DEMOCRACY IN THE LORDS. "Those who are prepared to leave the constitution of an adequate second line army to chance cannot really believe in its necessity."-LORD MILNER. TRAVELLING one day in Devonshire, the writer had the pleasure of meeting an elderly farmer who had evidently passed the greater part of his life "far from the madding crowd." He admitted that he had never seen a revolver or a magazine rifle-nay, even a hat-box seemed to him a novelty. But though unsophisticated, the old yeoman possessed good share of native shrewdness and of that useful quality known as "horsesense by our American cousins. After the talk had been led round to national defence, and to our inadequate preparations and the consequent danger of attack from our powerful neighbours on the Continent, my companion remarked, "Ah, that's nature; a bullock, if he see a weak place in the fence, he'll break through into the next field, if there's better grass there." No Briton will deny the superior riches and fertility of the British Isles, and even that "incorrigible optimist," our War Minister, has admitted that there are gaps in our lines of defence. This brings us to our subject-the serious gaps in our Territorial Force for Home Defence. These are three: the uncertainty as to the numbers and the quality of the recruits who will enlist, the insuffici ency of the training, and the fact that serious training is to be postponed until after war breaks out. It is to remedy these defects that Lord Roberts will bring forward in the House of Lords on the 12th of this month a Bill for National Service (Training and Home Defence). Here let it be made clear that the defects complained of are due, not to incapacity on the part of the framers of the Territorial Forces Act of 1907, but solely to the nature of the voluntary system itself, "which makes it impossible," as the Duke of Norfolk said in the House of Lords five years ago, "to demand a reasonable standard of efficiency without greatly reducing the forces.” In other words, it is the electors, and not the War Office, who are responsible for the defects in our present home defence army. It is now proposed to lay before the readers of 'Maga a short analysis and a few notes and comments on this Bill-or rather, as the space in 'Maga' is valuable, on the explanatory Memorandum that prefaces it. The first clause begins thus: "This Bill imposes on all male British subjects resident in the United Kingdom the obligation of serving in the Territorial Force between between the ages of eighteen and thirty." The remainder of the clause states that all officers and men of the Navy and Regular Army and of their Reserve Forces will be excluded from the operation of this clause, so that the existing voluntary system of raising the above forces will in no way be interfered with, and, finally, no persons who reach the age of eighteen before the date on which the Bill comes into operation will be liable under this Act for any training or service. begging for recruits; while the march past of those who had enlisted elicited the remark that the able-bodied men were more conspicuous among the cheering crowds than in the ranks of the marching battalions. The expressed resolution to uphold the voluntary system of recruiting for the Navy and the Regular Army is justified by the fact that the normal condition of service of these bodies of men is abroad. There The second clause of the The clear sanity and "sweet Memorandum points out that, reasonableness" of these pro- with certain modifications, posals, and the necessity for every one who comes under their introduction, are evident this Bill will be in the same as soon as we examine them. position as a man who now The first part of the clause enlists, of his own accord, in removes all doubts and diffi- the Territorial Force—that is, culties as to the recruiting he will have to undergo a question, and ensures with certain amount of training, scientific certainty an unfailing will be liable for service for supply in adequate numbers home defence in case of imof the best recruits obtainable minent national danger, but in the kingdom. The necesThe neces- not liable to be sent out of sity for this universal liability the United Kingdom. to service is demonstrated with equal ease, if we remember that under Mr Haldane's Territorial Forces Act of 1907 the recruiting of the Territorial Force, both in peace and war, was included among the "powers and duties" of the County Associations; yet no "powers" for carrying out the duty were conferred on these bodies. The metropolis itself has had remarkable illustrations of the helplessness of these Associations to carry out recruiting duties without powers, for it has seen the Lord Mayor reduced to to standing on the Mansion House steps and is, however, every reason to believe that from this reserve of trained men there will be plenty who will accept liability for service abroad in case of war. The next clause explains that the liability to actual training will extend over four years only of the period of "service"; normally it will be limited to the first four years-i.e., between eighteen and twenty-two; but in exceptional cases it may extend from the second to the fifth year, or even from the third to the sixth. This proviso is necessary in order to interfere as little as possible with apprentices, and medical, legal, and other professional students. We come now to the important question of training. The fourth clause of the Memorandum runs thus: "The first year's training will be recruit training, and will be four months for men in the infantry, and not less than four or more than six months for men in other branches. In each of the three next years, fifteen days' training as well as a course of musketry and attendance at certain drills will be required." The first question that will arise in the mind of serious students of national defence will be, "Is this enough? Do not foreign nations train their men for two years in the infantry, and three in the special arms?" The reply is, that having carefully studied the Swiss militia system, and the results obtained from an initial training that used to extend over six weeks only, many advocates of national service for this country are convinced that the average of five months' training, as proposed in the Bill, will suffice. This is no new idea got up to make military needs square square with policy, for the Military Correspondent of The Times,' writing in 1897, said: "It is impossible to speak of the Swiss Army without risk of appearing, to those who have not had occasion to watch it, guilty of exaggeration.' In 1906 I had the good fortune to witness the Swiss Army Manoeuvres ; I saw 40,000 men at work, the two sides starting forty-five miles apart, with mountain-ranges, valleys, ravines, rivers, lakes, and forests dividing them. The staff-work was excellent, officers