VTO TES EDITOR OF TIM "SPECTATOR."'
SIR,—Mr. Arnold-Forster in your issue of the 4th inst. seems to take great credit for himself in his treatment of the Yeomanry when he was Secretary of State for War. As I happened to be the official who was responsible for that force when Mr. Arnold- Forster effected his so-called reform, I beg leave to point out that his words are, to say the least of it, somewhat misleading. When Mr. Arnold-Forster came to the War Office he found the establishment of the new Yeomanry fixed at 35,000, but as the force was then in the process of construction its numbers only amounted to 26,000. What Mr. Arnold-Forster did was to decree that the establishment of the Yeomanry should be reduced from 35,000 to 27,000 in round numbers, or that each regiment should be reduced from 596 to 476. It is difficult to see bow this reduction in the establishment can have had anything to do with the increase of efficiency in the force ; its only immediate effect was to penalise large regi- ments, and to produce a small paper-saving on the Estimates. The real fact of the matter is that it is to Mr. Brodrick that the new Yeomanry is indebted for its increase in efficiency. He spent the money, and to him the credit should be given.—
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