THE PROPOSED EXPERIMENT IN MILITIA TRAINING. N OW that the General
Election is over the public will once more be able to turn its attention to other matters of importance. We trust that in the case of our readers they will interest themselves in the proposed experiment in Militia training for which we are endeavouring to raise a sum of at least £3,500. Our readers have already come forward generously and in considerable numbers to support Colonel Pollock's spirited scheme. There remains, however, about £1,000 to be collected, and unless this sum can be obtained it may, we fear, be necessary to abandon the experiment. It would be a great mistake to attempt to carry out the scheme with insufficient funds, and thus risk prejudicing a system whiciPt pr.:Anises to help so greatly the development of the Auxiliary Forces. Three thousand five hundred pounds is the least sum for which the experiment could be carried out under satisfactory conditions, and it would be very much better if we could obtain an extra £500 for emergencies. We cannot help feeling confident, in- view of the support which the proposal has already met with, that the required sum will be forthcoming. What has been extremely interesting and extremely encouraging in • the case of the money already received is that it has come as a rule, not from very rich men, but from men, and also women, who were willing to give freely for an experiment which they believed might result in placing the oldest military force in the kingdom on a more satisfactory basis. Again, the bulk of the subscriptions—though there are several notable exceptions, including the very generous and public-spirited gift of £1,000 from the Duke of Bedford—have been received from civilians. Those civilians, as their letters show, take a keen interest in military problems, and, though they may not be possessed of expert and technical knowledge, have a sound common-sense appreciation of our military needs. It is sometimes said that one of the obstacles to military reform is the want of interest on the part of the public in the armed forces of the nation. No one who had seen the letters sent to us with subscriptions would be inclined to regard this allegation as proved.
- Though we welcome subscriptions, however small, for the object we have in view, we should be specially glad at the present moment to receive those of larger amounts, and for this reason. We cannot ask Colonel Pollock to begin making preparations for his experiment till we have received the money, but at the same time it is very important to start as soon as possible, so that the experi- ment may be concluded before the holidays and before Parliament rises. We want the experiment to be witnessed by as large a number of influential people as possible. This, then, is one of the cases in which he who gives quickly will confer a double benefit. If we could in the course of the next fortnight get ten people to give £100 each, and could raise another £500 in subscriptions of from £1 to £10, we should have accomplished all that we desire.
We may add while making this appeal that the military authorities, though they naturally and rightly take no responsibility in regard to our scheme, are in no sense hostile or opposed to it, but, on the contrary, will, we believe, watch it with interest. If they find anything use- ful in its results, as we do not doubt they will, they will, we may feel sure, be quite prepared to make use of those results. In other words, they will not show themselves indifferent to or jealous of the experiment because it has been voluntarily undertaken and will be paid for by • private individuals. Further, we understand that they will most kindly give all reasonable facilities in their power needed to make the experiment a success, though they cannot employ public money for the purpose, or, as we have said, take any responsibility, direct or indirect. This is as it should be. The chief virtue of the experiment would be destroyed if it were not conducted on voluntary and unofficial lines. The officer responsible for the proposal should, we think, be given as free a hand as possible, and should be allowed to show what can be done in six months *ith raw recruits under a system of concentrated training. It must not be supposed, however, that either Colonel Pollock, or those who are supporting him, claim to have discovered any patent system, or suggest that there is any monopoly of skill in the matter. On the contrary, the essential point of Colonel Pollock's contention is that any competent company officer could do quite as well what he proposes to do, provided that he were given a free hand, and that he worked under a proper system.
