THE TERRITORIAL FORCE. !To THE EDITOR or TEE "SPECTATOR." I
Sin,—In your issue of February 10th Colonel Keene, of the National Service League, quotes the advice given by the Inspector-General as to the best use to be made of the very limited time for which the Government is prepared to pay for embodied training. Colonel Keene concludes by saying : Any one who knows the limitations of the voluntary system will understand thoroughly that it is impossible to correct the faults complained of by General Sir John French, and it is this circumstance which gives so much cause for anxiety to those who are anxious to see a Home Defence Force ready to take the field, fully equipped and fully trained, on the day that war breaks out." This is an entirely new proposition for the National Service League, because if there is any meaning at all in the words it indicates a regular professional standing army; and if we are to have national service on this basis it means, not four, but more than forty millions a year, and not inconvenience, but absolute dislocation and disruption of all trade.
Allowing, however, for the somewhat reckless use of language in which it is customary for advocates of compulsion to indulge when deprecating the Territorial Force, let us suppose that what Colonel Keene means is, not a "fully trained" army, but one that shall be trained on the lines of compulsory service advocated by the National Service League ; in this scheme the only difference in training from that which now obtains in the Territorial Force, so far as appears from the official publica- tion of the League, is that each man shall have had at the age of eighteen three or four months' recruit drill at a training depot. Unfortunately the value of such training is not great, because it is not regimental, and one of the great objects that training should develop is to fit the man into his place in the unit, and bring about what Colonel Sir Lonsdale Hale has so aptly described as the " mutual cohesion" between all ranks in a regiment.enis
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essential element in military efficiency is borne in mind by those engaged in the training, it is indeed wonderful what can be done on the voluntary basis.
Following the directions of Lord Haldane, with which Colonel Keene agrees, I will, in substantiation of this, quote two expressions of opinion of those who have taken every opportunity of seeing the Volunteers and Territorials at work. When I had the honour to command a volunteer battalion the inspecting officer—an exceedingly precise and particularly regular soldier—stated in his confidential inspection report of this battalion : "This unit is ready for war in every respect." Again, in reference to the Territorial Force at the conclusion
of the Army Manoeuvres in 1910—the very year to which the report quoted by Colonel Keene refers—Sir John French Bald : " The Territorials have proved themselves to be extraordinarily effizient." The Territorials referred to consisted of a mounted brigade, an infantry brigade, and a brigade of field artillery. Hence it is clear that the faults alluded to can; even under a voluntary system, be corrected. I must not trespass too much on your -valuable space or I should like to. explain what a mistake is being made by the advocates of compulsion in assuming that the alternative suggested in the scheme put forward by the National Service League would replace the Territorial Force by a fully trained army, and incidentally the mischief they do in constantly depreciating the .efficiency that has been attained. The real cause for anxiety is that, whereas the rub is almost certain to come before there is any departure from the voluntary principle, the Territorial Force may lack both numbers and confidence owing to the persistent and unfair attacks it is subjected to by the National Service League and the Unionist Press. I should like also to indicate how the extra four millions demanded by the National Service League might be expended to much greater advantage than by adopting their scheme,—I am, Sir, &c., T. STURMY CAVE.
Woking.
[Colonel Keene may have made a slip in speaking of a fully trained force, but he did not, of course, mean to develop any policy different from that which is advocated by the National Service League. As was quite clear from the context, what he meant was that men who had received a sound four months' recruits' training would constitute a better and more efficient Territorial Force than that which we now possess. The lesson to be drawn from Colonel Sturm), Cave's letter would seem to be that the Swiss Army is utterly worthless. Yet one can hardly believe that this is really his opinion. With his defence of the Territorials we are in agreement. Though we want double their numbers and more opportunities for training, we have never harshly criticised the force. We regard it as in many ways excellent, and as to the patriotism of its members there can be no sort of question. We note, how- ever, that the strong condemnations quoted by Colonel Keene were not made by the League, but, strangely enough, by its opponents.—En. Spectator.]
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