THE ARMY AS A CAREER.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 222, 18 September 1919, Page 4

THE ARMY AS A CAREER.

At last the British Government is sorioußly trying to make the Army a career attractive to the best material in the nation. Before the war the pay of both officers and men was miserable. Speaking generally, an officer could not live on his pay, and he was recruited, therefore, from the aristocracy and wealthy sections of the middle class. The result was that the Army did not draw from the great middle class —the largest reservoir of ability in the nation —anything like a fair share of its brains. The consequence was that until recent years the Army was looked upon hy most of it_ officers as a pleasant profession, in which one could enjoy life, see the world, and taste adventure, at small cost in brain work. The 'South African war gave the nation and the Army a rude shock, and the great improvement effected after 1902 in the training of officers and their attitude towards their profession, bore fruit in the rapidity and completeness with which the Expeditionary Force was dispatched in 1914, and the brilliant manner in which it was handled in action. For the shortcomings of its officers the nation was to blame. When people complained that officers thought more of sport than of study, the officers could reasonably retort that if the nation wanted efficiency it should pay for it. The rank and flic were largely recruited from some of the most unpromising material in the country, undersized and weedy youths and unemployed ; it was but natural that so much of the better should be attracted to the skilled industries. The Great War has swept away this old system for good. It is seen clearly now that officers should be drawn from all classes, that brains and hard work should be insisted upon and adequately remunerated, and that life in the ranks should be made as attractive as life in industry. Where a young newly-joined officer used to get from £130 to £150 a year, he will now get £320 (single), and £400 (married), and for the middle ranks of captain and major the pay varies from £517 to £768. In the higher grades the pay rises to over £4,000. Whereas a private used to get something over a shilling a day. he will now get up to four shillings. The new voluntary army will, therefore, differ in important respects from the old. It will no longer be a preserve of the well-to-do, and the physical and mental level of the rank and file should be higher. With the breaking down of the social caste system among officers, relations between officers and their men should become more demo- ! cratic. (But one thing is certain; the army, although it may be no larger than the "Old Contemptibles," is going to cost much more than they did. If the taxpayer is tempted to grumble he ought to reflect that that immortal band gave him extraordinary and undeserved value for his money.