Mar, 5.
Deraiws have just reached Shanghai of the new scheme of training which the War Office has drawn up for the British soldier, and these will very probably cause the amateur soldier-—the man who turned from civilian occupations to the army because of the War—to stand aghast. We need waste time in skirmishing up to the scheme; rather the thing to do is to make a frontal attack and get our version of it right away. The old ''musketry year' becomes the "weapon training year', and now includes instruction in the rifle, bayonet, bomb, Lewis gun (or in the case of the Cavalry, Hotchkiss gun), revolver and light trench mortar. The study of bombs will, it is added, necessitate instruction in explosives and chemicals; the use of the Lewis gun will call for tactics and map-reading; and trench mortars will necessitate the imparting of knowledge of defence works and emplacements. In addition the course of instruction will include first aid, gas masks, barbed wire entanglements and compass reading. For educational certificates the soldier will have to possess something more than a nodding acquaintance with
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.