THE RECRUITING FAILURE
To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Nearly three years ago I enlisted in the British Regular Army as a private soldier. Like the author of the paragraph dealing with the recruiting failure, which appeared in " News of the Week " in your issue of November 6th, I was under the impression that the pecuniary advantages of a military career were singularly unattractive. Actually the private soldier is better " paid " than the vast majority of his con- temporaries in civilian employment. It is, of course, true that the ordinary recruit only receives 2s. a day, rising to 2s. 6d., but not one penny of the sum that he draws at the end of each week is required for the purchase of food or for the payment of rent. Even if a man only draws 12s. a week after stoppages and deductions have been made he is better off than a man in " civic street " who brings home live times that amount each week. Where is the £3 a week wage- earner who, after clothing, feeding and housing himself decently, has 12s. a week to spend as he likes ? I doubt whether he can be found south of Berwick. There are, today, men in the British Army who manage to save 7s. 6d. a week without difficulty out of their first earnings. A private soldier can, therefore, be of assistance to his family in spite of what the author of the paragraph in question has to say on the subject. I know that at least five out of the seventeen men in the same barrack-room as myself made regular con- tributions towards the upkeep of relatives. Most of the others spent their weekly earnings on cigarettes, cakes, chocolates and innumerable cups of tea. But a man who goes in for promotion has little difficulty in finding a bed of even deeper clover than that enjoyei by a recruit. Within a year of enlistment there is no reason why a man of ordinary intelligence should not be earning 27s. Oct. as a lance-corporal. " Compared with such conditions, those of life even on the dole may well seem more attractive." Is it not unfortunate that these words should have appeared in The Spectator ?—
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