ARMY DISCIPLINE.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14972, 20 May 1914, Page 9

ARMY DISCIPLINE.

AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF

DEMOCRACY

("Times" and "Sydney Sun" Services.)

LONDON, May 18. The "Sunday Tim.es," discussing ;Army, discipline with tho development of democracy, says:—

The soldier is in this exact condition that his subordination must be rendored to a just administration, not to a tyrannical, self-seeking oligarchy. It is this fact that the Army Council have failed to recognise. They continue to pursue eighteenth century methods. They would make good poker players, bluff and mystery being their two strongest cards.

The London correspondent of tho Sydney "Daily Telegraph" writes: —The Liberals and Socialists are in a serious difficulty about the "democratisation" of* the Army, which is now their favourite cry. By "democratisation" they mean, of course, the adoption of a system which will greatly facilitate the development of the ranker into office. They want broken the monopoly which tho aristocracy now has of Army • commissions, especially in the crack cavalry regiments. This movement wuld be all very well if it were not for the cost. Tho proposed would certainly mean a big increase to the annual Estimates, and every representative of Radical and Labour opinion is pledged to reduce rather than to increase expenditure upon defence. Whatever may bo said against tho aristocratic officer, ho cannot be accused of making money out of the service. It is pretty generally accepted that no officer can 6ervo in the United Kingdom under present conditions unless he has a private income. By some- military authorities this private income is set down as high as £150 a year for the infantry, and £300 to £400 for the cavalry. According to tho military correspondent of "The Times," very few officers reach tho rank of Maior-General without the expenditure of several thousand pounds of their own or their parents' capital. Comparisons are drawn between officers' salaries in England and the United States, where a second lieutenant receives £3GO a year, and a lieutenantcolonel £700 a year, with an increase of 10 per cent, to officers serving beyond the Republic. "Wβ are told in the United States the priuciplo is accepted that the advantage of voluntary service must bo paid for cheerfully, and when wo adopt a similar attitude wo shall achieve similar results."