The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-04

1 army she Is short of arms. The new troops are receiving rifles as fast as they
 are ready for them and the arms fac- | tories, both at home and abroad, are 1 turning out all that are required, and as fast as they are assimilated. It is es- | sential, of course, that the troops in the l field should all be armed with the same l type of rifle and that the best but that l does not apply to hastily levied militia l for home defense. There is in this coun- l try an immense store of rifles of old pat
 terms which have been withdrawn from
 the regular army and kept for just such
 an emergency as the one now being dis
 cussed. They have not the range Of the
 modern rifle, but they are perfectly eff cient weapons for home defense work.
 number of them have already been issued to the new volunteer forces which are springing up all over the country.
 These have just been recognized by the war office and told that they may select unborn. which must not however, be similar to that worn by the regular forces. It has been decided to adopt a gray cloth like that worn by the Confed- crate troops in the American civil war steps are being taken to centralize the orsanization of this force and provide 1t With officers. The force now consists of about 100000 men, all either over 70 or unable for some reason to join the regu- lar forces No man is accepted unless he can give a good reason for not ioin-
 ing the regular army or the territoriaIs The men drill in the evening and on Sat
 urday afternoons and Sundays and most
 or the uits are now quite efficient for the
 work they are intended to do. They sign
 only for home defense, but the war of-
 nce reserves the right to call upon any
 or them for foreign service if necessary.
 It Is interesting to note that fin this
 mt h trxS A..
 itself as it has done In many other
 phases of the present war. It was the
 Tear of a raid by Napoleon that called
 the original British volunteer force into
 existence. That force continued to exist
 Tor nearly hundred years. when the
 desire for a more efficient home defense
 force under stricter central control led
 Lord Haldane to turn the volunteers into
 the territorials. The territorials, of course, were intended only for home de- Tense, but at the outbreak of the present
 war most of them volunteered as regi- ments for foreign service, and most of them are now abroad. In this connec- tion 1t may be interesting to explain little scare in this country a few days ago. The news leaked out--it always does leak out for although the censor
 can stop the newspapers from printing It. he cannot stop the people from talk ing-that thousands of men of the new army were being moved to the east coast Everyone. in the absence of in- formation. jumped to the conclusion that the government had news of coming attempt at raid by the Germans. What really happened was that the last of the territorials who have been guarding the east coast since the departure of the regular army at the beginning of the war, had been sent abroad, and that they
 were being replaced by the more for ward units of the new army. When these men have completed their training on the east coast. they. too. will be sent to France, and their places will be taken by more recent levies and so on.
 am also told that arrangements are being made for laying in a store of uni forms which will be issued to the lords lieutenant for clothing their levies in case of need. The Germans might refuse to recognize an armlet such as the Boers wore in South Africa, and which was rec ognized everywhere by the British. The plan is. am told. to provide the militia levias with tunics of khaki or gray of destinctive military pat tern. which must he recognized as uni | form. The rifles Issued, although not of the latest pattern. will all bear the Kings | bread arrow, which marks all government | property.
 If It came to levy en masse like this. | and like what has already been done in l Austria and may soon be done in Ger many. Britain could raise an immense army. The registrar general has been making special investigation and he finds that In this country theer are at present 5595.739 men between the ages of 20 and 30. the military age in Britain. Of these. roughly about 2.0O0.O0O are now under arms, in the regular army, the new army and the territorials. Lord Kitchen | CT has asked for another million which would leave Q reserve of over 100000