The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-03-12 00:00:00

SATURDAY, MARCH 12th, 1881.

ARMY ORGANIZATION.

RECENT events have brought vividly to the
minds of the people of this country the neces•
sity and the value of an efficient army. Of late
years we have been seldom free from actual or
threatened war. It is true that for_a_ quarter of

a century we have not been engaged in hostili-
ties in Europe; but we were very near to them
three years ago, when the Reserves were called
out in anticipation of trouble with Russia, but
the wars which we have had in Asia and in

Africa are a sufficient testimony to the fact that
the time is yet a long way off when we can afford
to dispense with even a portion of our regular
army. Therefore, although the House of Com-
mons has had very urgent business on hand, it
suspended the consideration of that business so
that the Minister responsible for the War De-
partment might explain the means by
which he proposed to make our military forces
more effectual for the work they have to do.
Much has been said for and against the system
of short service in the army ; and when such
distinguished officers as Sir Garnet Wolseley
and Sir Frederick Roberts differ upon it, a
civilian might well feel it difficult to come to a
conclusion respecting its working. Short ser-
vice was adopted to meet an inability to obtain
recruits. Fourteen or fifteen years ago the im-
possibility of getting a sufficient supply of the
raw material of an army created a panic among
military men, and there was loud and alarming
talk of the necessity of conscription. General
Peel, who was Secretary of State for War in
1867, told the House of Commons that the supply
of recruits had fallen off from 28,000 a year in
1859 to 13,000 a year in 1866, and that not fewer
than 20,000 annually must be got if the army
was to be kept up at all. At that time the mind
of the nation was full of the great deeds of Prus-
sia, which at Sadowa had unexpectedly broken
the strength of Austria, though the Austrian
army was one of veterans, and that of Prussia
was an army of youths called out for three years'
service. In 1870 the same Prussian system
showed its wonderful efficiency in the defeat of
the French, and public opinion became strongly
in favour of adopting some modifications of that
system ourselves. Lord Cardwell engrafted it
upon the existing organization of the British
army by dividing the twelve years of service
into two halves, and allowing men to enlist either
on the old terms of twelve years with the colours,
or on a new arrangement of six years with the
colours and six in the reserve for the infantry,
and eight years with the colours and four in the
reserve for the artillery and cavalry. The change
proved attractive, and the effect of the short-
ened service on the recruiting has been in one
respect satisfactory. There have been complaints
as to the age of recruits, but none respecting
their numbers. Men will enlist for six or even
eight years of active service, with another four
or six years of liability to be called out, who
would be repelled by the prospect of twelve
years with the colours. By the new scheme of
army organization now before the country, the
Secretary for War proposes •an extension of the
time of active service. But he intends to com-
pensate for this by shortening the service in
home-keeping regiments. In these he encour-
ages the men to enter the reserves after three or
four years with the colours, while he hopes to
increase the reserve itself by enabling men to
continue in it voluntarily for four 'years longer
beyond the fall twelve. The men thus retained
will form a second reserve, which is to be limited
to ten thousand men, and this is not to be called
out until the other reservists are under arms.
• There are other parts in this plan of army
organizatian which are of a more technical
character, and will scarcely be followed by a
civilian. The working of what are termed
linked_battalions is one of these. Another point,
affecting the officers solely, is that of compulsory
retirement, a grievance which is to be lessened
by an arrangement largely increasing the num-
ber of majors, and will in a corresponding degree
allow of the promotion of captains. New en-
couragements are to be offered to non-commis-
sioned officers, who are to have additional oppor-
tunities of service, and of earning pensions and
rewards. Their pay is to be increased, more
appointments in the Civil Service are to be
given to them on their retirement, their retiring
allowances are to be augmented, and their
position is to be made in every way more at-
tractive and secure. The complete abolition of
corporal punishment in the army is a part of the
scheme. The primary aim of every War Minis-
ter, without distinction of party, is to make
military service popular in the eyes of the nation
as well as useful in the acrual circumstances of
the empire. With wars and rumours of wars
still disquieting the earth, men for the army
must be got, and any beneficial change in the
system of military administration tending in
this direction will be u doomed by all classes of
the community.