SMALL MEN FOR THE ARMY.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13794, 15 June 1915, Page 2

SMALL MEN FOR THE ARMY.

The "Bantams" hare lately been crowing loudly and persistently, and tho War Office has hearkened to their cry by reducing the •standard of height for ■certain battalions of selected regimonts twenty-four in number, to sft lin (says the "Broad Arrow"). . But while the- height standard has betui lowered, the chest measurement remains the same, and the medical examination will be ; of course, as strict as ever. Happily there is abundant proof that the decision to admit shorter men to-the British Army is not due to any falling-ofi; in recruiting, but is in the main something an the nature of a concession to the many men who have desired to rospond to the country's call, but have 'been rejected at the recruiting centres because they are below a certain height, which they no doubt consider has been most arbitrarily fixed. It is difficult to say why, in many armies, and in our Army io a greater extent than perhaps any other, there has been a preference for the 'bigger man to make into a soldier. We are a tall race, and possibly the predilection for tho big warrior comes down from tho days when men wore armour and engaged in hand-to-hand encounters, and when the big man could better than a smaller support tho# weight of the one and command the reach desirable for the other. For a small professional army such.as ours it. has been necessary to lay down certain physical standards, so as to got what seemed likely to be the pick of those offering themselves for enlistment ; and it is for this reason, and Jfor this only, that tho Small man has not as yet appeared in our.Army. The military authorities have never denied the value of the smaller man us a soldier ; only a few years ago, when in India it was desired to have more Sikh regiments, and the big man heretofore enlisted was not. found to be present in sufficiently large numbers, the smaller Sikh was called upon with the best possible results. Now when wo, too, in this country are raising new ; armies by the hundred thousand we cannot afford to overlook tho men who., if of smaller stature, are of great heart, »and will amply justify their inclusion in our hugely expanded voluntary Army.