THE BRITISH ARMY

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2092, 29 May 1907, Page 4

THE BRITISH ARMY

Jilt. HALDANE’S SCHEME CRITI

CISED.

Tlio President of the United Sorvice League, Lord jXoberts, tlie vicepresidents, tl),e Duke of Wellington, Lord Milner, J.ord Meath and Lord Itaglan, recently issued a criticism of Mr. Haldane’s army scheme, and a short exposition of the League’s aims. 'the following is an extract from the manifesto: —The proposed “National Army” will bo neither national nor |i!i firmy. On the one hand, it will not draw into ij.s ranks any of tho glasses which fail to servo, at present. Oil the Other, It will not be in any sense an army until six months after the emergency lias arisen which it is intended to meet, It is trained on a volunteer basis; and this training, it is universally admitted, will not produce forces capable of meeting highly trained troops in the field, tho only troops, bo it remembered, which a Home Defence Army would be called upon to encounter. Under Mr Haldane’s scheme the six months’ training, which would go far towards fitting the Territorial troops for this duty, is to bo given after tho crisis is upon us, not in anticipation of it. Can this bo called in any sense an army? An army which requires six months before it can act is not an army, it is simply 0H arro,ed crowd. Wo are glad to feel that in many important points we are in entire agreement with Mr. Haldane’s proposals. We accept—indeed, wo welcome the idea of a National Army. It is what this association has been advocating for five years. And we are equally in agreement with the principle that the National Army should be properly organised in divisions, brigades, and the other necessary military formations, with the due proportions between the various arms and services, and with proper equipment. This is, indeed, a fundamental requisite. What we do not agree with, what wo can never accept, is the idea that a certain number of isolated drills in three years, and eight, or even fifteen, days in camp, will give the country a force which will be within measurable distance of being equal, either to meeting foreign troops in defence of these islands, or to supplying efficient reinforcements For the Regular Army when employed on a great war abroad. What we askj is that the six months’ training laid I down by Mr. Haldane as necessary to'

make the, territorial forces fit for, tho field should precede the crisis, and that it should bo mado compulsory on nil nhlo-bodiod males of the military age. For tlio three years subsequent to that in which this training, takes place, tho men should como up for repetition courses of a fortnight m each year, and during tlio four years covering the initial training and the repetition courses they should bo liable for service for Homo Defence. At tlio end of these four yoars all liability to sorvico should cease. In tho case of tho Regular Army—or expeditionary force of 160,000 moil, to uso Mr. Haldnno’s phrase—being sent abroad for a great oversea war, tlio territorial force should bo embodied, and tho reinforcements and expansion required by the Regulars provided with voluntary ongagemont from it. Wo have no foar that tlio national spirit would, in timo of war, provido all the reinforcements required. What the national spirit cannot do is to improviso trained soldiers, or to turn raw levies into efficient troops at short, notice.

Such, iu a few words, is the system which wo desire to soo introduced. Wo submit that it will give us a real and reliable military organisation instead of what, with nil respect to Mr Haldano’s honesty and ability, is at host but a mako-boliovo. Tlio Secretary of State for War lias gone so far ill the direction in wliicb national safety lies that we should urge him to graft on to Ids scheme the one thing requisite to malco it a reality—namely, compulsory training as a national duty. Without this no satisfactory military system is possible, and, so long as voluntary enlistment is our only source,of supply, wo shall simply go on floundering from one hopeless scliomo to another, and when the crisis comes tlio country will bo found unprepared. Profoundly convinced of this truth, wo appeal to the nation to support tlio principle of universal military training which wo advocate, and, by joining the National Sorvico League, help to form that, groat basis of public opinion which must necessarily exist before so vital a reform can bo carried out. ,