To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR")
Fia,—Wills reference to correspondence and your own articles on the subject of Lord Haldane's apologia, it has always scented Is me strange that neither Lord Haldane nor any writer on the subject has given credit for the original Territorial idea to the quarter to which it is properly due. The word "Terri- torial " was cleverly made use of by Lord Haldane as an attractive title for the special force which he substituted for the old Volunteers, but the true Territorial Force wee estab- lished in the great reorganization of the Army carried through Farlinment in 1881, as any one may see by referring to the Army List, where the word is used in ita proper sense in the heading of the Infantry of the Line. Mr. Childers, who has scarcely had the credit due to him for that great measure, slated clearly in the House of Commons that his object was to create a true Territorial Force by affiliating the then exist- ing Imitations of Regulars, Militia, and Volunteers, and so treating regimeuts of infantry, associated locally, giving them the titles of flue counties in which they were raised. thos forming a Territorial Army. it is quite true that Lord Haldane gave life to the dry bones of She old Volunteer Force, and for this he is entitled to be remembered; but the true Territorial Force, with its county titles, was the creation of Mr. Childers; he was bitterly opposed by the Duke of Cambridge, hut Queen Victoria had on this question a broader mind, and gave her support to her Minister. Mr. Childers's organisation has stood the test of time and trial; and when the day of stress came, tho Territorial system enabled Lord Kitchener to expand the county regiments by the addition of any number of new Service Isatalions, n-hide the popularity of the county titles las entirely vindicated the change from the time-honoured
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