The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1883-06-05 00:00:00

BKELETOHISIMO THE ARMY.

The Wald gay a :—Tbe British army just now closely
resembles that c•mmaoded by illustruitta &mimosa;
Furio.o. It grows more and more like a skeleton day
by day. Its sources If supply from causes still some-
what obscure are all but closed. Recruitiog is nearly
at a stei.detill. Every regiment on the regular
establishment is below its strength. A. for the
Militia, taking it in the %genets, it is already short
some 30,000 men, and the deficit is constantly increas-
ing. The situation is such as to cause the authorities
at the War Otte. tie gravest concern. For some time
past, with that official reserve in which they are such
adepts, they have kept their own counsel hoping
against hope that the difficulties would pass
away, that the period of dearth would be
succeeded by one of plethora, that the
present pnosure was due rather to general
conditions in the labour market than to recent
measure*. lint within the last week or two reUcence
has been precipitately abandoned, and the promulga-
tion of order., reducing the standard of height and
chest measurement, proves that real alarm ha.
supervened at headquarters. This dangerous relaxa-
tion of roles which watched over the stamina and
Physical fitness of the raw material has had DO
appreciable effect- It has attracted rely a very
limited number of recruits, none of them much better
than little boys • and the general level of the service
has been deteriorated without greatly replenishing
the ranks. The process may stimulate recruiting into
short-lived ot•vity, but obviously it cannot be often
repotted. SILUDIOSiV• reduction io age and size would
drive the recruiting sergeant eventually to enlist
children iu arms. Some more effectual remedies
must be promptly devised if the army le to be saved
front atrophy and dimolution.
The opponents of the present system of short ser-
vice, who are neither few nor sparing of words, will
unhesitatingly visit the sin of failure upon that much-
abused method of enlistment. They are too blinded
by prejudice to inquire—not whether this system is
the beet possible, out whether any other is feasible
under the peculbrly complicated conditions of our
military orgardiation. It is universally admitted that
we must have an army supported by voluntary enlist-
ment. ready to verve all over the world, to be at a
minimum strength in peace-Mose, and capable of
immediate expansion to meet the great emergencies of
war. No other practkel or approximately aucceseful
solution of ti is most difficult problem than short ler
vice has as yet been arrived at, But a system may be
right in principle and yet err fatally when put to the
test. Enlistment in these days must be for short
term*. The gnat bulk of recruits would not join for
any other; indeed, to the prolongation of the
with theoolour. following the recommendations or I.r.et'l
r:1
Airey's Committee, much of the present disinclination to
take service is to be attributed. But while a large
proportion of the men in the ranks are eager to with-
draw after three or four years, here is a balons, by
no means inicoosiderable,who would prefer to remain f. ir
the whole period of to:intro.*. Neither of these
clans. is contented with the existing rules. Men in
the former are kept longer than they litte, in the latter
dismissed before they want to go. In the first case,
the detention inflicts an incalculable injury on all such
as artisans end tradesmen, who had hoped to return to
beech or forge or other employment before their hand
had lot its calming. and again-t whose chances of
employment protracted absence militates most
serionsle. In the second case, many men with e.roog
yearnings. and • madcat pr.din •sition for a c.ntinued
military career, ate turned adrift upon the world io
rer,mmence life. They might have grown Into
exceil-nt addiers ; too often they become bid citizens,
and bring infinite discredit upon their old profession
they were P.. loth to leave, and iii which their loss was
variously felt., .

Everithing in nor army as at present constituted is
sacrificed t the Reserve. No doubt the f..rvcatieu of
oche fore,. infi-xible, ar1...1 within easy reach,

it of panimount importance. N. attar 'without a
reserve can long exist in the field ; its destruction is
ine•itiatle in any protracted campaign with the west.
sty of the first hoe attendaut on battle and disease.
Wtth its, however, the reeerve has been formed st the
estrum) rather heti in support of the first line. Drafts
to it are continually made from the I ice actually
mettles, thus rirainit g and perpetually weakening the
latter without any certainty that the strength thus
lot t will he recovere lat the time of need. There are
but to.. good reagents to fear that the It-serve may yet
prove a broken reed. Although its members have
COMO forward a two separate ..CCDStoitt to resume
service when called upon, they carried back
with them when again dismissed int., private
life no very lively grrititude for the treatment
they had received, and it is possible that
they mty not rtspood so readily to the next
call. It will then be necessary to alter the form and
character of the Reserve, and ideas alreeily ventilated
of utilising the :Militia more largely by making the
affiliated regiments really reserve la•t•lione may yet
be adopts-I with good result.. Meanwhile what seems
certain is that the R-servi•ta of to-day are exercleing
a moat pernici 'us influence upon recruiting. It we.
once said that the army peosioner, living in compara-
tive ease in his native village was the best recruiting
agent to he ha Ifl Fr money. tis equally certain that
the Reservist la the worst. Too often his condition is
pitiable in the extreme. Be clinni.t get work, and to
beg he is not ealiamed. When the Reserve was fir-t
established, it wee thought that men serving in it, with
their own small means wherewith to eke out wages,
would be certain of obtaining employment. As a
matter of fact, to belong to the Reserve la a disadvant-
age, not • recommendation. Employers dislike
engaging subordinates, except for the moot ordi•
nary and menied occupations, whose serviees
they easy at any moment have to relinquish.
Nor does the Government itself set a goo
example to persons whose patriotism is weak. In
hardly any department, except the% of her Majetety's
prisons, can the Reeervist• count upon employment.
l'hey are not to be met with among the letter-carriers
of the Post-office, nor a• park-keepere,
or policemen, in the very places ot all other" to which
they have • claim before the outeide crowd. Tney are,
moreover, heavily handicappe i• a. has been elready
said, In the open labour.m•rket, and c•u hardly h Tee
to be takes so skilled workmen in trades, which, in the
lapse of years and theexitenciee of their mil lacy service,
they have half forgotten. No wonder, then, that
authentic case. are known of Reserve men being
at greet mains and travelling many miles to dismade
would-be recruita from taking the shilling still 10•4
strange is it that the great army of =miens, of ills
loafer', vagrant', and tramps who infest the country,
passing honk pariah workhoesse to local ritteth Wr-
petn.lly, should number amulet them • large con-
tingent of the Army Reserve. It la not easy for such
men to be "absorbed " into civil life, and their
wretched condition, imoecunione, out-of.work, too
often criminal, is • standing reproach ti the system
under which they bees become what they are. It is
hardly surprising that lads, on the point of choosing •
calling in life, should hesitate before adopting the
same career.