THE VETERAN RESERVE.
MR. HALDANE is adding a new story to the Territorial structure which, if it is well and truly built, as we most sincerely trust it may be, will greatly increase the efficiency of our organisation of national defence. For ourselves, we want to see the whole man- hood of this country enabled by proper training to carry out that primary duty of citizenship which the law imposes upon every man,—namely, the defence of his home, his liberties, and his country. At present the common law of England places the life and energies of every man in the country absolutely at the disposal of the Government should these islands be invaded.—The Crown has an abso- lute right to summon all citizens within the confines of the realm to resist the King's enemies.—Yet no provision whatever is made for giving the British people the train- ing necessary to carry out that duty. Pending the recognition of the fact that if a duty requiring training is imposed on all citizens, the State ought to provide facilities for that training, and take care that all men make use of them, we are most anxious to see Mr. Haldane's half-measure—i.e., the Territorial system—made as efficient as possible. His new plan, or rather the plan which is now put forward in detail, is to add three Reserves to the military establishments raised and maintained through the instrumentality of the County Associations. The first of these Reserves is the Territorial Force Reserve. We do not desire to speak of that body to-day, except to say that its importance is manifest, and that if sufficient scope is given to the Associations and sufficient funds placed at their disposal to carry out the work, we do not see why a very useful addition should not be made to the main Territorial Force. All depends upon whether the Territorial Force Reserve is swaddled too tightly, or whether its limbs are given a proper opportunity to grow. We are bound to say, however, that we feel a little suspicious of the paragraph in the circular Memorandum which airily declares that the institution of this Reserve should not materially add to the volume of work in the offices of the Territorial Force Associations. We venture to say that if the Reserve is to be made a success it must materially add to that work, at any rate during the founding of the Reserve.
The next Reserve on Mr. Haldane's list is the Technical Reserve, which, as we explained on a former occasion, will consist of experts who, owing to their special aptitudes, will be able to render valuable service in time of emer- gency if duly registered beforehand for purposes of national defence. Very properly, however, most of the sections of this Reserve will not be placed directly under the County Associations, but will be organised at head- quarters. It is to be noted that a very important addition is made to the original scheme of the Technical Reserve. Men desirous and capable of acting as guides to troops operating in the vicinity of their homes are to be registered. It is felt that persons who are intimately acquainted with the roads, byways, fords, bridges, resources of water-supply, &e., in certain localities might render very valuable assistance as guides to troops in a time of emergency. We are entirely in agreement with this proposal. No doubt the well-trained officers of cur military forces can move. and often do move, without any local assistance, but any one who has watched troops moving with good local guides and troops moving without them cannot fail to have been struck by the much greater rapidity of movement secured when officers have not got to be constantly referring to their maps. A guide can say what no ordinary-sized map can say,—namely, whether a by-road faintly traced is of the kind along which a column can move easily, or whether it is so narrow or so overgrown with brushwood as to be practically impassable except for men in Indian file. The local guide will also know whether the gradient and the character of the ground make the track or by-path easily practicable for artillery and transport waggons, or whether, either because it is a precipice in gradient or because it is a heavy wet clay as regards soil, a large body of men ought not to attempt it. It must be remembered, however, that the men who will perform these guide duties will do work which the enemy would regard with special disfavour, and that unless they are given a proper uniform excuses will be very easily found for shooting them at sight if captured. Something more than a cap, badge, or brassard will in fact, if not in theory, be required to give them proper security in wartime.
