In regard to the Regular Army, Mr. Haldane pointed out
that in order to mobilise a hundred and fifty thousand men on the existing basis we should need something like an additional fifty thousand men. A large number of these, roughly sixteen thousand, would be required in order to mobilise the artillery. This deficiency was to be made good by converting the existing Militia garrison artillery and training them for service with the Regulars. There was a formidable deficiency in the Army Service Corps, and a deficiency in the Army Medical Corps, which he hoped to make good by the training and retaining of a certain number of civilians. In addititin, large drafts would be required for the wastage of war. It was his object to create seventy-four new hattaliOns for this purpose, but these new battalions would not add to the establishment of the Regular Army. They would be nucleus battalions, and would in peace be stationed at the present infantry depots. The men for these seventy-four nucleus battalions, though Regulars, or rather members of the Regular Reserve, were to be raised on a Militia basis. That is, they were to have a preliminary training of six months, on the analogy of the Spectator Experimental Company, and were then to go back to civilian life until mobilised, save that they were to be called up for a fortnight's training every year.
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