British Army Reforms Carrried Out By Hore-Belisha

Northland Age, Volume IX, Issue 60, 7 May 1940, Page 1

British Army Reforms Carrried Out By Hore-Belisha

In a hundred years only three extensive reforms of the British Army have been carried out, and the most drastic has been the most recent—that undertaken by Mr. Leslie IloreBelisha, whose resignation as Secretary for War was requested by the Prime Minister. The first reform after Waterloo concerned the organisation of the Army, the second concerned the distribution of troops. The third has concerned both the organisation and distribution as well as providing a redefinition of the Army’s role in the international scheme. The best means of obtaining a clear idea of just what Mr. Hore-Belisha has done to the British Army is to picture the Army as it was in 1936 and as it is to-day. In 1936 it was a miniature edition of the 1914 Army, scarcely 250,000 men. The officers came from the special Army “universities” to which entry was closed to the “lower classes.” Mechanisation of Army The chief weapon of this army was the infantryman’s rifle. To-day the British Army is approaching a million and a half men and is to be doubled before the year is out. To-day there is no way of becoming an officer except through the ranks. To-day the Army is mechanised and the infantry is based on the machine gun, not the rifle. Mr. Hore-Belisha’s major reform from a military Viewpoint has been the formation of the Army into three new and distinct forces: the home defense army, the Near East Army, and the expeditionary force. The last named is equipped on the basis of two types of divisions, motorised infantry and armoured divisions based on tanks. This remoulding of the Army is generally recognised as a valuable national contribution and has not been the cause of much controversy.

Recognised Younger Men One of Mr. Hore-Belisha’s first acts as War Minister, however, was the transfer of Army control to the hands of younger men. It was then that he promoted General Gort over the heads of 30 other generals to the post of Chief of the Imperial General Staff, a position General Gort later relinquished to become British Command-er-in-Chief in the field. With younger men in control, Mr. Hore-Belisha proceeded on his controversial policy of democratisation. He raised Army pay and increased allowances for wives and children. He recast the promotion system, starting gently with better provision for comvnbr.ioncd officers who have risen from the ranks, but ending up with a policy of commissions only after service in the ranks. He ended the system of promotion by vacancies up to the ranks of major and made a subaltern’s rise to that rank a matter of time instead. Mr. Hore-Belisha also made many other reforms, including the appointment of officers with the sole duty of caring for the men’s welfare and this provision increased the opportunities for men to learn trades useful on their leaving the Army.

A farmer in the Charters Towers district, Queensland, is stated to have sucessfully destroyed large swarms of caterpillars (in the crawling stage) by dragging burning car tyres over his property. Blazing oil-satured bags would serve the same purpose. * it * Although the basic principles of photography were known centuries before our era, the first successful camera was not made until 1837. * * * This is the centenary year of the invention of the ship propellor which replaced the paddle-wheel. The inventor was Frederic Sauvage, a French military engineer, who like most inventors, was cheated out of his invention and died in bitter poverty. it it it According to Mr. W. W. Multholland: “There never was a time when the fai'mers’ position was more difficult than it is today.” Not even at the worst of the slumps. * * * World tin mines have been ordered by the International Tin Committee to make a 40 per cent cut in production during the second three months of

this year to prevent supplies of tin reaching Germany. it it it The exuberant Adolf at Munich lately: “I am nothing but a magnet which in passing over Germany extracts the steel from her. All the real men in Germany are to be found in my camp, and those who are not in my camp are not men.”