The San Francisco call., 1906-11-26

the troops employed in India, is greater
than that of any of them. John Bull
is convinced he doesn't get his moneys
worth out of the army. He is deter
mined that his military bill must be re-
duced That necessitates a smaller reg
ular army But without incurring grave
dangers, such reduction can only be
made by having back of the army nu-
merous, well-trained and efficient citi-
zen army on volunteer lines, for the
voice of the majority is emphatic
against conScription.
Heretofore the militia has been the
chief auxiliary force on which the ma
tion has relied for the expansion of the
army whenever there was fighting to be
done on big scale. England has never
gone through a great war without en-
ploying it, During the South African
war the militia offered for service not
merely a good percentage of officers and
men, but the full strength of whole
battalions.
MEN HARM MILITIA
But although it's framework is good
the material of the militia is admitted-
ly of inferior quality in these days. In
it's ranks are a large number of cas-
uaI laborers, hooligans and wasters-
men without trades and incapable of
earning a good living. The chief rea-
son is because the militiamen, being
bound to serve for one month a year
for so many years, find this service
incompatible with serious civil occu-
patton Employers will not give a
months freedom to their men. In the
old days, when England was chiefly
an AGRICULTURAL community, there was
little trouble on this score. But in
industrial England, for the bulk of its
manhood such service is impossible
Il
auxiliary force unless the conditions of
the service are changed.
I'VE hold" says Strachey, that the
militiaman of the future should receive
thorough six months training on the
lines of the Spectator company and
that after that he should serve in the
militia on what we may term volunteer
conditions-that is that he should do
only a weeks training each year under
canvas and a certain amount of drill
and rifle shooting in his evenings or
other spare hours.
INCENTIVE TO YOUTHS
1--WE hold that the Spectator experf-
ment shows that if 1t were once made
clear to the youth of the nation that
they could have six months instruc-
tion between seventeen and eighteen.
which would improve them morally.
physically and intellectually, and then
afterward serve for, say, FIVE or six
years under volunteer conditions, the
country might have, at comparatively
small cost, a militia force of three hun
dred thousand men-a force which
would be formed from material equal
to If not better than that to be found
in any army in the world"
The experiment of the Swiss proves
that drill and other things that go to
make up a soldier, once acquired. can
no more be forgotten than swimming.
skating or bicycling. A short occa-
sional practice is all that is necessary
to keep him up to the scratch It is
argued by Strachey that young men
would readily give up six months of
their time before entering civil occu-
pations for life in order to learn to be
real soldiers. That is, they would give
six months in lump although thev
cannot afford to give six months scat
tered over six years, because no en-
ployer will engage them with such a
mortgage on their time. The great
obstacle to the adoption of the scheme
OR at least giving it a fair trial
lies in the obtuseness of the solons of
the War Office who have made a mess
of every reform they have attempted.