THE TERRITORIAL ARMY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2865, 1 September 1916, Page 6

THE TERRITORIAL ARMY

RANKS ALL PILLED. "We have got the Territorial schemo into a. very good working condition again,said the Minister of Defence yesterday. "When, we first_b<?g[an to send troops away the Territorial Army was reduced far below establishment, but it was very quickly filled up. We were very short of officers, but now the junior officers - are gradually attaining efficiency, and we have been helped by a number of officers who had been posted to the Reserve of Officers, who have come back on to the Active List gain. We were very short of clothing and other equipment also for a. time, but our supplies are npw, I believe, sufficient." . . , One of the results of the war is that what was known as the General Training 'Section has practically disappeared. The Act provides that the Territorial Army shall not exceed a certain numerical strength, and the thousands of men of military age who could not be 'drafted into the Territorial Army were supposed to belong to the General Training Section. It was part of the original scheme that these men should be regularly drilled and given some instruction in the arts of war, but General Godley concentrated on the Territorials, and the General Training Section was left to take. care of itself. The men were supposed to get their training in rifle clubs, but actually they got no training at all. They are getting regular training now.. After the war some amendment of the defence system is certain to be proposed, and if change is made the anomaly of the two distinct forces, the Territorials and the General Training Section, ono an effective force and tlie other a force of no military value, will probably be removed. ' This untrained body of eligible men lias been the bugbear of the authorities ever since tho Defence Act was put-into oporation. tt has been ignored by the General Staff, and no Defence Minister has over liked to speak of it.