At a meeting of London Mayors last Monday Lord Haldane
made some very important announcements in regard to the National Reserve. He explained that it was not to form a third line behind the Regulars and the Territorials, but was, as we have so often maintained in these columns, to be regarded rather as a reservoir of trained men. " Owing to the numerous categories it was hoped to include in the Reserve, it was not possible to organize the whole material upon a homogeneous military basis. The establishment of a register would enable all the material to be classified so that the number and names of the men available for secondary cam- paign purposes would be known." If this is coupled with the previous speech made by Lord Haldane at the end of last week, it is clear that the War Office ideas as to the National Reserve are clarifying. It may now be predicted with safety that category A of the National Reserve—that is, the trained men under 55—would, in case of invasion, be used in the first place to reinforce the Territorial units, and next, as those units became weakened by war wastage, to supply them with fresh men. The National Reserve would further be a reservoir into which the War Office could dip for many most important services—a reservoir, remember, full of exceedingly fine material. Lord Haldane speaks of the possibility of the first category undertaking to join the Territorial Reserve, but our prediction is that the latter Reserve will not attract the Veterans, and that category A of the National Reserve will in the end perform the functions of the Territorial Reserve.
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