same. Each Veteran must be a recruiting officer for the London Veteran Reserve as well as a member.
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