THE SURREY GUIDES.

IN spite of ordnance maps, prismatic compasses, and officers with a special capacity for topography, it is always a blessing for troops on the march to have good Local Guides. It is not so much that the Local Guides pre- vent the troops from going in wrong directions and losing themselves—the maps provide against that—as that they very much increase the pace at which the troops move. Again, a Local Guide can tell a commanding officer many things which no map can—what is the winter surface of a. road, whether the gradients of a lane which look like an admirable short cut become a little further on too bad for transport wagons, or whether a field track which appears good enough at first sight degenerates later into bog. But if good Guides save the time of soldiers and prevent the worry and distress caused by hanging about instead of marching straight to an object in the day time, they are still more useful for those night movements which are going to play so large a part in modern warfare. Men who know the country well enough to be able to feel their way about it on a winter's night or even in a, fog might prove invaluable if these islands are ever invaded. In view of these considerations Colonel Davidson, at that time commanding the Royal Artillery in the N.E. district, delivered in 1903 a lecture on "A System of Local Guides for Home Defence" at the Royal United Service Institution. In 1910 Colonel Davidson's scheme was brought to the notice of the Surrey Territorial Association by Lord Midleton. The Association, rightly feeling that it was their duty to organize and develop every possible form of local defence within the county, determined to adopt the proposal. They appointed Colonel Watney (late the Colonel of the 4th Battalion of the Queen's) as Chief Guide, and asked him to draw up a scheme for the organ- ization of a corps of County Guides. Happily the scheme drawn up by Colonel Wittney—who for many years had such a proposal in his mind, and so long ago as 1900 made a list of hunting men, hunt. servants, second-horse- men, farmers, &c., to act as Guides in Surrey in case of invasion—fitted in well with Lord Haldanefs scheme for the formation of a, Technical Reserve. At the time when the National Reserve (first started in Surrey) was adopted by the War Office, Lord Haldane proposed that persons possessed of special technical knowledge, such as electricians, engineers, and the like, should be organized and registered for use in a cam- paign. These experts would not be required to join any Territorial or other force, but would merely place themselves at the disposal of the War Office in case of invasion or other imminent national peril. As they would not be combatants, or at any rate not combatants with rifles, military training in the sense of drill would not be required of them. But a guide, considered scientifically, is a topographical expert, a man with special knowledge of country, of maps, of road surfaces, Ste. Therefore it was clear that Colonel Watney's County Guides would automatically become a part of the Technical Reserve. We trust we shall not be guilty of any breach of confidence if we add that in March 1910 a deputation from the Surrey Territorial Association saw Lord Haldane on the subject, and that he encouraged the notion of the formation of the Surrey Guides under the County Association. Such was the origin of the Surrey Guides. And here we may say that the new body whose organization and functions we are going to describe is in no sense an amateur effort or a civilian club, but an official body, as much under the County Territorial Association as, for example, is the Surrey National Reserve. The Association, and the Association alone, subject, of course, to the general orders of the Army Council, are responsible for the conduct and management of the County Guides.

Official countenance having thus been obtained, the Chief Guide proceeded with the organization of the county. Without going too much into detail we may say that his scheme, which is now being put into operation, is as follows : The Chief Guide divided the county into some eight divisions, paying due regard to topographical considerations. He then appointed to each division a Divisional Guide and instructed each Divisional Guide to subdivide his division into four or five districts and to choose for each a District Guide. The District Guides are men who know their district thoroughly, either because they are members of local hunts or for other reasons are accustomed to traverse it not only by road but by bridle path or cross-country. Each District Guide is further instructed to appoint in his district some ten or twenty Local Guides, men who know every inch of the ground and would be able to guide troops across it by day or night—as, for example, gamekeepers, farmers, or the men who are to be found in every county who, whether from love of science or sport, or from natural love and affection, have got to know the land field by field.

