MILITARY NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1043, 4 February 1911, Page 14

MILITARY NOTES.

[Edited By EcheloxJ UNSOLVED MILITARY PROBLEMS. NEW BISLEY TARGETS. Major A. B. 'N. Churchill, in a long: and interesting article on tlyj subject of "Unsolved Military Problems" in tho "United Service Magazine" for December, discusses tho problem of sslection, and rightly points out that there is no subject which more marly concerns the welfare of the-officers of the' Army than that which regulates their advancement in tha Service. Until the abolition of purchase'' there was the pericd when wealth was a deciding factor. Then came "seniority," which continues to-dav in a modified form. Major Churchill' thus propounds a question to which, doubtless, different answers will bo given:— "Has tho case received corrcct - and scientific treatment? The answer is a momentous 'one to tho officers of the Army in particular, and to tho nation iA | general. ♦ • . The various questions which j arise group themselves into three bread 1 divisions. There are thoss considerations which are dependent on the actual me- j thod of selection, which are or can be adopted; and the advantages and disadvantages which characterise these j method.?. Secondly, there are those considerations which are inseparably connected with the -attributes of the selecting authority. Thirdly, and lastly, come questions which deal with the qualifications which are required to be determined and estimated. It becomes at once apparent that the commonplace phrase 'promotion by merit' is a very vague expression." Un the subject of "personal tests," the writer says that one fc. vantage of the open competitive examination is that it absolutely excludes the "personal clement" from the sphero of the selecting authority. "Though tho gain or loss of a few marks in tho examination hall may completely change the career of an individual, the results, whatever they may be, are acquiesced in by, all, and the system is generally approved. Tho defects ot this system arc tliat it is only suitable •for discriminating between the educational attainments of candidates; indirectly the system is u guide to determining perseverance and industry, but it is valueless as a test of character or even of physical powers. Both of tho two lastnamed qualifications are' all-important qualifications in the soldier." What tho author terms the "expert method" has tho advantage that the field is automatically narrowed down. Then there is the "statistical method," where the qualifications of individuals are recorded so that the selecting authority candiscriminato between individuals as reported on. "The defects are," says Major Churchill, "that both in the compilation of tho reports and in the discrimination exercised by the selecting authority, the 'personal clement* is strongly in evidence. The chief defect, however, is that the system absolutely fails whero average abilities and attainments are in question— that is, in tho case of the majority." In the three methods, tho Major contends there has been discovered no satisfactory methods of dealing with the allimportant qualification of character. Passing on to consider tho questions which are connected with the composition of the selecting authority, the author says that the two evils which a selecting authority must guard itself from falling into are favouritism and. arbitrariness; these evils beget in their train many other ills, but the chief evil which results in tho. body, of officers from tho existence of either one or other of these evils, is that it produces discontent throughout tho whole body, and this isnothing short of a national disaster. Even with tho most careful safeguards, he asserts, it must be accepted as part of human nature that preference will always be given, other things being equal, by "a selecting authority to a good officer whose worth is personally known, over one of an equal merit which is known only bv report. . ' _ * •• The' writer's' 'after r! a" ? lon'g land detailed study of the problems, are 1 that it will become evident to the reader that tho system for the promotion, of I officers in the Army is so defective that I good results cannot be produced by it. ! Introduced to temper , tho obvious evils I of a rigid adherence to seniority, selection was resorted to merely to weed out j the iucapablc and unsuitable; it has, conI sidcrs.Major Churchill, been gradually de- | veloped for an entirely different purpose, I namely, to reward merit.

As considerable misconception appears to exist concerning the details of the lienfigure targets which are- to be used at the Bisley meeting in July next, and which will be used at the Trenthani riile meeting in March, the following note and diagram of the Bisley target will no doubt be of interest. The upper half of the target is coloured grey, and the lower half, green, the head-and-shoulder figure in the raitro being coloured khaki. The bull, inner, and magpie circles are, of course, invisible to the firer, but a. knowledge of their true positions is necessary in order that the marksman may aim for the highest value mark on the target. In the subjoined diagram the dimensions shown are those for the 200 yards Bisley liead-and-shoulders target. i ? or shooting at 500 yards the 6ft. target is used, with an 18-inch bull, 30-inch inner, and 46-inch magpie. The figure is eighteen inches in height, and twenty-ono inches at the base. .