The Star. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1902. ARMY REFORM.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7507, 15 September 1902, Page 2

The Star. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1902. ARMY REFORM.

The concessions which it was announced on Saturday had been made to the British Army by the War Office are part of the scheme of reform inaugurated at the beginning of last year, and slowly being carried into effect. The first aim of £he War Office when promoting this scheme seems to have been to render the Army more .attractive, and ever since the need of popularising the service has become more apparent. The supply- of recruits, which has been steadily diminishing for the past decade, shows no signs of growing to a sufficient dimension to meet the needs of the Army. The outbreak of "the -war in South Africa certainly stimulated recruiting, but only temporarily. The requirements for Imperial Yeomanry purposes and the better pay offered by that branch of the service very soon drew the tide of military aspirants away from regular forces, and long before the close of the campaign the last state of the latter was .worse than the first. When the present Government undertook the task of reorganising the Army it decided also to increase it. To accomplish the second part of its task it had obviously to seek for some further means of encouraging recruiting. It was no use, it argued, to. authorise the raising of fresh regiments if there were not sufficient men to fill the old' ones. It, therefore, made it its first business to offer greater inducements to recruits. Whether these inducements were not sufficient, or whether the superior pay offered for the Imperial Yeomanry was the cause, we are not in a position to say. The fact remains that up to the present time there has been rib appreciable increase in the numbers which have passed into the Army. This, no doubt, is the reason . why the War Office is now making further concessions. The lutesb concession takes the form of extra liberty and relaxation from a number of onerous restrictions which hitherto have weighed heavily on the shoulders of the soldier. Whether they will be sufficient to secure the desired effect is a question which time alone ' can answer. If, however, wo felt disposed to hazard an opinion on this point we should answer in the negative. ' To our mind the only real solution of the difficulty, lies in extra pay. When th© British taxpayer consents to pay his defenders a reasonable living wage he may expect to see the ranks of the Army filled, but not until then.