SANDHURST EXPENSES AND THE SUPPLY OF OFFICERS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Why does " Civilian Parent," in your last issue, make such a fuss about the expense of sending a boy to Sandhurst P Our regulations are sufficiently elastic. Those who like to pay £170 a year can patronise the Royal Military College, and those who cannot or will not pay this fee may put their sons into the Special Reserve, or even let them soldier in the ranks for a couple of years, before applying for a commission in the Army. The truth is that too great a number of persons desire to have their• offspring taken care of while yet mere school- boys by a " paternal" Government, at little or• no expense to themselves. The parents of budding doctors or lawyers or architects have to finance them for years and years ; and even the higher grades of civil servants must go through an expen- sive training at a University. Then why should parents expect their boys to be thrown on the hands of the taxpayer because they wish them to become soldiers ? Raise the pay of the fully-trained officer by all means, but while boys are in a state of pupilage their maintenance is the affair of their
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