SIR, —Sir Howard Vincent in his letter to the Secretary of
State for War (Spectator, March 11th) puts the number of Militia who served in South Africa at 1,691 officers and 43,875 men, but he has forgotten to include the Militia Reserve. Every Militia battalion which was not despatched to South Africa in the beginning of 1900 had to send its reserve to join the Line battalions, and as soon as this reserve, amounting to about one-third of each regi- ment, was exhausted, a new reserve was formed and followed in due course. In some Line battalions as many as 400 to 500 Militiamen fought during the war, and, provided they did not join the Regular Army, returned to their respective corps at the conclusion of hostilities. The number of Militiamen who were in South Africa, amounted to about 70,000 out of a total of 130,000, not a bad contribution from the old Constitutional force. Every Militia battalion except one or two volunteered to go anywhere ; and although the two forces cannot be com- pared, so different are their conditions, yet it is curious that not one single Volunteer battalion out of the 250,000 Volun- teers could be found willing to go as a battalion to the seat of
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