THE VOLUNTEERS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Some knowledge of the organisation of Government Departments suggests that with the best will in the world the War Office, at this critical period, must necessarily fail to deal as the nation wishes it to deal with the Reserve forces (and especially with the Volunteers) unless one radical yet simple change is speedily made,—viz., the appointment of another Under-Secretary co-ordinate with Mr. Wyndham. One of the two officials might then take up exclusively all questions affecting the Reserve, and do what is possible to develop its fighting utility. An ideal man for such a post would be Lord Wastage, V.C. It is hopeless to expect that a Department overwhelmed with the detail of a great war can, without some reorganisation, grapple successfully with the new and important military problems with which the columns of the Spectator and other journals bristle. I am old enough to recollect, as one of the earliest Volunteers, the solid benefits conferred on the force in the " sixties " by the Marquis of Ripon and the Duke of Devonshire, then Under- Secretaries at the War Office. With time to spare and inclination to help us, they did so effectively. Who has time to spare at the War Office now ?—I am, Sir, Sze., [We agree as to the need for an extra Under-Secretary of War, and we wish that Mr. Arnold-Forster could be chosen for the post. Lord Wantage we should like to see given a special and independent Commission to prepare for the organisation of a Territorial Army for home defence oat of the trained men now in the Kingdom.—En. Spectator.]
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