BRITISH TERRITORIALS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18942, 13 February 1925, Page 9

BRITISH TERRITORIALS

IMPORTANT NEW STATUS. BURDEN OF FUTURE WAR. (Received p.m.) Sun. LONDON. Feb. 11. Britain in the next war will not need to recruit a Kitchener's Army when the regulars and territorials 3re exhausted. Tho Secretary of State for War, Sir L. Worthiugton-Evans, in the presence of tho Earl of Cavan, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and other Army chiefs, made this important announcement at a gathering of the London Territorial Association. The Minister outlined a. scheme which the Army Council is framing, by means of which, in tho event of a crisis, the territorial army will be required to duplicate itself to the smallest detail. This pronouncement gives the territorials a new status and removes the ambiguity of their position, which was keenly felt in the Great War. The Minister said he regretted the railwaymen's opposition to the proposed supplementary reserve, and hoped that fuller information would change their attitude. He said tho Government desired to make preparations to carry out a settled policy so that, in the event of war, the territorials would be the solo means of extending tho Army by at least duplicating itself and producing 14 fighting divisions with communication troops. The present regular army was much smaller than the army of 1914. Whenever it became necessary to supplement tho forces the burden and the honour would fall on the territorials, who were now 40,000 under strength.