On Monday Mr. Haldane introduced his scheme for the reconstruction
of the Auxiliary Forces in a speech lasting three hours. What ho proposes is roughly as follows. He asks to be allowed (1) to abolish the Militia altogether ; (2) to create a new territorial or second-line Army which is to be a sort of amalgam of the Militia and Volunteers; (3) to cut down the Yeomanry pay from 5s. 6d. a day to Is. 6d.; (4) to raise a new force of some seventy-four thousand men on a six months' training basis to help the Regular troops to mobilise and to feed them with drafts in the initial period of war; (I) to retain the Irish Militia, as there are no Volunteers in Ireland, on a special system ; (6) to form County Associations to organise and administer the second-line Army; (7) to solve the vital problem of officering the Army by creating a Reserve of officers to supply the Regulars and the second line to the number of something like ten thousand.
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