Mr. Leslie Here Belisha's dynamic qualities are eminently suitable to the introduction of radical change in army organiz: ion. His announcement that the Army Council may shortly propose. to modify the present short-service system in the British Army should. however, not be taken to indicate i suddenly formulated decision, The shortage in recruitment been under serious consideration for some time. Mr. Alfred Dutt Cooper, Mr. Belisha's immediate brede and now First Lord of the Admiralty, devoted a large amount of energy in bringing this aspect of the defence problem to public notice The result has been much canvassing of conditions obtaining in the Army. Under the microscope of criticism the army has not come om badly. Yet it h been revealed that if the life of a British soldier has many attrac tions denied to members of other professions, there are certain definite disadvantages whicl: make recruitment on the voluntary basis by no means easy. The Army Council has showy itself alive to the importance of removing material grievances such as can be winnowed from the chaff of the "grousing" in which good soldier is entitled to indulge, bui been clear that fundamentals have to be tackled. This was recognized during the debate on the Army Estimat Mare': when in replying to various criticisms Sir Victor Warrender, on behalf of the Government, made the significant observation that it was a "complete fallacy" to suppose that the "Army Council was inseparably wedded to the Cardwell system". Sir Victor declared that the Council realize that. however we! it might have served us in the past and whatever might be advantages at present, it involved some not inconsiderable, disadvantages The House, in short, informed that the Army Council had been keeping the short service system undék consideration. As Mr. Duff Cooper himself, in introducing the Estimates, had admitted that the 7 main difficulty: in obtaining recruits was the uncertainty of the career and the danger that a man might find himself at the end of seven Years' service without any prospect of oh! ing a further job. the trend of the experts' conclusions readily be perceived. Mr. Belisha in fact i: announcing the completion of the process of study. The short service system will either go or be profoundly modified The decision has much historical interest, for the scheme, introduced by Lord Cardwel! who ranks with Lord Haldane as one of the great army administrators in modern British itself devised to stimulate recruitment, Linked up with the short service wa' the system of creating a reserve and the immediate effect was to treble the number of recruits enrolled.
Conditions in those day's (1870) were speci lly favourable. The soldier found it compara ely easy to find employers at the termination' of his' service and his liability as a reservist to be called up in an emergency was, if anything, regarded by his employer as 2 guarantee of his worth. Ever after the South African War these conditions held and it i certain that, thanks to other sweeping reforms with which Lord Cardwell's name is associated and, above all, to the genius of Lord Haldane in"building up the expeditionary force, the Cardwell system gave Great- Britain a voluntary army which thoroughly caraed the soubinguet of "little and good" astrophic changes after the Great War cand the great expansion of trad unionism with all it connoted greatly affected the efficacy of the short service system. At first this was not apparent, partly" because the problem before the Army authorities became that of demobilization and, later,-retrenchment which, in act ighted traditions-of the British people, definitely di couraged men from looking to the army as a career. -Nor is it unfair to add that the developed on lines which added a dubious moral deterrent to the economic handicap: It showed itself in the falling off of candidates for commissions as well as of recruits for thie ranks. Kipling's familiar lines rang true once more: i O'it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that,. an'
"Tommy go away But it's "Thank you Mister Atkins," when the band begins to play In spite of this the reorganization of the postwar British Army proceeded and managed in some magical way to attract quality if it could not get the quantity. In the light of the prevailing conditions the wonder is that officers and men were secured to maintain the old traditions with such satisfactory results—in every respect except that of numbers, a defect which has become of pressing importance for the development of the rearmament programme, 7
The growth of trade unionism necessarily reduced the market for the services of the soldier discharged on time expiry. The authorities endeavoured, not without success, to meet this difficulty of establishing vocational training so that the man on leaving the Army had a trade at his back. The trade unions were at first reluctant to concur in what they first regarded as a threat to their solidarity, but their ce-operation was secured and although it resulted undoubtedly in a severe limitation of the opportunities open to the ex-soldier it certainly gave him better prospects when once he had complied with the conditions governing employment in organized industry, Nevertheless the general tendency of the worker to look more and more for security made the soldier's career look far too much of gamble. In the debate already mentioned, the motion of Mr, W, Mahone, a Liberal supporter of the Government, crystallized the view that the shortage of recruitment was due to the fact that conditions of service in the Army no longer bear a proper relationship to military requirements, or to civilian conditions of life and that the Government should reorganize conditions of service to provide a full career for those who desire service in Imperial garrisons, a short-term service for those who desire to be reservists.
Here again it will be seen that the emphasis is laid on the shortcomings of the Army as a career under present conditions and. present standards, The short-service system permits a limited number of men to re-engage at the expiry of their first seven years, but, generally speaking, that affects only about 15 per cent. of the whole. The result is that many men are forced to seek civil employment at.an age when, as already explained, the openings are few and a good proportion of them would like to remain with the colours. The success enjoyed by the Aamiralty and the Air Ministry in expanding the strengths of the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force respectively should convince the Government that the Army Council has no reason to fear a breakdown of the +veluntary Army provided the intending re-fruit can be assured first of a career as well as a healthy occupation and secondly of a reasonable chance of a secure livelihood on return to civilian life. Mr. Belisha's advisers evidently believe that the modification of the short-service system, reinforced by many reforms which have recognized the needs ¥f the modern soldier and have now been or are being instituted, will solve this problem. uh it does the Government will have made an administrative change of great importance to the defence of the country as well as to the general welfare of the community as a whole.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.