THE LACK OF TERRITORIAL OFFICERS.
[To TUE EDITOR OF THE " SPECT•TOR."1 SIR,—Mr. Haldane is reported to have said in the House of Commons on June 21st, in reply to a question put to him, that the shortage of officers in the Special Reserve amounted to a thousand and twenty-one ! In view of this, it seems to me that it would be advisable to encourage men who are anxious and willing to give up a good deal of time to military service rather than to refuse them, as in my own case. My age is thirty-four, and I have spent twelve out of the last fifteen years in India and the Far East, during which time I did nearly two years' service with an infantry battalion and five years' with a light horse corps. Having now settled down at home, and being still young enough, active enough, and keen enough to do some more soldiering, I approached the commanding officer of my county battalion of the Special Reserve with a view to obtaining a commission. He is short of officers, and was particularly anxious that I should join, but it seems that there is some regulation to the effect that the age-limit for joining the Special Reserve is twenty- five. Representations have, I believe, been made to the authorities with a view to getting over this difficulty, but without success.
Here we have a case of the Government deliberately refusing e. man who may be taken to have had the non- sense knocked out of him during the years lie has spent abroad, and with sufficient experience of life to be of some value as an officer, quite apart from any other knowledge of military matters and discipline which he may have acquired during his previous service. Would it not be wiser to con- sider on its merits each case where a man is willing to sacrifice his time and money to do his share of military defence than to confine the supply of new officers to immature youngsters with little or no experience of the world Perhaps some day we shall have universal military training and abandon the policy of laissez-faire which seems to be the only one which obtains for the Army and Navy.—I am, Sir, &c.,
C. G. W.
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