handled their men well, and the men were properly billeted and fed. The troops made long marches, carrying fiftysix pounds of dead-weight on their backs; they were wellequipped and perfectly amenable to discipline, and it is matter of common knowledge that the Swiss soldiers are good marksmen, for they have frequent opportunities of rifleshooting on open-air ranges and at well-arranged field-firing practices. The impression left on my mind was that of a wellorganised, well-trained, and well-equipped army of hardy, resolute, and thoroughly disciplined soldiers. Officers of our own Auxiliary Forces who have seen the Swiss troops at work have expressed their opinion thus: "How far superior is this to anything that we have, barring our Regulars, of course; but give us British officers the same driving power as this compulsion gives, and similar powers of recruiting, which will put in our hands the best material in the British Isles, and we will do as well, or better." In this connection we may note that under the new orders the total Swiss period of training may be taken at 178 days, whereas under the proposals contained in this Aot the total training will amount, on an average, to about 200 days. The unit to which a man shall belong will naturally be decided on when he first becomes liable for training. Judging from the practice in other countries, the procedure will be somewhat as follows: a youngster on being called up will be told to present himself at a certain place at a certain time; he will then be examined by a sub-committee appointed by the County Association, and consisting of a civil officer, a military officer, and a medical man. The civil officer will take the lad's declaration that he does not already belong to the Navy or Regular Army, certificates as to age, and so on; the medical man will decide whether he is physically fit for the strenuous duties of a soldier; and the military officer will select the branch of the service for which the recruit is best suited, having regard to his physique and to his previous work in civil life. The recruit's personal wishes will be attended to in this matter, but subject always to the needs of the State. The necessity for better opportunities for training was specially insisted on by FieldMarshal Sir Evelyn Wood in a speech made last May at the Academy banquet. The gallant old soldier, who is Chairman of the Territorial Force Association of the City of London, said: "Five years ago I stated before the Duke of Norfolk's Commission that Volunteers cannot spare the time for adequate field training.... I am not one of those who believe that if for trade interests we quarrel with our VOL. CLXXXVI.-NO. MCXXV. neighbours they will chivalrously wait many months before undertaking our invasion, until our Territorial Forces have been mobilised and are sufficiently trained to meet even much smaller bodies of Regular soldiers." This deferring of the training till after war breaks out has been tried before by our brave French neighbours; the disastrous results are well known to students of war, they are dealt with once again by Colonel Lonsdale Hale in the June number of 'The Nineteenth Century,' and they were foretold with wonderful accuracy by Colonel Baron Stoffel, the French military attaché at Berlin during the years preceding the Franco-German War of 1870-71. Writing of the military reforms then being carried out in France, he said: "But, say some, the Garde Nationale Mobile may be trained during war; to which it is only requisite to say, How if the war be of short duration, if France is smitten with sudden disaster at the outset, and finds herself suddenly invaded;-how can you then give these young men assembled in haste that cohesion, discipline, and instruction which is so requisite?" Liability to attend on embodiment remains exactly as under the Act of 1907, section 17. This lays down that if a proclamation is issued calling out the Army Reserve the King can order the Army Council to give directions for embodying all or any part of the Territorial Force. The C sixth section dwells on the officers of the Regular Army, absolute equality of treatment before holding commissions, as between all classes, inasmuch as under no circumstances will any person be able to buy his discharge or to procure any kind of exemption by means of a money payment. This clause drives home the principles that justify the heading of this paper, and shows how truly democratic are the proposals that the House of Lords will be asked to discuss. The absolute necessity of barring the purchase of substitutes was demonstrated during our last really great struggle, and we can quote direct from Mr Fortescue's book, 'County Lieutenancies and the Army, 1803-1814,' on this point. One of the lessons of the Napoleonic wars, he tells us, was that "the admission of the principle of substitution in any scheme of compulsory service leads leads to ruinous expense, demoralisation, and inefficiency." The Memorandum next deals with the few exemptions that must always be made: in this case they are (1) men who have done three years in the Navy or Regular Army, ministers of religion, and (in certain cases) only sons of widows; (2) persons found physically unfit, and those who are criminals or persons of known bad character. Section 8 says that it is proposed that first appointments as officers shall be given only to persons who have either been through the recruittraining or have held commissions in the Regular Army. This is only common-sense; all pass through Woolwich or Sandhurst, where they are thoroughly drilled themselves first, before they are allowed to drill and command others. This provision also opens the door in true democratic fashion to all, irrespective of class distinctions, who can pass the proper tests, and qualify for commissions as officers. The last section of the Memorandum states that "after the Bill comes into operation, voluntary enlistment for the Territorial Force will cease, but men now in the Territorial Force will complete their current terms of service." The principle here adopted seems to be a paraphrase of the old adage, and to imply that it is best to be on with the new love before you are off with the old. What would actually happen would be that on the completion of the the recruits' training, in the first year's operation of the new Act, about 150,000 trained recruits would join units of the Territorial Force and the older members of that body would automatically disappear, on the expiry of the term for which they had enlisted. Territorial officers, and noncommissioned officers above all others, should welcome this Bill and work for the day of its acceptance by the nation. It will relieve them of all worry as to catching and keeping their recruits, and release them from the drudgery of teaching the goose-step and from the dull routine of drill |