We come next to the Veteran Reserve, which, in our opinion, is the most important of the three forces. As we have pointed out again and again in these columns, the country is full of men who have been trained to arms in the various forces of the Crown, but who at present are not attached to any military unit. Our military authorities have trained these men, and then completely lost touch with them, although many of them are in the prime of life, and the great bulk of them are not only willing but anxious, in case of some great national emergency, to give the country the advantage of their training, and often of their experience of actual warfare. The Territorial Association of the County of Surrey has already shown by its Register of Trained Men what a very important asset these Veterans may prove. Although the Association has been handi- capped from many points of view, and although it has not been able to obtain the name and address of any Veteran resident in Surrey from any official source, it has neverthe- less through what may be termed purely amateur efforts succeeded in getting some thousand men upon its Register, a number which, we believe, might be doubled were the Veteran Reserve to become a recognised part of our military system. A parade of the Surrey Veterans is to take place in London on the Horse Guards' Parade at 4.30 on Satur- day, June 18th, and the Secretary of State for War and the Adjutant-General, who are to inspect the parade, will then be able to form a judgment as to the value of the material enrolled on the Register. It is too early to boast, but we believe that when the military authorities see the sample of the men on the Surrey Register which will be placed before them on Waterloo Day, they will admit that they are perfectly justified in encouraging every county in the kingdom to follow the lead of Surrey and to establish a Veteran Reserve. Owing to the difficulties of employment, probably not more than five hundred men will be able to get to London on the Saturday afternoon in question, but these five hundred will be typical. About half of them will be old Volunteers, but the other half will be men still in the prime of life, the majority of them Veterans in the truest sense, that is, men who have seen active service,—men who have had an experience of war which to-day can be matched only by the soldiers of Russia and Japan. Those Veterans who have not had war training, but who were for many years members of the old Volunteer corps, will, we venture to say, also afford material of an excellent kind. They are not only men of good physique and good heart, but men of superior intelligence and fully capable of doing useful military work for their country.
In the detailed Regulations put forth by the War Office for the Veteran Reserve we notice three paragraphs which, we humbly submit to the Secretary of State for War and the Army Council, require very careful recon- sideration. The first two of these are paragraphs 31 and 32, which run as follows " (31) The purpose of the Veteran Reserve is to fulfil, in con- nection with local defence in the United Kingdom, miscellaneous functions demanding from those who undertake them a spirit of military discipline and some knowledge of the use of arms. Such duties would otherwise fall on the Regular and Territorial Forces, whose effective strength in the field would, failing the co-operation of the Veteran Reserve, be seriously diminished.
(32) In war the Veteran Reserve would, in conjunction with the Constabulary, be charged with the protection of bridges, tunnels, and other vulnerable points ; with the removal from threatened areas of horses, vehicles, cattle, and other property that would benefit an invader; and with other duties of a like nature."
In our opinion, it would be very much better to leave out both these paragraphs, though 32 is the one to which we specially object. It seems to us a very great mistake, considering the quality of the Veterans, to proclaim that in war the Veteran Reserve would only be used for semi- military duties such as the care and protection of bridges and tunnels and the removal of horses, &c., from threatened areas, " and other duties of a like nature." That these are very important duties we do not deny ; but, seeing that the Veteran Reserve is to be a voluntary body, it is most unfortunate to suggest to the Veterans that they are only fit to perform police work in the rear. The Veterans will only be too likely to say that such work could be just as well performed by ordinary civilians, and that if their special lmowledge of arms is not to be made use of, there is no object in their joining the Reserve. Surely it would be far better not to lay down any abstract propositions as to how the Reserve will be used. If it is understood that the Veteran Reserve will be employed for any purpose which the military authorities think of importance for the defence of the country, the men, like good soldiers, will cheerfully acquiesce. They will do what they are ordered to do. To declare in advance, however, that their duties are to be those of police is certain to be taken by the men to mean that they are not considered to be capable of performing the duties of combatants. Thus the Veteran Reserve will be from the beginning deprived of that zeal and enthusiasm which are essential to volunteer recruiting.
