THE VOLUNTEERS. T HE enrolment of the Volunteers is still delayed
by what is euphemistically called " the settlement of certain technical difficulties." We hope most sincerely that those difficulties will soon be surmounted, for as it is they give sup- port to the false rumour—false of course it is—that the Government do not want the Volunteers, and are in reality trying to kill the movement, though appearing to encourage it. It is greatly to be desired that this unfortunate impression should quickly be dissipated, and we note with the utmost satisfaction that the Prime Minister on Tuesday night, in answer to a question by Mr. Percy Harris, the Honorary Secretary of the Central Association of Volunteer Training Corps, made the following reply :— " The Volunteer Force has in several cases given valuable assistance to the Army in many ways, and the Government hope that men dis- qualified for Regular or Territorial Forces, if not employed on duties of national importance, will join the Volunteer Force and in it be avail- able for necessary services."
The official in the War Office responsible for drawing up the answer to the question might, we think, have put it a little more cogently, and made the reply what it was no doubt intended to be—an appeal to all men of non-military age who are sound in wind and limb to fulfil a national duty. We should like Mr. Asquith to have said : " There are certain important duties of a military character which can be per- formed in these islands by men between forty-one and sixty- five, and by the men who have indispensable civilian work to do, and who therefore can only give a portion of their time to military duties. But the fact that these men can only give part of their time, often only a small part, makes it essential that those who undertake military work as part- timers should be as numerous as possible. I therefore appeal to all men over military age who are in good health to join a Volunteer Training Corps, and thus help not merely in the defence of the country but in ways which will free Regular troops for more active services. I appeal to them to do voluntarily work which in other countries they would be compelled to do— work of a vital character, which, thanks to the Volunteer organization, can be carried out in an orderly and effective way with the minimum of friction and inconvenience to the Volunteers. I ask the country to furnish at least a million and a half men ready in case of embodiment to resist invasion, and before embodiment to assist in freeing Regular troops for combatant work abroad. A million and a half of such Volunteers would not be by any means too many. Work could be found for all of them in rotation. The more men enrolled, the less arduous the work."
An appeal on these lines ought to be made, and we trust will be made, as soon as the technical difficulties of which we have spoken are overcome and the work of actual enrol- ment begun. Remember that the Volunteers cost the country nothing, or practically nothing, and that there is no reason why they should cost the country anything until embodiment takes place. If the Government will only make it clear, not merely by an official answer to a question in Parliament, but by a properly worded public appeal, that the Volunteers are welcomed and are needed, we feel sure that the men will, as before, find their own uniforms and to a great extent their own arms. In cases where they are drawn from the ranks of working men, and cannot afford money for the above purposes, we have not the slightest doubt that they will be helped, first by their richer comrades in the units, and next by the general public. If once it is made plain to the country that the Volunteers are not a plaything but a serious military force, it should prove easy to raise a large national Fund out of which grants could be made to the poorer units. A clear and serious appeal by the Government for an increase in the Volunteer Training Corps could, should, and we believe would be followed by a successful appeal for a Central Fund. If, however, the thing is to be a success, it must be done promptly and in no half-hearted or perfunctory way. Readers of the Spectator a year and a half ago, in response to our appeal for a Fund to keep the central organization of the Volunteer Training Corps going, at once provided a sum of £3,000 for that object. If the supporters of one newspaper could do that so readily, and for purposes which do not appeal to every one—i.e., purposes of organization—we cannot doubt that a general appeal throughout the country would receive a great and widespread response. To make our point quite clear, there ought to be two forms of financial aid—one local, which would suffice for many of the corps, and one central, for the formation of a Fund for assisting the poorer corps. The Central Fund would of course require very careful administration ; but, after all, this is what all funds require.
The question of arming the Volunteers appears a difficult one, but in reality it is not so difficult as it seems. In the first place, the improvement in the output of service rifles should soon make a certain number of rifles now used by Regular and Territorial forces available for Volunteers. In addition to this, there are still a certain number of rifles of old patterns that can be purchased by Volunteers, which even if not perfect are serviceable weapons. Lastly, and this is really the most important point of all, there is no reason why a great deal of the work which the Volunteers will be asked to do should not be efficiently performed by men armed with shot- guns. For such work as guarding railways, bridges, and other vulnerable points a shot-gun is a most appropriate and most formidable weapon. We are sure that many soldiers would say that a man would be far more likely to resist an attempt to blow up a bridge or a culvert if he were armed with a shot-gun than with a rifle. Again, we do not doubt that Volunteers armed with double-barrelled shot-guns would be able to give a very good account of themselves in holding a trench against an infantry attack made at close quarters. A shot-gun with a specially contrived cartridge is the most formid- able of weapons within a range of a hundred or a hundred and fifty yards. The country is full of double-barrelled sporting guns. Many Volunteers in country districts either own such guns themselves or can borrow them from others. Care would of course have to be taken to instruct town Volunteers in their use, but it is not more difficult to teach men to shoot with a shot-gun than with a rifle. No one proposes that shot- guns should be placed in the hands of untrained men. To do EO might give too clear a proof of their formidable character.
