VOLUNTEER REFORM.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2783, 15 January 1878, Page 2

VOLUNTEER REFORM.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.) Sib, —I noticed in your columns a few days ago some remarks on the suggestions of an old soldier or volunteer in relation to the volunteer force. With all due deference to his opinion, I fail to perceive any probability of good resulting from the abolishment of the present system of district staff administration. My military and volunteer experience leads me to believe that it would not be considered advisable by Lord Card well, or <the most radical reformer, to make it obligatory on officers commanding corps t or!. companies to prove themselves qualified as drill instructors. The duty of instruction in a regiment or corps of the Queen's regular or auxiliary forces devolves principally on the adjutant and sergeant-major, with other assistant drill-sergeants, who are frequently relieved from.all other military duty, the better to exclusively devoto their time to the instruction of their squads. Captains of companies and subaltern officers may be efficient without at all times possessing the necessary qualifications of imparting to others a knowledge of/the goose step. An efficient staff of instructors is as necessary to the well being of a volunteer district as the colonel, major, adjutant, musketry-instruc-tor, and sergeant-major are to the efficiency and smartness of a line battalion. There are many officers who are seldom guilty of blundering in the course of the manoeuvres of the most intricate field day, and who at all times can issue their orders with a prompt and ready word of command, and in the sharp and decisive tone so well understood and appreciated by British soldiers, and who yet would be

unable to stand in front of their company and explain the correct .detail ol'-the motions of the manual ana platoon exercise. Tbese oiliccta am accompanied to the field by the " nurses," as your farseeing and practical friend would probably term the staff, and the nurses hare their work cut out in the important and arduous duties of taking up, and dressing coverers or points, noticing, the short' comings of backward men and officers, that the same may be attended to and avoided at future field days by inter* J" rening parade ground drill. The " muffs " of any volunteer battalion are no doubt quite as numerous as in the senior serrice, for there many an inexperienced and beardless subaltern (who has at times been dependent on the timely whisper of his hoary-headed coverer for the word of command at the precise and proper ' -•' moment) has ripened into a smart and ' able company officer and field adjutant. So far as the Thames corps are concerned, • there are but few officers who can be designated muffs; there may be, certainly, one or two who imagine themselves to be so well up that they hare no anxiety to bother themselves with the acquisition of any further military knowledge, but the " majority are. aware that it is only by constant stu iy and practice that perfection and steadiness are attained. That an in. specting officer should be 1 appointed to periodically inspect the different district!, I will readily admit. He would probably ; report on and cause many little defects to '* ' be remedied. I hope to See one appointed : ; before long. I sincerely hope the Go- ' vernment will not discourage the volunteer movement by dismissing the weak ■ companies. I would not advocate the support of paper companies, which ii simply fraud on the public exchequer, bat it is clearly an error to fix the* minimus strength of a company at so high a rate as fifty members; for take, for instance, a suburban corps' possessing, the ban number, the officer commanding would like to weed but say, some six to a doxen useless members, but dare not risk the disbandonment of his corps by doing so, and must put up with hump-backs, and '. perhaps insolent language, to maintain his • ' numerical efficiency. Volunteers must be led ; they will not be, driven, and the Government should encourage the development of the force, by treating it with greater liberality, and affording them facilities for improvement in drill by sometimes massing for brigade purposes the troops of one or two districts to* Ecther. The importance and utility of the volunteer force hare been fully recog* / nised by the War Office of late, and ex- A ~ emplified by the recent heroic conduct of the Cape Colony force. There is more on the same subject I could, advance, but, I must apologise already for the length of my letter. —lam, <be, - ■■:; , An Old Skulk jutd Maiiow-bom*