THE " SPECTATOR " EXPERIMENT IN MILITIA TRAINING.

[THE experiment undertaken by Colonel Pollock for which we are asking sub- scriptions may be briefly described as follows. Colonel Pollock declares that in six months he will give a military training to one hundred young Englishmen Of between eighteen and twenty of the wage-earning class which will make them individually more proficient soldiers in the field (i.e., in attack and defence, outposts, advanced, rear, and flank guards, ke., 8cc.) than any company selected at short notice from the Regular infantry now in the United Kingdom. Let that company, for example, be selected from whichever is considered to be the best battalion now at Aldershot. Moreover, the hundred recruits shall also be well grounded in drill, gymnastics, and musketry. It iS clear, if Colonel Pollock can form such a company in six months, that a fact of the utmost importance will have been ascertained, and that we shall be able without misgiving to urge that our present Militia Force shall be organised on the basis of six months' recruit training, with only a week's camp each succeeding year plus local training, upon a system resembling that now followed by the Volunteers. On such a basis we could have a Militia Army of two hundred thousand men whose civil employment would not be injuriously affected,—a force of real value which would yet not impose any intolerable burden on the national resources. The experiment, if a success, should also render impossible the carrying out of the policy of abolishing the Militia put forward by the late Secretary of State for War.] SUBSCRIPTIONS RECEIVED AND PROMISED UP TILL SATURDAY, MARCH 3RD :—.R.3,023 is.

SUBSCRIPTIONS RECEIVED DURING THE CURRENT WEEK :—

Adam Birkmyre (second

Anglo-Indian... L3 0 0 contribution) 410 0 0

T. Barclay Cockerton

5 0 0

Mrs. Hickin (Wei.hai-wei)

1 0 0 Wykeham Clifton 1 0 0

J. C. Blake, F.R.G.S. 5 5 0 William Idelland 1 0 0

Professor William Osler ... 2 2 0 A Friend (additional) 5

0 0 A. M. C. (second contribn- C. F. Thompson

1

1 0

8 0 0

James Spicer... ...

2

2 0 5 0 0 C. C. Cotterill

1 1 0

Cyrus DanieU ...

5 0 0

Cheques should be made payab e to "' Spectator' Militia Train- ing Account," and crossed "Barclau and Co., Gosling's Branch."

The men of the Spectator Experimental Company, as they are to be called for short, will assemble next Thursday, March 15th, at Hounslow Barracks, to begin their training. The subscribers who have so generously supported the experi- ment, and our readers generally, will be glad to hear that the eagerness of the men to enter the Spectator Company has been most marked. They have joined, it is clear, not because they were badly in want of a job, and could find nothing better to do, but because they had a genuine interest in soldiering, and believed that six months' training would be of benefit to them. Next week we hope to give more particulars of the raising of the Company, which are full of interest and import- ance to those whose business it is to recruit the national forces. We must add that the experiment has been begun in the confident hope that the full sum required will be forthcoming. There still remains nearly 2400 of the 23,500 to be raised. We trust that our readers will help us in our final effort to obtain this sum.