NATIONAL RESERVISTS. [To Tax Eamon or ran "arscrsroa"] Bra, —I
have just been reading your last issue, and I see that, in enumerating the military forces in England at the present time, you refer to National Reservists as guarding points "on their own amount." I think this is an error. All National Reservists that I have heard of are enlisted on em- bodiment as members of the Territorial Army, and are attached to Territorial existing battalions, although not, as a rule, training with them. National Reservists are all men who have seen service in the Army. Navy, or other branches of the Services and become Territorials upon enlistment. I should doubt if any are guarding points on their own account —certainly not as such. The numbers now so enlisted must be considerable.—I am, Sir, dro., O.C. A COMPANY.
[Our correspondent is technically correct. All National Reservists doing guard duty are on the pay-sheet of some Territorial unit. For all practical purposes, however, many of the men guarding railways, bridges, powder-works, water- works, prisoners' camps, &c., are "on their own account," in the sense that they are separated from the unit to which they nominally belong. They were "called out" ae National Reservists, and then drafted to various forms of duty. No figures are at present available, but we believe that in one way or another the National Reservists have given some two hundred thousand men to the colours.—En. Spectator.]
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