THE VOLUNTEERS.
(To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—You have always taken a practical interest in the Volunteer movement. May I direct your attention to and ask your views on a practical point? Lord Derby stated on November 30th that in future all the material for uniforms would be the regulation khaki. As a member of a V.T.C. who some months ago pur- chased a serviceable uniform not of that colour, I hope that those words mean that existing uniforms are not to be " scrapped." The commandant of my corps some weeks ago when recognition was in the air decreed that new ones of khaki were necessary if the old ones could not be dyed—whioh I understand they cannot, satisfactorily—and I have been contemplating retirement, both out of protest at what strikes me as appalling waste at a time when economy is being preached, and in sympathy with many worthy comrades who at some self-sacrifice are proud to have paid for their own outfit. Uniformity of clothing is no doubt desirable in the field, but for the duties to which Volunteers of fifty and upwards are likely to be called it can hardly bo regarded as necessary. Is it not the old spirit of "button-changing" of which Army officers used to complain in pre-war times?—I am, [We understand that the military authorities have. decided that any persons who possess the old uniforms may wear them on parade, but that new uniforms are to be made from a special cloth to be supplied by the Government. In the circumstances we feel sure that neither our correspondent nor any of his friends or persons in a similar position can possibly think of retiring. To do so now would be a most unpatriotic act.—ED. Spectator.]
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