The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-04-27 00:00:00

THE RESERVE FORCES.

The final returns respecting the assembling of the Ist
Class Army Reserve amply justify the most sanguine
anticipations which have been entertained with regard
to the readiness with which the men would respond
when recalled to military service. The absentees were
even fewer than was expected, in very few eases
reaching 5 per cent., and many of these are accounted
for—some of the men being at sea, some having
special reasons for being a day or two late, and a few
reported absent under circumstances beyond their
control. The number of absentees on the ground of
sickness is so slight as to be remarkable, and, although
the whole of the men have to undergo medical examina-
tion on joining-, rejections have been extremely rare.
It is, however, possible that when they are attached
to their regiments some of them may be found phy-
sically unfit for active service. A few of them have
already been draughted into regiments which require
to he strengthened, and it is understood that the
whole of the Reserves will be. apportioned throughout
the Army as most needed, without epecial regard to
the understanding that the men would rejoin their old
regiments. When released once more from the Army
each man will be allowed 21 to assist him in providing
a fresh outfit.

The success which has attended the calling cut of
the men of the fist-class army reserve has been ex-
ceedingly marked, and, so far, has quite satisfied the
officials and all concerned. Taking the principal mili-
tary station at Chatham as an example, the men of the
reserve have been found to respond promptly to the
call made on them, already upwards of 1,000 having
flocked to the colours of the various corps which are now
stationed at that garrison' the regiments which they
have joined being the sth Fusiliers, the 30th, and the
99th (Duke of Edinburgh's) all three of which are
among the first which will be required to embark for
foreign service should the exigency arise. With the
arrival of so many men of the reserve, and the
regiments at the garrison being up to their full war
establishment, there are now more troops at Chatham
than has been the case for a great number of years
past. The ordinary barracks being insufficient to
accommodate the whole of the troops, several hundreds
of the reserve men are quartered in the military
gymnasium, which for the first time siuce it has been
built is thus converted into vast barracks. In addition
to the line regiments the Royal Engineers are also
receiving a large number of men of the reserve be-
longing to that corps.

The Time. cf Tuesday has the following leader on
the Army and _Militia Reserve system, and the ready
manner in which the men responded to the call

Whatever may be the difference of opinion respecting the
policy which has led to our present militaty preparations,
there can be no doubt that in an administrative sense these
measures of precaution are of the highest interest. In more
ways than one they may be said to constitute the first real
and practical test of the value of our new military
organisation, and especially of that system of Reserves
which some few years since took coherent shape as an
element of our military strength. Saturday was the last day
on which the men of the Army and Militia Reserves were re-
quired to join the Regular Forces. Not a few who have been
abroad, or whose journey to Read-Quarters may have been
accidentally delayed, will, no doubt, continue to drop in, and
the official return of those who have obeyed the summons
cannot be made up fur probably a day or two. But, without
waiting for the figures which will expres the precise result,
we believe we are not premature in describing this crucial
test as successful, and as demonstrating beyond queslon the
wisdom of the principle of short service and large reserves
in the army. When Lord Cardwell proposed to give full
effect to that principle, he was met with the objec-
tion that, however excellent the idea might be in
theory, it would not work in practice ; and it
was a matter of loud and general complaint anionz.
military men that in the meantime regiments would lose
their old and seasoned soldiers, and be turned into some-
thing like training schools' merely ill order to facilitate the
trial of an exceedingly doubtful experiment. Tne result,
which will soon be fully known, shows that the experiment
Is no longer doubtful. During the last fortnight the men
both of the Army and Militia Reserves have flocked to the
colours in numbers as large as could have been expected
even by the most sanguine well-wishers of the system. Ex-
cluding a very slight percentage, they have outgrown tile
period of immaturity and are physically fit for any service.
All have undergone a military training, which, in the lafge
majority of instances, has extended over several years ; and
moreover, they show the best and most sold iarlike spirit. Thus
the fighting land forces of the Crown are to-e ay increased by a
large contingent, not of raw recruits, but of diecipltued,
seasoned, and willing sokliers. If a force equaliy numerous
and effective had been forthcoming in the same manner
just four-and-twenty years ago, it would have been of price-
less value. In all human probability, if Lord Raglan had
had, in September, 1854, an army corps of 25,000 or 30,000
men to work in co-operation with the allied arm' that had
just won the battle of the Alma the fall of the Russian
stronghold in the Black Sea woad have been a matter of
days instead of many weary months; a year of warfare would
have been saved, and an enormous sacrifice of life and money
avoided.

