THE ARMY ESTIMATES [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
Sta,—Mr. Hore-Belisha's speech on the Army Estimates may justly be described as epoch marking and must have been read with the liveliest satisfaction by soldiers and civilians alike. There are, however, two points which I think deserve comment.
In the first place, no one can disagree with his estimate of thinking of military strength in terms of fire-units instead of counting heads. It is a very effective way of emphasising the truth that the resources of mechanisation, whether of the vehicle or of the weapon, have enormously increased the volume of fire per man-unit. It follows, therefore, that many fewer men may now be required to give the same effect, whether in offence or defence, than formerly, and it is incon- trovertible that every man who is not employed in the firing line must be both an extra target and an extra mouth to feed. Mr. Hore-Belisha, in short, makes out an excellent case for the need of fewer men in the firing line, but he aVoids, not I hope purposely, the corollary that the same mechanisation which has decreased his numbers in the firing line must, at least proportionately, increase the numbers behind it. The supply of mechanised vehicles and weapons depends on increasing the numbers of highly-trained workpeople both for manufacture and maintenance. Not all of these will neces- sarily be in uniform, but the total may probably be found to more than offset the decreased numbers of fighting men. Much more difficult, this total will have to be found from the diminished ranks of highly skilled labour.
Secondly, though Mr. Hore-Belisha was at pains to reassure the country and the world that the number of men offering themselves for Army service was greater even than was needed, it is a pity that every change he proposed was open to the construction of having been at least considered, if not influenced, by his difficulty in attracting the right men in sufficient numbers. Moreover, there was a significant reticence about the shortage of officers, quite apart from the . open admission—and how comically this must ring in foreign ears l—that a percentage of would-be recruits must receive the diet and building-up exercises of a convalescent before they are fit for service in a mechanised army where hardness, it appears, is no longer to be an essential physical condition.—
Yours, &c., SIDNEY ROGERSON.
43 Albert Hall Mansions, S.W. 7,
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