CUTTING DOWN THE ARMY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8182, 13 July 1906, Page 3

CUTTING DOWN THE ARMY.

MOUNTED INFANTRY TO DISAPPEAR £250,000 TO BE SAVED ANNUALLY. M* Haldane'a promise ito reduce the Military Vote will become operative sooner than was antioipated. The reductions which he has ordered to be carried out and those in contemplation will reduce expenditure enormously. .In the first tlace, mounted infantry are to disappear almost entirely by the abolition of the Schools of Instruction on Salisbury Plain and at Kilmore, Ireland. The Bulford School was dosed on July Ist, and the school at Kilmore will be closed on July 31st, Both schools had marie arrangements for the assembly of battalions for the autumn class, and the suddenness of the order announcing the Secretary of State for War's decision, which waß notified on Saturday, has caused some surprise ia kQtk military commands; The sobools were erected at enormous expense after the South African war, upwards of £IOO,OOO being spent in buildings alone. \t is slso Mr Haldane's intention to reduce the Field Artillery establishment, which now numbers 150 batteries, to 105. This w,iU n»ean the disappearance of fifteen brigade divisions, and the reduction of the gun power of the army by 270 guns. .: Thousands of horses will shortly been sale, for, besides the reductions in artillery armanents, the Army Service Corps will shortly be come very much of a skeleton organisation, inasmuch as no unit is to be kept beyond tba ordinary requirements in peace time. MtfHaldaae intends tu substitute Militiamen for the Regular gunners, and hopes by this arrangement to secure the personnel of fifty batteries at one-third the present cost. . The Lancashire Field Artillery Militia, which was raised by Colonel Parsons, R.A., and trained at Bulford Camp in 1901, has been a great success, and it is intended to raise other Militia artillery to man the guns whioh the Regular artillerymen are to band over. The effect of the dissolution of so many Regular batteries will be to wipe out many of the present artillery stations, and Bulford Camp is Ikely to be abandoned', entiriely as a permanent camp, aad used ip future for summer training only. According to an estimate made by a War Office official of some standing, the carrying out of these proposals will reduce the Army Vote by at leaat £250,000 annually. ■•Two brigades of infantry Militia are to concentrate on Salisbury Plain tQ-day—th^.largest assembly of Miltiamen since the South African war. .The battalions are to be put through a special course of training •under Lieutenent-Ueneral Sir lan Hamilton. The value of the work will be closely scrutinised by the Army Council and the Commission appointed to consider the formation of a national Army..