Potential Officers for the Army
Recruitment for the Army by the calling up of successive age groups and the training of young officers by selection from the ranks is proceeding according to plan, but use is not yet being made of thousands of men who are capable of exercising an invaluable leavening influence in the new forces. First there are ex-officers who fought in the last war, experienced, com- petent, fit men who are now forty years of age or over, but abundantly qualified by knowledge, health and powers of endurance to do responsible work in many branches of the Service. Such men are seldom given opportunities of military employment unless they have reached the highest ranks. Secondly, there is 'a large number of men between Ilike ages of twenty-seven and forty who are accustomed to com- mand in civilian life, who have had at least some military training, and are exactly the men qualified to be turned into officers in the Infantry, the Artillery, the Engineers and other arms. In 1914 and 1915 such men as these were readily given commissioned rank and provided the officers upon whom most of the Army had to rely throughout the war. Today they are still awaiting their turn to be called up in the later age-groups for service in the ranks Is it really in accordance with the true th6ory of a democratic army that so much good material should be neglected?
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