Evening star., 1940-06-22

serve on-commissioned officers
would be available to begin the
training Of new classes Of raw re-
cruits, or class D reservists, who
might be called out in an emergency.
The class G reservists would be
available for all non military Jobs
and a certain number of them would
be serving with the colors at any
given time.
If the size of the Regular Army
had been correctly calculated for all
M-day assignments. there would
never be any necessity for sending
unframed, raw recruits into action.
AS fully trained Reservists increase
in number, the size of the peace es-
tablishment of the Regular Army
can be reduced.
The duties of the National Guard
should be confined to the provision
Of certain anti-aircraft and harbor
defense units of coast artillery. line
OF communications troops. certain
engineer. signal and medical units
for corps, Army and G. H. @. reserve
troops, and the preservation of inter-
nal order. All idea of using National
Guard cavalry, tank and field ar
tillery units as combat forces should
be abandoned. They will never have
enough training for the purpose,
and We deceive ourselves If we sup
pose otherwise.
Class ID" for Guard.
The National Guard should be OBJ
tanned by voluntary enlistment from
among class D reservists only, ex-
cept that class B and G reservists
who desire to enlist in the National
Guard might be allowed to do so
under suitable restrictions. The
home guard" proposed In the pres
ent bill should not be a national
force, but rather an expansion of
the National Guard for the duties
Of internal order which should be
arranged for by the States, under
uniform legislative provisions, and
under such conditions as not to in
terfere with the normal operation
Of Federal military plans. The
police power is not an attribute of
the Federal but of the State gov
ernments.
Annual quotas of requirements
should be prepared by the War De-
partment and passed along to the
selective service authority, which
should be civilian organization
with a permanent clerical force but
with volunteer local boards as its
chief functioning agencies. These
quotas should be allocated to the
local boards In order to enable them
to make suitable selections. If the
Navy and Marine Corps are short
of voluntary recruits, these forces
should be assigned a quota. Also,
exemptions should be such as to
prevent a too heavy a drain on es-
sential industries and occupations.
Reserve officers should be OBJ
tained, as at present. from gradu-
ates of senior r. o. T. C. units for
one-half of the annual requirements
and the other half should be filled
up from enlisted men who meet
certain educational standards and
who would be passed through spe-
cially arranged courses.
Young men should be called up
annually at the age of 20 for regis
tration and selection. This will pro-
duce an annual class of about 1,000,-
600 young men. If World War ex-
perience is any guide, anywhere
from 80 per cent to so per cent of
the registrees will be rejected for
physical disability. Indeed, the
physical standards ought to be set
very high, for many OF these young
men will be required for the Air
Corps, for mechanical troops and
for service beyond the seas. We
may expect, therefore, the higher
percentage of rejections-50 per
cent.
Would Net 100000.
That leaves us 100000, of which
Gas rough guess) 100000 may be