Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-04-28
THE BRITISH ARMY,
Its Recruiting and Desertions ana Its
Total Available Force.

Its Recruiting and Deserfions and Its
Total Available Force.
Some very interesting statistics are pre-
scented in the recent official returns Of the
condition of the British army. 1t appears
that Its aggregate strength on the first day
OF the present year was above 2le.0O0 being
the largest ever known under the present
establishment, and, in fact, exceeding by
about 1900 the authorized maximum. 1t Ii
naturally impossible. with the constant re-
cruiting and discharging. to keep the force
always at the exact point set by law, but
the purpose doubtless 10 to keep the average
for the year close to the maximum, and,
indeed, It was 216, 100.
OF the $4,000 men thus spoken OF, about
105, 500 were serving in Great Britain and
India, and 5000 IN Egypt. The recruiting
for last year added $1,000 men to offset the
deaths. discharges. desertions. and so on.
London led on. as usual. with 5.355 re-
cruits. and then followed Manchester with
nearly 1000, Glasgow with 922, Birming
ham with $50. and Dublin with III. In the
British system Of recruiting, as In ours.
certain physical standards are set, but
special" enlistments are also allowed. Thus
last year no fewer than 8. 103 men were en-
listed who were under feet inches in
height, 4.07S who were under 80 inches
chest measurement. and 1.667 who were un-
there were fewer Of such special" enlist
ments than during the year before, which
shows that recruiting was favorable. And
for the first time In very many years the
infantry OF the line was recruited beyond
Its authorized strength.
The assertions for the year were q little
more than 1850, and the previous year they
had been 1862. These figures appear to US
very small compared with those Of our own
army on an establishment of about %. coo
men. However, the percentage of deser-
tons to the number of recruits enlisted was
in the British army 1871 last year. against
lie the year before. 1t is rather difficult to
trace the exact reasons for such variations.
An important institution in the British
army which has no analogy in our own,
although bill in Congress seeks to create
one. Is the reserve. There were ,s2S men
transferred from the army to the army re-
serve in 1891, and II, I61 in 1892, with but q
few hundred less last year. The total num-
Der on January / last seems to have been
80, $50. The militia enrolled at the inspec-
ton dates last year numbered nearly l24, 700
while the yeomanry were nearly 10. 400
strong. The volunteers on November last
numbered nearly 227 900, and the militia re-
serve $1,000. The army reserve has been
continually increasing for the last twenty
years, but from special causes there may be
slackening in this increase next year.
However, permanent f1rst-class reserve Of
between 10000 and SO, 900 can be counted on
Out of the militia many men Joined the reg
ular army. navy and marines. The yeo-
many cavalry has been decreasing for
some years. but the volunteer force con-
tinues to show an upward tendency.
According TO the London Standard. at no
previous time has there been so large q
force Of enrolled men available for service
in case OF need. First comes the regular
army, with nearly 10000 Of all ranks
These could be Immediately supplemented
by $4,000 army reserve men and 80 900 mi
litia reserve. making in all $4,000 men
available for service abroad. Almost ex-
actly the same number would then remain
enrolled for home defense, namely, 22SOO0
volunteers, $4,000 militia and 10000 yeo-
many. making 1892 900. Thus the aggregate
for foreign and home service, In case Of
emergency would be &C., 600 men.