Army and Air Personnel This week's debates on Army and
Air Force Estimates brought out some difficulties in expansion on the side of personnel. In the Army recruiting is very bad. The men offering are too largely of low quality ; alit of 68,000 last year only 28,000 could be accepted. A little multiplication on the basis of three years' service will suggest how perilously inadequate that is. The War Office, quite rightly, has adopted a variety of measures to render soldiering more attractive ; but .undoubtedly sonic of the falling-off is clue to popular anti-militarism. Hatred of war is a sentiment Of which we arc all in favour ; but more effort should he made to prevent it from entailing hatred of the Army. In the Air Force, on the other hand, the actual intake of recruits is excellent. The difficulty is the reserve of trained pilots outside the active Force. In Great Britain. according to Captain Guest, only 10,000 people know how to fly. In Germany the comparable figure is from 13,000 to 25,000. This is in part the price we pay for the refusal of our Post Office to utilise air services save for specially stamped letters. It is welcome, if belated, news that that crass piece of narrow departmentalism is aban- doned. Henceforth the Post Office will dispense with air- mail stamps on all routes served by British aeroplanes.