Here we may say, as we have said elsewhere in our issue of to-day, that no Volunteer need feel anxiety as to whether the use of shot-guns is forbidden by international Conventions. The Geneva and Hague Conventions only forbid the use of expanding bullets. The use of the shot-gun is no more for- bidden than the use of the hand grenade. That, we feel sure, will be the answer given by the military authorities if any Member of Parliament chooses to ask the question in the House of Commons.
A certain amount of anxiety seems to have arisen as to the organization of the Volunteers when enrolled—as to whether they are to be under the Territorial Association, and so forth. These are technical matters into which it is not our province to go, but we may at any rate remind our readers that ne Territorial Association is in the position to command troops. It is the business of Territorial Associations to organize and equip Territorial forces, and to administer block grants made to them by the Treasury for the purpose. The training and command of the forces they raise are always the function of the General Officers commanding in the districts in which the Territorial forces are located. So, in the case of the Volunteers, they must be under the command of soldiers, not under the command of local bodies, whether Territorial Associations or County Committees raised ad hoc. When the Volunteers are enrolled they will for war purposes be, we presume, under the command of Field-Marshal French, who commands all the home defence forces. For local purposes we presume they will be under the General Officers commanding the various districts, as, for example, the London District, the Eastern Command, and so forth. In truth, no real difficulties arise here if people will only keep in their minds the distinction between the command and the raising and equipment of troops. Com- mittees and other bodies may call Volunteers into existence, but only soldiers can command them. They must remember, also, that command is, or ought to be, one and indivisible, and that there cannot be two persons able simultaneously to give orders to the same body of troops. But these are War Office matters and beyond civilian ken. The essentials for the moment are the speedy enrolment of the Volunteers under the Act of 1863, and the recognition in some form or other of the existing organization of Volunteer units under County Commandants, a system which we venture to say, whatever name is assigned to it, is inevitable in substance. When these two things are accomplished there must come the appeal for a great increase in the numbers of the Volunteers. Thera must be an official statement that it is the duty of every able-bodied man over military age who has not got some work which renders it impossible for him to do so, to join a Volun- teer Training Corps. A man sound in wind and limb who cannot give a satisfactory answer to the question, " Why are you not in a Volunteer Training Corps unit ? " should stand self-condemned as a bad citizen.
Before we leave the subject of the Volunteers we should like to remind our readers once more of what the Volunteer Training Corps have done. Their achievement is as follows : (1) The Volunteers have provided a larger number of men for the ranks of the New Army than any other recruiting body in the country. What is more, the men and officers they have provided had already received partial training, and in many cases a good deal more. The men who had learned their drill, and also how to shoot, in the Volunteer Training Corps have proved most valuable recruits, and in many cases commanding officers have found that Volunteer officers had learned some- thing very like half their business before they obtained the commissions. (2) The Volunteers have provided a fores which has already done a great deal of practical military work in guarding vulnerable points, and even in manning trench lines near the coast, in digging trenches under various schemes of national defence, and in such work as that under- taken at the Didcot depot. (3) The Volunteers have provided an organized force which up till now has been ready and able to undertake military duties of an auxiliary kind in case of invasion, and which under enrolment would provide some- thing like three army corps for home service, or, if that is putting it too high, of useful military auxiliaries. In other words, the Volunteer Training Corps are not a force with nothing but an untried future—i.e., with nothing but hopes and aspirations which have to be proved. They are a force with * past of real and very creditable work. This is not a case in which people can look grave and say : " It remains to be seen what the Volunteers can do and whether they are of any real value." They have already proved that they are of value. What they are now receiving are opportunities to do more and better work for the State than they have done already. More, their promise of good service is sealed by the blood of the gallant men who died fighting for Britain in the Dublin revolt.
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