BRITAIN'S ARMY

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11652, 17 October 1923, Page 9

BRITAIN'S ARMY

AN DEFICIENT FORCE. ; WAR EXPERIENCES UTILISED. ! The new British Army is litt-ie, hut it is strong Reduced in numbers from last year and. fropi the pre-war regimental establishment ol 168,000 to 147,000, it is nevertheless the more powerful organisation and more susceptible to prompt l expansion into u great fighting force thar when the Raiser or Hindenburg dubbed it “contemptible.” Tne army’s strength appears not so much in the sturdiness of the picked uuragecus young men of the ranks mid their selected officers, as in tho tools of warfare experience and ©eienco have put in their hands at the last manoeuvres. Field artillery raced along the rotuls and galloped across the rugged countryside at from ten to fifteen n.iles an hour in the tow of tank tractors. The divisional liaison has boon carried to a degree unknown at the armistice through airplanes, wireless r.ml ground Hires. There were evidences off a traffic and transport organisation. which made it possible for brigades lo progress through narrow ■ Innas without interference v:iLh inove- ! nrents in tho opposite- direction and there were camps of mushroom growtli which had already reached tho acme of cleanliness and order. REAL MANOEUVRES. “They are only lads, only bad two years of it,” apologised the staff colonel, but it was no surprise to learn that “tho exercises” for winch they have been called out will this .week as sume the form of real army manoeuvres, with some '4OOO men engaged, utilising all the paraphernalia ami no ccssories of war. Patriotic landowners, like Lord Le('onfield, have loaned their private parks nml green, rolling meadows ;o be used by great wallowing caterpillar tanks and galloping cavalry troops for Lnnrhts ami all that an army -iuiulat ing war requires. •

A battery, drawn by tne new tractors, which are armoured and armed, plunged off a gravel lane into a wattoau landscape of green, missing an-

oieni spreading elms by inches, while the gunners riding on top, like passengers on the imperials or an autobus, crouched to avoid being swept off by the branches. Then.'* rearing and plunging, but not hesitating, thes. new monsters dragged their artillery after them through a narrow stone gateway, on to the road and on to the open greensward. “liiey don’t take it seriously,” frowned a sergeant, whose ribbons included a 1914 Mons star. “They have never had to fight.” But the 'bronzed faces, under stool helmets, seemed 'the same in those Jong years across the channel and the gas musks nt their chests in ready position carried cut the illusion. A DEMOCRATIC ARMY.

It is a technical army, Britain’s new military force, but the fact that it is a democratic aririy in a new sense is another factor oi its importance. 1 wenty-seven men, chosen from the rrnks, were gazetted as officers last month after a course at Sandhurst. , emphasise the technical side, Ooys of fifteen and sixteen are now eh;looted by competitive examinations and enlisted for the army alter three years of technical training. Two hundred and fifty have just passed and the army expects to recruit 750 next year . The total of all ranks in the Imperuv arm.v, including the colonies and native Indian troops, was for 1922-23, 215,000. For 1923-24, the total is 170,800. Jn the regimental establishment of 147,000 to-day there; arc 78.000 infantry and 24.000 artillcrv The reserve in 1914 was IGS.OOO. To-dnv it is only 72,000. The Royal Air Force is not now included in armv statistics.