THE BRITISH ARMY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2812, 5 February 1908, Page 27

THE BRITISH ARMY.

LONDON, January 29.

Under Mr Haldane's scheme for «t territorial army the King's Colonials wiU be attached to the Guards. >

Mr Haldane, Secretary for War, speaking at a luncheon at Manchester as the guest of the Manchester and District Volunteer Officers' Association last month, said that in dealing with problems of army administration a scheme such as that then under consideration did not take shape in a moment, and it would probably be come time before it worked smoothly. As far. however, as he could judge, the foundations were being held all over the country out of which would rise a system of administration by devolution instead of by concentration at headquarters in the War Office.

The problems before them, however, \ were not only those of administration. It might be, with the high standard they were asking for, that there J»ould be a fallingr-off in the supply of men. The difficulty that confronted them immediately, however, lay in the supply not of men, but of officers, and to meet it it was proposed to establish a reserve of officers. There were large numbers of young men in the Old Country in professions and avocations which allowed them — especially in their early years — a certain amount of leisure, as well as a large class of unemployed young men, and from these sources, with inducements which would be offered, they hoped to provide young officers for the Regular Reserve and/ the Terartqrial Forces.

After, all, however, they must place reli« ance upon the patriotism of the country.. He believed the public spirit which induced young men to • give their time to social work or the work of public bodies should induce them to take their share in securing to the nation immunity from invasion. The Government had been admirably met by the Opposition in the work it had undertaken. No one Government, no On© man, -coulcl So .more than -a. &eofci<>rkof the work, but there nrust be continuity of policy if they were" to succeed. It was the absence of that continuity which had been the curse of army organisation in the past.