LORD HALDANE ON INVASION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1330, 6 January 1912, Page 14

LORD HALDANE ON INVASION.

THE TERRITORIAL SHORTAGE. Lord Haidane, Secretary for War, dealt with, the shortage in the Territorials in reply.'to Lord -Portsmouth (formerly his Under-Secretary,, 'but;.now a Unionist) in the-House of -Lords 'on-. Jfovember -20. Lord Portsmouth, in-asking his question, said: —"I have been able to extract some rather remarkable figures from the annual Army report, and ,1 find that for the half-year in 1908 tile number of Territorial recruits was 39,000. Then came the 'boom,' when tho 'Daily Mail' did such good service, and in the year 11)09 the number, of recruits sprang, up,-.to 110,000. Then in 1910 tho number of Territorial recruits dropped again to 42,000, which is very little more than for tho half-year iu 1908."- ' . . ! Lord Jlaldane admitted that the Territorials were from 40,000 to, 50,000 below their strength. He was advised by the General Staff that from their point of view the important thing in tho organisation was suitable units sufficient to provide three things:—(l) Coast defence; (2) defence against raids on a comparatively small scale; and (3) tho formation of a central force capable of reinforcing the local forces against these raids, and also capable of dealing with attacks on a larger scale.' ; ' Tho maximum'strength of an attacking force' was, for the purpose, of calculation and comparison,' assumed to be 70,000, biit, according to tho considered views of. the Admiralty, no force of anything. approaching .that, strength could possibly land on these shores. It was considered that, tho force which would be available for honie defence in tho absenco of tho expeditionary force was sufficient for tho duties they would be railed upon to perform. If all the six divisions of the expeditionary army- were away thero would bo left 100,000 Special Reserves, over 260,000 Territorials, probablv 15,000 to 20,000 National Reservists ready and willing to take their part, and a. considerable number of ReguLars, including garrison artillery, engineers, and fighting units, which wore'left over after the requirements of tho expeditionary fcrce had been satisfied. Altogether thero wculd bo upwards of 400,000 troops at Home. Tho last thing likely was that anybody would risk the certain destruction of his army of 70,000, assuming ho could get it here. Compulsory service was spoken of as a remedy, but he did not think any large body of people could be found in favour of this principle. Ho was sorry to say v that many people went about tho country advising young men not to enlist in the force. The misplaced energies of those who supported compulsory service had cost the Territorial Force between twenty and thirty thousand men. The Territoriol Force was .up to fivesixths of its establishment. • He wished it wore fuller; it ought to be fuller, and could bo fuller. It could bo kept up only by patriotism and the energy which patriotism inspired. The force was sufficient to provido tho organisation which the General Staff desired. Ho would bo thankful to get a full strength, but there was no reason to sit down and despair at this moment about the Territorial Force. Viscount Itidleton hoped that in tho course of next year, when they saw how far rather gloomy anticipations were realised, they would bo allowed, to take stock of tho whole of our national position without being told thev were animated by any desire to make political capital out of tho possible failure of the forco to come ud to 'requirements. Lord Newton gathered that tho Territorial Forco continued to decrease in numbers and increase in expenditure. The voluntary system was played out, and theroxras no probability 01 the Secretary lor War over obtaining the numbers which he originally asked for. rlie Duke of Bedford said the Territorial Force never promised to be equal m numbers to tho old auxiliary force, and the cost certainly would be more.