The new issue of National - Defence, the quarterly organ of
the National Defence Association (Hugh Rees, 119 Pall Mall, S.W., 2s. 6d. net), has many excellent and attractive articles. "An Old Hand" makes his "Foreign Chronique " as interesting and stimu- lating as usual, while other notable contributions are "The Ottoman Empire" by Asiaticus ' and "The Expeditionary Army" by Hoplite.' Two papers and discussions of quite unusual in- terest are reported. The first is that read to the Association by Colonel i Court Repington, the able and learned military corre- spondent of the Times, on March 28th. Colonel Repington passed in general review our Territorial troops, and in the end came to the conclusion that the force has immense possibilities for good, and that if recruiting difficulties can be met it will be capable, given competent administration and com- mand, not only of steady and sustained improvement, but eventually of good service in the field. During the discussion that followed General Raitt mentioned the Veteran Reserve, which he declared would, if properly worked and developed, be a most invaluable force. He did not think that the County Associations had quite grasped the fact that the Veteran Reserve would mainly consist of ex-Regulars. General Raitt added the fact that these Veterans ought to be better than any Reservists the Continent can produce. He calculated that there are probably 200,000 of these ex-Regulars in the country alone. The other paper reported in National Defence is one of very great interest read by Colonel Hyslop, the Secretary of the City of London Territorial Force, and also the Secretary of the Joint Committee of the two London Associations, which is responsible for the organization of the London Veteran Reserve. Colonel Hyslop gave a most striking account of the manner in which the London Veteran Reserve has been raised and of the way in which the mayors of the Metropolitan boroughs have come forward to assist in the work, in spite of the fact that they are already very hard-worked men. A special feature of-Colonel Hyslop's paper was the very interesting suggestion for bringing the Veteran Reserve and the Cadet Corps into relation.
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