It is to be regretted that this highly satisfactory muster
of the Reserve forces has net been attained without much
social dislocation and some suffering. The men who passed
from the Army into the Reserve within the last few years
calculated with pardonable confidence upon the continuance
of peace for a time that would cover their period of
obligation to active military service, and accordingly
they settjed down into civilian life in a full sense of
security from disturbauce. Many of these men found
employment in trusted positions in great public in-
stitutions. They were guards, ticket collectors, and porters
on railways, or warders in prisons, asylums, and work-
houses; many had become policemen, others were servants of
various degrees in private employ, while some, more suc-
cessful in life, had themselves become heads of establish-
ments and employers of labour. Again, not a few contracted
domestic ties and bad incurred obligations nut easily
reconcilable with the resumption of service in the ranks of
the army; It is plain that to many of these men the sacri-
fice of private and individual interests to public duty must
have been a serious and sometimes even a painful one:
and that a call so sudden and unexpected should have been
obeyed by them with such general alacrity is a result on
which we could hardly have reckoned. Ilowever great may
he the intrinsic value of this immediate addition to the
fighting strength of the regalar army, it should be recol-
lected that the system whims enables us to make it is as yet
but in an early stage of its development. The Army Reserve
can be said to have come really into existence only last year,
when the men began to complete the erescribed period of
six years' service with the colours. Even up to the present
moment the sources from which it is supplied are not com-
plete. The men who are in India and at other foreign
stations have to serve an additional twelve months, or
seven years altogether, with the colours, before they
P 55 into the Reserve, and from this category the first
instalment of about :3,000 has yet to become available,
anti will lint join the Reserves before next year.
Then the Cavalry and Artillery, in which the term
of active service is eignt years, have as yet contributed but
a few men, and their first yield of importance would not
occur before 1879 or 1880. The present is the first year in
%%bit% the Army Reserve has reached the resptctable
strength of 12,000 men, but this number is only about one-
fifth of the muster which, according to the latest careful
calculations, will ultimately, be reached. With the system
in full play, the normal strength of the First Class Army
Reserve will be but a trifle under 60,000 .men, a figure
which, under ordinary circumstances, will be reached by
gradual stages. Durlng.the nest live years, for instamo, it

is estimated that the force will suCcessively number about
17,000 in 1879, 22,000 in 1880, 28,000 in 1881, 35,000 in 1882,
and 45,000 in 1883.
It is thus obvious that the present accession to our mili-
tary. strength is numerically slight as compared with what
it would be if the system had been longer iu existence and
were in full operation. But even immature as it is, the in-
stitution now gives us an addition to the combatant portion
of our army the timely and solid value of which in the event
of war is not to be estimated by its mere numerical
streneth. Without taking into account the forces which
would be supplied by India and the colonies, it may
be said with truth that the British army which
is now almost in a condition to take the field is mere
numerous better arooal, better instructed, better orea-
eised, and better officered than any body ef troops that
ever left our shores The two coris that would form an ex-
pedition outnumber the army with which the Duke of
Wellington wim his last and greatest victory, and they are
nearly threefold the strength of the British troops at the
Alma. They are armed in ammeter worthy of the progress of
mechanical science, and their skill in the use of these im-
proved aliens not exceed, it by the troops of any other Power.
Their officers, as compared with those who went before them,
are not more gallant, but they are better acquainted
with their work, and, as contrasted with nay of those
of former days, they mly he said to be in the relation of
experts to amateurs. Regarding the combatant elements of
such an army, there need not be a shadow of a want of con-
fidence. There remains the great and all-important item of
organization. Of this we believe it my be said that it stews
a very great improvement, and that a recurrence of the
errors of Crimean tinies it well-nigh impossible. The newly
adopted s) stem of regimental transport of itself will obviate
the worst class of failures in this respect. Still it must
be confessed that it in this particular part of our military
machinery that the wholesome effect of the lessons
of the past is least manifest. Some of the most
competent military authorities, we believe, are not free from
anxiety as to the efficient working of the important depart-
ment of which Lord hustace Cecil is the immediate official
head. If the reputation of the new Secretary of State for
War is to keep pace with his promotion, it will be necessary
for him to give all his attention to the means of providing a
thoroughly efficient system of supply and transport in the
field, for without such a system the most gallant, the most
numerous, and the best disciplined body of troops in the
world is still not an army.