ARMY RECRUITING IN AMERICA
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In your last issue Colonel Wilson paints a picture of the United States Army which with very slight alteration would do equally well for ours. The methods he describes are similar and, although he does not define the ideals, I should be surprised to learn that they vary much from our own.
We have our regimental funds and institutes. The young soldier has the chance of going to Sandhurst, and civil life trades are taught to those who are approaching the end of their service.
Like the United States enlisted men our soldiers are taught to salute the uniform rather than its wearer, and an officer is expected to gain his subordinates' " confidence and respect in other ways."
Colonel Wilson may have derived part of his impression of the British Army from articles discussing the difficulties of recruiting, but these naturally stress matters which may be considered to need reform more than the more numerous good points of the modern army, and have, perhaps, misled him into considering as fundamental what are only superficial differences between the two forces.—I am, yours faithfully, F. H. W. Ross-LEwIN, Major. Woodlands, St. Olaves, near Great Yarmouth.
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