The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-15 00:00:00

BILL.

The appointment of the committee on this bill was
postponed.
RECRUITING IN THE ARMY.

Lord PA NMUB,E said that ho approached this subject
without any apology. Ile thought that it was only
in justice to himself that ho should lay before them,
as he intended to do that evening, the whole
of the particulars of this really most important
question. He conceived that such questions, involving
considerations only to the subject of domestic policy,
should not be referred to a commission. The reorganisa-
tion of the army was one of the most vital principles of the
day. The commission had inquired into the whole sys-
tem of recruiting and the means which should be taken
to make the services of the recruits valuable to the army.
All this had been done, and it had been found that the
system of recruiting was very defective, and therefore
they had advised that an officer should be appointed
to superintend the whole of the recruiting. lie
(Lord Panmure) had heard in another place that
suggestion was going to be adopted by her Majesty's Go-
vernment. There was a second consideration to which
they had given their attention, that of the grievances of
the soldier. The principal ono appeared to be the manner
of pay. After the many deductions were made from his
pay of ls. a day he hardly received anything. (Hear;
hear.) Another point was that the soldier had to pay
12s. a year for his tunic; this was considered to be a hard-
ship. Now, iu another instance, it was discovered that,
especially with cavalry soldiers, three-quarters of a pound
of meat was not enough. The noble lord condemned the
idea of giving 2d. a day to the soldier. if that were done
it might contribute to stop complaints for a time, but
they would eventually crop up again, and such a conces-
sion would be of no avail. The reducing of the stoppages
would cost £lB,OOO, butlif the extra quantity of meat were
given it would amount to nearly £200,000. He defended
the Limited Enlistment Act against the unfavourable criti-
cisms which he said had been passed upon it by most com-
manding officers, an suggested various slight modifications
which ho believed would increase its efficiency. The Com-
missioners, ho said, had not felt it to be part of their func-
tions to enter upon the question of the organisation of an
army of reserve, but, speaking for himself, Lord Dalhousie
was of opinion that the proposal to raise the militia force to
120,000, of whom one-third should be attached, in case of
war, as a reserve to the regular army,was wholly inadequate
to the wants and to the resources of the country. He
strongly urged the adoption of a system of compulsory ser-
vice in the militia, which he believed, if any Government
were bold enough to propose, Parliament and the country
would be willing to support.
Lord LONGFORD, observing that ho had been a mem-
ber of the Commission which had made certain recommen-
dation, sand was a member of the Government which had
disregarded some of those recommendations, entered rather
fully into the details of the various questions involved, de-
fending the decision of the War-office to grant a snu..ll in-
crease of pay instead of the deferred advantages recom-
mended by the Commission, as better calculated to attain
the object both had in view, the improvement of our re-
cruiting system.

Lord DE GREY, referring to a remark of the last speaker,
expressed his opinion that the Limited Enlistment Act had
answered the expectations of its authors, and then pro-
ceeded to discuss the question of providing a reserve force
for the army, arguing that, while we were less exposed to
invasion than continental countries, although the increase
of foreign naval power had diminished, our security in that
respect, yet, unlike other great States, we had no compul-
sory enlistment, and our army was called upon to do ser-
vice in many distant portions of the globe. The plan enun-
ciated on the part of the Government appeared to him to
be inadequate and unsatisfactory, and ho recommended
that the Militia Force should be strengthened in number
and improved by training, so as to constitute it what it
really should be, the main Reserve Force for the country's
defence, the Volunteers and the Yeomanry forming sub-
sidiary branches of the same force.
The Duke of CAMBRIDGE said that military adminis-
trations in this country are placed in a poeiticn of great
difficulty. They are subject to the constant control both of
public opinion and of the House of Commons. And they
are very often prevented from doing what they believed
would promote the efficiency of the service by the regard
of the House of Cammons for the public purse. With re-
spect to the recommendations of the Recruiting Commis-
sion, it was his opinion that the best thing for the soldier
was to improve his condition ; yet, on the other hand, the
thing that will bring most men into the service is an in-
crease of pay. After all, this is a mere question of the
labour market. This is the only great country, with the
exception of the United States, where there is no conscrip-
tion, and therefore we are obliged to go to the labour mar-
ket to get the man who serves his country, not for honour
and glory, but for reward. For that reason ho approved the
course taken by the Government in adding to the pay of
the soldier, rather than carrying out the recommendations
of the commission for the improvement of his condition.
110 regretted that a man who re-enlisted after his first
period of service will only receive an additional ld. instead
of 241. a day ; but still, when it was considered that such a
man will have 3d. a day more than at present, there is
really not very much to complain of. He did not think
that the Limited Enlistment Act had operated injuri-
ously to the army. At the same time, he was of opinion
that great advantage will result from lengthening the first
period of service from 10 to 12 years, and shortening the
second period of service. The difference of two years
will not prevent a man enlisting in the first instance ; but
the shorter the period of second service the more likely he
is to re-enlist. He did not think that it would be possible
to have a shorter term than seven years' service in the
regular army before men are allowed to enter the reserve.
The proposal of the Government for the formation of a
reserve force will meet the wants of the service to a
limited extent, and he did not think that it would be
possible to forms a large force without incurring an ex-
pense which no Government would incur. The Govern-
ment plan would, however, enable us to increase the
number of men in regiments ordered for active service at
the commencement of a war to 1,000 men. That would
be a great gain, because it would relieve us from the ne-
cessity of either sending out weak regiments, or of making
up their ranks by volunteers from others, which would of
course be in this way proportionately weakened. It was
said that it would be desirable to keep the reserve for
foreign service distinct from the militia, but he did not
think this would be possible ; nor did he believe that the
militia will suffer from the arrangement proposed. The
more the question is considered, the more it will be
apparent that the scheme which has been adopted
by the Government is the best that could be proposed
with a due regard to economy. At all events, the ex-
pense of the reserve cannot be found fault with, for it
will not amount to more than .f.,50,000 a year—a very
small sum to pay for some 30,000 or 40,000 men. He
contended that the men aro better taken care of and
are much better off at Aldershot than in country quar-
ters, as is proved by the low sick rate. le is absurd to
call this a camp ; it is, in fact, a military station, and con-
tains ample and excellent accommodation for the troops
stationed there.
Lord GREY approved comparatively short periods of
actives service with liebility to bo called upon to act in the
Loserve in case of no:.(1, as more acceptablo to the soldier
and more beneficial to the country.
The motion for paper; which Lurd Dautousm had for-
mally moved was then agreed to.
Their lordships then adjourned.