THE BRITISH ARMY.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2230, 21 April 1881, Page 3

THE BRITISH ARMY.

In the course of his speech recently delivered at the Mansion House, Sir Frederick Boberts said :—" The question of our army is a national one, and must be of as vital importance to one party of our countrymen as another. What we all want is to get the best material for our money, and what we shall all probably agree to is that nothing is so expensive as a bad article. The origin of the short-service system was, I understand, the necessity _of having a reserve of trained soldiers in England. I full admit this necessity; but even after the experience of 1878, I take leave to doubt whether we can always depend on securing the services of the reserve we are slowly forming ; and of this I am quite certain, that we are sacrificing our army to obtain a reserve which, except in the case of a great national danger, it is evidently not intended to make use of. Some means can, I feel confident, be devised by which our army shall be able without impairing its efficiency to assist in making or training a reserve ; but what we really require for England are two armies—a home army and a foreign service army. The former should, I conceive, be some sort of militia, and this should be our reserve. The latter must always be in the most perfect state of efficiency, ready to take the field in our distant possessions upon the shortest possible notice. Any attempt to make the foreign service army subservient to the reserve must end in failure, and I confidently predict in disgrace and disaster."