It will be seen that this simple yet thoroughly efficient scheme, when it is complete and put into practice, will provide a body of some 400 to 600 Guides who could be trusted to pass troops from one district to another and always be ready to supply accurate local informa- tion. We can, perhaps, make the organization clearer by describing how the work has already been carried out in one division, i.e., Division No, 6. The boundaries of this division are on the north, the high road from Guild- ford to Leatherhead ; on the south the county boundary; on the west the main road from Guildford to Aldfold ; and on the east the main road which runs from Leatherhead, through Dorking and Capel, to a point just above Kings- fold called Shiremark. This division comprises the stretch of Chalk Downs which runs between the Gap of Guildford and the Gap of Dorking, the big district of wooded sand- hills termed the Hurt Wood, the sand-hill range of Leith Hill and a Wealdean area which includes Ockley, Cron- leigh, and Bromley. The problem of dividing this district, which fell upon the Divisional Guide of the Sixth Division, was solved by dividing the Chalk Downs district into two, by making the Hurt Wood into one district, Leith Hill into another, and by cutting the Wealdean district also into two. To each of these six divisions a local resident with hunt- ing experience, and therefore with cross-country know- ledge, has been appointed ; and these six District Guides are now engaged in the work of appointing some twelve or twenty Local Guides. To show the spirit in which the movement has been taken up we may mention that the first Local Guide appointed is a retired Admiral, who hap- pens to be possessed of minute knowledge of a piece of very difficult woodland country. Very wisely the District Guides of the Sixth Division are taking their time in making their selections, for the essential thing is to have men who know, not only the direction of every path, but also when and where a road is dry and sound and when and where it is bad and foundrous.

Next we may note some of the instructions issued to the Divisional Guides by the Chief Guido as to the information which the District Guides are to acquire in regard to their districts, either through their own personal knowledge or through the eyes and ears of their Local Guides. In the matter of roads information will be required on the following points :-

(a) Substance ; width ; cross-roads ; awkward turnings. (b) Weight capacity of bridges. (c) Gradients.

(d) Condition in wet and dry weather.

But the Guides are by no means to confine themselves to roads, whether they be "hard roads" or lanes. They are also to acquaint themselves with the general condition of the country. For example, in regard to farms they arc to inquire as to the following points :—

(a) Owners. Landlord and tenant.

(b) Stock ; horses, cattle, sheep ; corn, bay, Ise. (e) Water supply.

In regard to bridle paths, footpaths, and "lines of gates," accurate information will be required and also "ability to guide through the same by day or by night." Similar information must be acquired in regard to woods, commons, and open spaces in each district. Further information will be wanted in regard to the following points in connexion with towns and villages :— rb) Water supply. ) Food supply. c) Size of large buildings for billeting troops. Finally, the Chief Guide very properly insists that great care must be taken to train all Guides in regard to the work of intercommunication :— "The value of co-operation between the several districts in a. division and the several divisions in a county and also between county and county cannot be too much insisted upon. All Guides should, as far as possible, make themselves acquainted with the ground immediately beyond their own boundaries."

It has been considered, and, as we think, rightly, that no hard-and-fast legal obligation should be taken by the Guides. Accordingly they have only been asked to sign the following form :— Division No. COUNTY OF SURREY.

CORPS OF GUIDES.

In the event of the employment of troops on active service in this Country I am willing to act in the County of Surrey as a Guide to the Forces of His Majesty the King.

Name Address Occupation Date District Guide, District No Divisional Guide. Division No.

Registered Chief Guide.

N.B.—This form must be signed by the Guide and counter- signed by the District and Divisional Guides and sent to the Chief Guido for registration.

That this undertaking would be quite sufficient to bring each man to his duty we do not doubt. Ultimately a simple and serviceable uniform—tunic and breeches of khaki—will, we presume, be prescribed, but the exact form has not yet been decided on. Guides' work is combative work, and the men must not be exposed to the danger of being shot for want of uniform, for uniform, and uniform alone, will, we may be sure, be recognized as the "distinguishing mark" required by the Hague Convention. The benefits of the scheme may be, perhaps, best understood by taking an example of how the thing would work in practice. Let Us assume a. body of troops, horse, foot, and artillery, which for some reason wished to march through the Sixth Division just described. In that case the Chief Guide, acting under the orders of the officer commanding, would tell the Divisional Guide to warn his District Guides to have their Local Guides ready. As the troops marched over the North Downs, through the Hurt Wood across Leith Hill or along the intricate lanes of that part of the Weald which is in Surrey, every brigade, every regiment of cavalry, and every battery would be able to have two or three men told off to it, some mounted and some un- mounted. As the troops left one district, and so, as it were, exhausted the local knowledge, the work would be taken up. by a new set of men—the District Guides, of course, being responsible for these transitions. In. this way the officer commanding the troops would always have at his disposal men of local knowledge able, not merely to guide his troops, but to say where water was to be found, or where, for example, at an emergency picks and shovels in sufficient quantity could be obtained for entrenching work. The people in the country districts who always have a supply of these are the builders and. contractors. But their names are known only to local people, and, of course, are not to be discovered either on a map or even in a county directory, and we doubt very much whether the War Office, which no doubt has all the forges and the wells marked, has filed these or similar particulars in regard to picks and shovels.