the organisation of the Expeditionary Force goes, and in regard
to the formation of the County Associations to help in the
work of developing the Territorial Army, we approve. We assume, however, that we have a right to understand from Mr. Haldane's speech (1) that a serious effort will be made to improve the Militia in every respect ; and (2) that the numbers of the Volunteers will not be reduced, but, instead, that an endeavour will be made to give the force a greater strength and elasticity, and to take from every man who is genuinely anxious to serve his country in arms such service as he is able to perform. In other words, we assume that Mr. Haldane does not in any way adopt the notion that men raised on our present Volunteer basis, who cannot be fitted into an organisation based upon hypothetical needs, are to be treated as superfluous or redundant. In the case of the Volunteers there can be no redundancy, we hold, provided that a Volunteer is physically capable, knows how to shoot, is willing to enrol himself in a unit which is available for national defence, and is properly amenable to military discipline. But though, with these limitations, we approve of Mr. Haldane's organisation proposals, we confess that we cannot approve of the reduction of battalions which he contemplates,—especially in the case of the two battalions of Guards. If reduction in the number of men was absolutely necessary—to which proposition, how- ever, we do not assent—we would far rather have kept the Guards and reduced the establishment of the Line battalions a little more. In any case, we think that a reduction in the number of men should have followed the establishment of a sound Militia, and not preceded it. By a sound Militia we mean a, force raised on a basis of six months' initial training, plus a subsequent very short yearly training, supplemented with drill and shooting in the men's spare or civilian time.
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