RECRUITS FOR ARMY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 52, 30 August 1937, Page 15

RECRUITS FOR ARMY

WHAT BRITAIN MUST DO

BETTERING CONDITIONS

More pay and' better conditions Of service for officers and men in the Regular Army, and improvements in the equipment and status of the Territorial Army are urged by the Army League Committee, an unofficial committee which has studied the problem of Army recruiting privately and whose report has now. appeared, says the "Daily Telegraph."

The Regular Army is faced with the problem of finding 50,000 new recruits and 1000 officers during this year to bring its strength up to the authorised establishment of 168,900.

The report urges that a Central Reserve is required, able to dispatch, without mobilisation, up to two divisions to reinforce threatened points within the Empire.

The Central Reserve should form the spearhead or nucleus of the Expeditionary Force Which, on mobilisation, would be provided in the event of war against a major Power in defence of Imperial interests or in fulfilment of other commitments.

Despite Britain's much-extended concommitments since the war and the changed position in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, the Army Reserve and Supplementary Reserve number 135,748, compared with approximately 210,000 in 1914. This deficiency will increase if the present shortage of serving soldiers continues.

IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED,

"We have gone far beyond the stage where appeals unbacked by material improvements will make any differ* ence to the situation," says the -deport, which points out that powerful propaganda of all kinds in the •• last year has "had no effect" on recruiting for the Regular. Army. . > '>;'-:■■■

Public. opinion, it is. stated,, must be made to realise that, exemption from compulsory service in the armed forces of the Crown is a .privilege that must be paid for. . . : > '■.'.';■ ,■■:.''.

• Most■ of the committee are of opin*. ionthat the Army call be effectively, maintained under the voluntary sys" tern, "given:the necessary determination and the willingness to meet the reasonable increase in cost which would have to be incurred." : .

The committee proposes:-^

Officers.—Pay to be'• made to cover "essential expenditure" and allow the officer to live on his Pay;

Improvements-in pensions. ' At present the pension ceases when the officer dies and his dependants are left unprovided for; ..

Formation of an insurance scheme, contributed to by officers and Government.

Other Ranks.—Reconsideration of present rates of pay—2s a day, rising after one year to 2s 6d a day, if certain standards have been reached;

There should be a much greater difference, as in the Navy and E.A.F., than now exists between the pay of an ordinal-y private soldier and the man who has qualified as a highlytrained technician;

Additional pay for service in India and distant garrisons. Alternatively, long service with pension.

CIVILIAN "tfATIGUE COKPS."

The committee suggests that to. bring forces at .home up.: to. '.establishment and the: Reserve up to strength, the first step must be vto institute •' -the shortest possible term of Colour service. '■" '• ''■■ :' : '■" ' ' .

It is proposed that enlistment should be from two to three years■;with the Colours, with the- balance .in the Keserve, making twelve years in all. Those enlisting for less than three years would be for home service only.; Those enlisting for three years would be available in the. Near and Middle East and West Indies, but not in India. . Other proposals include:-— Grouping of infantry regiments for purposes of promotion for officers. Formation from among ex-soldiers of civilian employment corps to do "fatigue" work. Men of good character leaving the Army should have the first call for employment in Government-controlled services, or industries dependent oh Government orders. For the Territorial Army, it is stated, modern equipment is required for increased efficiency. The status of the Territorials should be recognised by representation on the staffs of commands and the War Office, and other appropriate measures. An.anti-aircraft organisation, second to none, should be organised. . The report is signed by Mr. L. S. Amery,*M.P., chairman, Captain Beddington Behrens, Sir Montague Barlow, Captain J. P. Black, Captain Victor Cazalet, M.P., Lieutenant-General Sir Ronald Charles, Field-Marshal Sir Philip Chetwode, Sit Harry Hague, Lord Iliffe, Lord Lloyd, ,and FieldMarshal Lord Milne.