The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, MAY 30, 1885.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXIII, Issue 7563, 30 May 1885, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, MAY 30, 1885.

A review of the Volunteer system of Great Britain would astonish most people beyond measure. Such a review has been very fully made by General Hamley, in the March number of the Nineteenth Century. The object of that distinguished military critic was to awaken the country to a sense of the force it possesses, and what might be made of it. His opinion is that in point of regimental efficiency there is practically so little difference between the 160,000 men of, the Volunteer infantry, who, in case of invasion, are destined to form two-thirds of the field force, and the troops of the regular army, available for as much of the remaining third as the militia will not furnish, that a few weeks, or perhaps days only, of special service would remove it. “ Within a period of training,” he writes, “which different authorities estimate differently, but not exceeding the length of the notice to be counted on before they would be called upon to engage the enemy, they would be fit to meet foreign troops in the field.” Those who remember the scoffing and sneering the regular army once devoted to the Volunteer movement will read, these words with a glow of patriotic pride very much mixed with astonishment. There will be considerable curiosity to know how the Volunteers of Great Britain have been made a weapon of war formidable enough to exact the enthusiastic respect of one of the best generals in the Queen’s service. The question is of considerable interest to Colonies which possess no regular force, and cannot, outside the embryo of the Act, show a militia force. General Hamley’s account of - the organisation of the Volunteer force is, therefore, very Interesting and useful reading. A brief summary will be of interest to those who watch our own Volunteer system with a hopeful eye. The Volunteers of Great Britain are brigaded with the regulars and militia under the officers commanding the regulars. The country is divided into regimental districts, to which belong the battalions of the regular regiment bearing the name of the district, and the militia battalions of the same name, the two forming the territorial regiment. To . these are affiliated the Volunteer battalion of the district, or battalions, as the case may be, and the aggregate appears in the army list as the territorial brigade. There are no separate corps as | under • the old system; Volunteers are formed into companies, and the companies are grouped in battalions, with territorial names. The conditions of efficiency are attendance at 30 annual drills for the first two years of service (after which the number is reduced to nine), of not less than an hour each, and the firing of a certain stated quantity of ammunition with certain results. These particulars must be shown on the certificate. Here we have conditions of efficiency which will make our Volunteers stare with astonishment—a feeling which will not be lessened when they read that the conditions have created, first, a public opinion throughout the force which prevents persistent non-efficients from remaining, and, second, a spirit of zeal which has made the average number of drills attended by the men verymuch larger than the required minimum. Besides the ordinary drills, there are camps of exercise—partly at the public expense —and Volunteer corps sometimes join a regular military camp, like Aldershot, for oue or two weeks. But, if the training obligations of the men are severe, those imposed upon the officers, and fulfilled with more than cheerfulness, are calculated to impress the Colonial Volunteer even more. Officers have to attend the number of drills prescribed for the men under pain of disqualification from further service. They must besides pass an examination. For their instruction three courses are open to them. There are four Schools of Instruction (at Aldershot, Glasgow, London, and York), into which only those officers can enter who are qualified by the possession of elementary knowledge. For the course, the officers attending receive pay, quarters or allowance for lodgings, and travelling expenses. The course completed, a certificate is given to the officers and the ‘ letters p s are placed before his name on the Army list. The second alternative is for an officer to be attached to a line or militia regiment, in order to attend prescribed . drills, after which there is an examination by a Military Board, the granting of the certificate, and the addition of the letter p to the name in the Army List. The third alternative is instruction of the officer by the adjutant and sergeant instructors of his corps, followed by examination certificate, and the rest as in the second alternative method. In addition, oflicers of all ranks, if they choose to work, can pass examinations in tactics, the successful result of which is also indicated by a letter in the Army List. Non-commissioned officers have to pass a prescribed examination before the adjutant, within a year of their appointment. Officers of the regulars, retired, or on half-pay, are eligible for service in the Volunteers. At sixty years of age, all commissions are resigned. Three things are worthy of note in this connection: first, that the percentage of these oflicers of regulars is not large; second, that 6000 officers hold certificates of efficiency, and 12,000 sergeants ; and, third, a large proportion of oflicers

pass good examinations in tactics, and are capable of meeting the regulars “on even, terms in the contests of Kriegspiel,” when in the camps of exercise. The capitation allowed is £1 10s for every efficient Volunteer, £2 10s for every officer, and 10s for every officer who passt 3 an examination in tactics—this only fjr the year of passing. The annual average cost to the State of the 215,000 men composing the Volunteer army is £2 18s per head. It is satisfactoi'j to know that the Volunteer system has given Great Britain an army which is not only to be sti’ongly relied, upon for defensive purposes, but the cheapest on earth. The problem of national defence has been solved by the patriotism of the people. This is the verdict of General Hamley, whom Captain Hozier calls the first military writer of the day. A field officer writing after the General, in another magazine, declares that the Volunteers deserve all the encomiums that have been passed upon them. Archibald Forbes has hastened to compliment Sir Edward Hamley, iu the pages of the subsequent number of the Nineteenth Century, on the signal service he has done to the country in calling attention to the fine effective force it possesses for defensive purposes. The critics, then, are evidently all agi’eed as to the value of the Volunteers as a fighting force. They are also all agreed upon another point, viz., that this force is not supplied with personal equipment, or military stores sufficient to enable it to keep the field. General Hamley recommends a plan by which an expenditure of oue million sterling would remedy this defect, making the Volunteer Army eminently fit for all the duties Required of it. Into the details of that plan it is not our present purpose to enter. It is sufficient to draw attention to the excellent character of the force supplied by the Volunteer system. There is here evidence of how a civil population can discharge the duty of self-defence. It is a grand lesson of self-reliance. We have here the same material, and the same patriotic spirit. Our Volunteers are tolerably efficient, as well as very zealous, and we have just established a School of Military Instruction. If liberal, enlightened, appreciative treatment is the outcome of the late alarm of war, our Volunteer system will become as efficient as the first of military writers has pronounced the corresponding service of Great Britain to he.