VOLUNTEERS ON A WAR FOOTING.
T should be the next step in the progress of our Vi volunteer army towards efficiency ? Successful hitherto beyond the anticipations of its promoters and of that mili- tary public which looked so coldly upon. it two years ago, it is manifest to thoughtful minds that the volunteer army must not halt upon the platform if has won, but must ascend to a higher stage. The volunteers can march, and execute simple manceuvres with tolerable regularity and steadiness ; a large per centage can shoot, and a larger are familiar with the weapons entrusted to them. The sham-fights have been useful in showing the obstacles and difficulties to be en- countered, rather than in demonstrating how early difficul- ties have been surmounted. The volunteers have now, as they ought to have, more the look and bearing of trained soldiers than they had in 1860. But much remains to be done. We do not allude to company and battalion drill, which we assume will go on throughout the spring, summer, and autumn with increased vigour. These exercises are matters of course, which even old soldiers are not permitted to neglect with impunity, and which, if they were not essential to the keeping of the rank and file up to the mark, would be essential to the training of the officers and non-commissioned officers of the force. But while drill goes on with unre- mitting exactitude, something else may be done to make the volunteers what they should be—a fighting force. What that something is has been indicated by the In- spector-General of Volunteers. Colonel M`Murdo thinks it is high time that the attention of the volunteers should be turned to the question of equipments on the field. In this we entirely agree; and as Colonel M`Murdo is, so far as volun- teers are concerned, the War Office, we are anxious to give him every support in our power. At his suggestion, Colonel O'Halloran has devised a volunteer equipment, and in order that the wish of the War Office to place the volunteer force upon a war footing may be complied with, the two colonels have called public attention to the question. Now, it is not for us to pronounce an opinion upon what should constitute a "volunteer's kit," but we would beg Colonel M`Murdo not to underrate the capacity of the volunteers for carrying such a kit as would include all that soldiers of their kind should possess. If the volunteers have erred, it has been on the modest side hitherto. They have not attempted too much, but they have in every case done more than was set down for them. In the case of uniform, instead of adopting a showy garb, they have chosen sombre hues which do not show to advantage ; and we shall never cease to regret that the regi- ments and companies in existence did not adopt the national colour, red. With red coats on their backs, an enemy would have found it difficult to distinguish them from the regulars and militia. If they should ever go into action in grey, they will certainly fight at an immense disadvantage, for an enemy would assail them with more confidence than he would assail red soldiers. We trust that in adopting a kit, a similar error will not be committed, and that they will not be sent into the field with fewer conveniences than they ought to have, simply because they are not regulars. But it is objected that the volunteers would never endure the burden. We answer—let it be tried. Since the mili- tary authorities are of opinion that the kind of equipment needed for volunteers should be decided upon, so that when the necessity arises the equipments may be forthcoming, why should the volunteers not have the equipments now ? Why, as Colonel O'Halloran asks, await the day of trial, and neglect the hour of preparation ? The practice of carrying knapsacks on particular occasions might be easily introduced by degrees. All the really effective men in any company would carry them if ordered to do so, and the example thus set would speedily extend. We cannot see any reason why the volunteers should not be properly equipped this summer, and thus be inured to the burden; although Colonel M‘Murdo gives one, the force of which we cannot perceive. He says that the present force is only a nucleus, that were invasion menaced, companies of sixty or a hundred would rise to battalions of eight hundred or a thou- sand, and that then some would be trained and some not. Granted ; but surely that is no reason why the sixty or hundred should not be trained completely. On the contrary, it is a reason why they should be trained; for your nucleus cannot be too efficient in time of 'feed. The question is only one of expense. If the volunteers will find themselves in knapsacks and kit, why should they not be allowed to do so ? If they will not, they must wait until the time of trial, and then Government must supply them. What we venture to suggest as the next step in the ap- proximation of the volunteer force towards a war organiza- tion, is that some crack corps, like the "Inns of Court" or the "South Middlesex," should set the example of mustering in marching order with full war equipment, and that the practice of marching out should be combined with regimental field exercises, so that there may be some corps fit to take its place in front of an enemy. It would be an advantage to these volunteers, if in addition to this they could assemble at Aldershott for a day or two, and act with the regular troops ; or at all events if a camp could be formed somewhere within easy reach of London by road, where regiments or parts of regiments could actually take up their quarters, the soldiers going to London and re- turning to camp every day if required. If whole battalions could not be prevailed upon to provide a soldier's equip- ment, service companies could be formed out of those who would, and thus the experiment could be tried. It is highly desirable that the season should not slip away without our volunteers being brought one step nearer towards that business-like efficiency, without which they will remain, what they are, bands of brave and partly disciplined men who are not fit to encounter the difficulties of even a "short cam-
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