Mr. Haldane introduced the Army Estimates on Tuesday. He began
by stating that the first concern in military matters was the preservation in their full strength and efficiency of our overseas garrisons in India and elsewhere, and recorded his conviction that the introduction of compulsory training, even on a moderate scale, would disastrously affect recruiting for the overseas army. That army could only be obtained on a voluntary basis, and he therefore stood firm against all proposals in favour of compulsion ; and defended his action in publishing Sir Ian Hamilton's Memorandum. Last year was a bad year for recruiting, but, though the establishments were nearly 1,700 short on January 1st, the shortage had now been made up. The drop in the Army Reserve was an inevit- We result of the alterations in the terms of service with the colours and the reserve. The whole of the fighting per- sonnel of non-corns and men for the expeditionary force of six divisions were there : 2,700 more officers were available for special service abroad than five years ago; and there would be no difficulty in mobilising the expeditionary forces so far as officers were concerned, though that would deplete the home forces ; but arrangements had been made to tide over the difficulty, and officers from the Universities were coming in well. A committee of cavalry experts was working oat the problem of the supply of horses, and he was negotiating with some of the great railway companies in connection with the proposed organisation of a Construction Corps of Regular Royal Engineers with an establishment of 600, and a Special Reserve Traffic Corps of 1200.
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