The proper way to use the Veteran Reserve is as a second Reserve for the Territorial units. The Territorial Reserve when it is formed will on mobilisation be employed to fill up the ranks of the Territorial battalions, but the wastage of war will very soon call for fresh supplies of men. If the County Associations are then able to throw the Veteran Reserve into the depleted ranks of the county battalions and other units, the strength and efficiency of these battalions and units will be enormously increased. Take as an example the Register of Trained Men as it exists to-day in Surrey, and suppose the four battalions of infantry, the regiment of Yeomanry, and the transport and medical units under the Surrey Association mobilised for war. Can any one doubt that it would be an enormous advantage if the Surrey Association were able, out of the Veteran Reserve, to add two strong extra companies to each infantry battalion, an extra troop to the Yeomanry, and proportional contingents to the other units, and that these extra companies and contingents should all be trained men, and half of them men who had had actual experience of warfare? To say that the only possible use for such men is guarding bridges and driving off cattle and horses, work which, in our opinion, could quite well be performed by the rifle clubs, seems to us a very grave error. At any rate, we would most strongly urge that no final decision should be come to in this matter till the military authorities have seen the sample which the Surrey County Association is going to put before them on Saturday, June 18th.
We also feel very strongly that paragraph 35 of the Regulations should be omitted :— " (35) Members of the Veteran Reserve will not be drilled or
exercised as armed forces. They will not wear uniform in their capacity as members of this Reserve, nor will arms, equipment, or ammunition free of cost be issued in peace."
In one sense there is no harm in this paragraph, for clearly the nature of the Reserve will not allow drilling or mili- tary exercises under arms. Again, there is no idea of the men wearing uniform or having arms issued to them in peace- time. It seems to us, however, that solemnly to proclaim that the Veterans must never be allowed to drill or to exercise is very likely to create a false impression among the men, and to make the Veteran Reserve a laughing-stock. It may be a fact to be regretted, but no doubt it is a fact that Englishmen are very easily put off by ridicule, and if the Veteran Reserve is to be proclaimed to be a body which must never drill or use arms, " the man in the street " will be only too likely to say that the thing is a sham and not worth belonging to. That of course is non- sense, and not what the paragraph really means ; but in this country we must always be careful to guard against popular misrepresentation and popular misunderstanaing. Remember, too, that the omission of the paragraph will not have the effect of making men drill or receive arms in peacetime. The mere fact that the War Office will not order drill or issue arms is quite sufficient. All i that is wanted, in our opinion, is to tell the men of the Veteran Reserve that their knowledge and training will be used by the authorities in whatever way they consider good for the country at a time of great national peril, and to leave matters there. With that the men will, we are sure, be perfectly content. They will not want for a moment to dictate how they are to be used, but we are afraid that they may resent what will seem to them an attitude of contempt on the part of the military authorities. Though of course we well know that they were not inspired by any such spirit, the Regulations will read to many men too much as if the War Office were saying to them :—" Don't you Veterans be puffed up, or imagine that you are worth very much. We may possibly be able to find you a job in a moment of peril in helping the police to look after bridges and tunnels, but we will have no nonsense as to your imagining yourselves to be soldiers. The most you can expect is to be given a stick and told to do some cattle-driving,." Let us say once more, for fear of misapprehension, that we do not for an instant accuse the War Office of desiring to slight the Veteran Reserve before it is created. Nothing, we are certain, is further from their thoughts. At the same time, we cannot think that the Regulations would have been worded as they have been if the War Office had taken into account the considerations which we have just tried to set forth.
One word before we conclude as to the possibilities of the Veteran Reserve. If the County Associations generally take up the matter in the right spirit and get the right encouragement from the War Office, we believe that the Veteran Reserve throughout the country may be able to register some hundred or hundred and fifty thousand trained men. If the War Office provide rifles, greatcoats, caps, and boots for these men, we should then obtain an automatic increase of the armed forces of the nation which we veritably believe will be capable of turning the scale in case of imminent national peril. This force will be provided practically without any extra annual cost as far as men are concerned. There will not even be the cost of organisation if our plan is adopted of regarding the Veteran Reserve as a second-line Reserve for the Territorial units.
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