THE BRITISH ARMY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9160, 6 August 1908, Page 5

THE BRITISH ARMY.

THE LONDON r IERRITOUIALS. Received August 5, 9 a.m. LONDON, August 4. The second division of the London Territorials is encamped on Salisbury Plain. The strength of the battalions averages 388, out of an establishment of 1,009. There has been much anxiety about the failure of the Volunteers to join the new Territorial Army. The men were given until June 30th to enlist, but 130,000 are still wanted to nake up the strength required by the War Office. Mr Haldane recently gave an interview to the London "Daily Mail" on the subject, in which he said.-—"That we should have reached only 40 per cent, of the required number is not alarming. We have set out to get a new army under new conditions, and we cannot do that ac a stroke. Before we reach our full strength we must be certain that we are getting the right material, and that the units are being thoroughly organised. . . . We are gradually and very carefully organising this new army. We are eliminating men who are over age, and selecting men capable of actual work in war The last thing we wish is to crowd the force, but 1 am sufficiently confident that we shall have the whole force—unless some great change takes place m the attitude of the country towards it—by no distant date." Mr Haldane emphasised the new character of the force. They wanted to get rid of the idea that volunteering was a "sport," and everyone to lealise that the new system meant more work and less play. .