• For the benefit of those of our readers who may have forgotten the object of the proposed experiment, or who have not seen our original article, it may be worth while to restate our reasons for supporting Colonel Pollock's scheme. If it can be shown that a competent soldier and a competent company can be produced by six months' training, we contend that we may effect changes in our Militia system which will enable the Militia to be placed upon a basis so satisfactory that, without any great additional cost, it may be increased both in numbers and efficiency. At present one of the great difficulties in regard to obtaining a sufficient number of men for the Militia is the fact that is almost impossible for a man to be a Militia- man and yet occupy a position in civil life where he has regular and constant work. The fact that he is called out for a month's training every year in many cases prevents the Militiaman obtaining regular employment. Take a very simple case as an illustration. There are many private persons who in the abstract would be most glad to do anything they could to support the Militia, and would like to have their gardeners, grooms, gamekeepers, and so forth members of that force. At present, however, they cannot employ Militiamen. If pressed to do so, they would answer.:—"How can I manage to let a groom or a gardener leave his work for a month, very probably at the busiest time of the year ? " But if it can be shown that the Militiaman can become a competent soldier after six months' careful training, and that in the future he will only be required to do a week's training in camp every year, and to do a certain amount of musketry practice and drill in his spare hours, as a Volunteer does, there is no reason why his Militia service should be an obstacle to him in his civil life. Most men can obtain a week's holiday once a year from their employers without great difficulty, and the occasional drill in the evening and rifle practice on, say, Saturday afternoons should easily be managed. A Militia Force raised under the con- ditions that the recruit was first thoroughly trained, and then had merely to do a minimum of military work each year, should open up a much greater field for recruiting than is now available, and, further, should allow the Militia to tap a higher as well as a larger class.
Service in the Militia is not unpopular even as it is, but it is inconvenient. If that inconvenience could be got rid of, the old Constitutional force would receive, we believe, a new lease of life. The period of six months' training for recruits, though more than double what is required at present, should not prove an obstacle, because it would be undergone by young men before they had settled down to civil life. Lads would join the Militia between eighteen and nineteen, and then could seek permanent berths without feeling that their membership of the Militia would be looked on askance by their employers. We are not without hope, indeed, that in the future membership of the Militia might be regarded with approval by employers. The lad properly trained would have acquired habits of method and order which would help to make him a better civilian, for the intensive training which Colonel Pollock's scheme provides could not do otherwise than awaken the intelli- gence. Military routine when persisted in for years under the existing system has no doubt a certain deadening effect upon the mind; but in its initial stages a sound training quickens the working of the brain. Its effect, again, on the physical health of a lad between eighteen and nineteen could be nothing but good. He would be well fed at a critical time, and would receive from his drill and gymnastics bodily development of a very useful kind.
Though, as our readers know, the Volunteers have no warmer friends than ourselves, and though we want to see the Volunteers not merely let alone, but developed so that they may perform even better than they do now the function of providing a, great school of arms for the country, we hold that there is also need for a strong body of Militia,—a body which by its nature is more quickly and immediately available in a national emergency than are the Volunteers. If we could have a Militia Force of from a hundred and. fifty thousand to two hundred thousand men organised on the lines we have sketched, the War Office would, we believe, have ready to hand a force supplementary to the Regular Army of immense value. Behind this force the Volunteers would constitute a great reservoir of partially trained men from which at a moment of national peril the State could rely upon drawing a large body of soldiers of high quality. The Volunteers during the South African War were willing, as we have shown, to provide eighty thousand men for oversea service, and if a proper appeal had, been made to them we do not doubt that an even greater number would have been forth- coming out of the two hundred thousand men on the rolls. But if the Volunteers—organised, not as imitation Regulars, but as true Volunteers—numbered, as we hold they ought to number, half-a-million men, the reservoir would be capable of providing a quarter of a million men at a great emergency, while the whole five hundred thousand would, of course, be available in the case of a threat of invasion.
We have dwelt chiefly upon the importance of the pro- posed experiment as regards a reformed Militia ; but we are also convinced that the experiment may incidentally be of value to the Regulars, and indeed to all the armed forces of the Crown. Among other things, it will serve to show what is the shortest time in which infantry soldiers can be improvised in a great emergency. Colonel Pollock's company will no doubt be inspected by competent persons, not merely at the end of the six months, but at the end of three months ; and it may be that he will be able to show that even after three months of what, for want of a better word, we have called intensive training his company will. contain a very large proportion of competent soldiers. We can only say, in conclusion, that we trust our readers and the public in general will give the further support we ask for, and will enable us to tell Colonel Pollock by the middle of February that he may begin to make his arrangements, and may enlist his men.
Cheques sent to us should be made payable to the "Spectator Militia Training Account," and be crossed "Barclay & Co., Gosling's Branch." They will be acknow- ledged in the Spectator.
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