.^5^ ABMY OEGANISATION SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS On the 3rd March 1881 BY THE EIGHT HON. HUGH C. E. CHILDEES, M.P. SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR LONDON LONGMANS, GKEEN, AND CO, 1881 AEMY OEGANISATION Mr. Speaker, I rise, in accordance with the understanding ar- rived at on Tuesday, to move that you do now leave the Chair, in order that I may have an opportunity of explaining to the House the main recommenda- tions of the Government as to changes in Army Organisation, and other matters not strictly financial, which it is my duty to place before the House of Commons. I will first ask the House to recall to their recol- lection our military condition in 1867, fourteen years ago, when General Peel, standing at this table, moved the Army Estimates. The organisation of our mili- tary forces was far less efficient than it is now. The Militia were still practically separated from the Army, and, indeed, the Militia Vote had only quite recently been prepared and moved by the Secretary of State instead of by a Select Committee. Less than 2,000 Militiamen annually enlisted into the Army. The Volunteers had only about 150,000 efficients against about 200,000 now, were hardly at all connected with the Army, and were still regarded with little favour in many quarters. In the Army itself, the A 2 system wliicli we now call that of ' Long Service ' had in two respects entirely broken down. It held out insufficient inducements to recruits ; so much so, that from 28,000 a-year in 1859, the number annually re- cruited had fallen in 1865 to about 13,000, against above 20,000 stated by Lord Wilham Paulet, the Adjutant- General, to be required ; and it had entirely failed to produce any Eeserve. Almost the whole body of the older officers disapproved of the system, and looked back with regret on that which before 1847 had been known as ' Life Service,' and which had in that year only been abolished, against the general sense of the officers, by the personal influence of the Duke of Wellington. Indeed, it is most instructive to read, on this question, the evidence taken by the Eecruit- ing Commissions of 1860 and 1866. The Commis- sion of 1860 was appointed because, to use the words of the Eeport, ' even when, after the Mutiny, the bounty was increased, and the standard lowered to such an extent as to bring boys instead of men into the ranks, the required estabhshment was not com- plete.' But the remedies they proposed failed ; and then the second Commission was appointed, in 1866, because the number of recruits had fallen to the ex- tent which I have just described. Then, as before and since, the most varied opinions were given as to every detail of Army Service, but the great majority condemned the then existing length of service (ten or twelve years) as too short. The Adjutant-General, in 1866, especially complained of the youth of non- commissioned officers, and urged the increase of pen- , UJUC Z ^ sions as a means of filling the Army with older men. The Commander-in-Chief was anxious for enlistment for twenty-one years ; and did not consider any Army of Eeserve necessary. Lord Grey, on the other hand, thought the Militia a gigantic mistake, and that the failure of the plan for a Eeserve was due to the manner of its administration. There was a minority who advocated still shorter service ; so that every view, from hfe enlistment to a colour service like that which prevailed in foreign armies, was re- presented by witnesses before the Commissions. On the question of the adequacy of recruiting for a 12 years' service, the second Commission were hope- ful, if large additions were made to the pay and prospects of the soldier ; but as to the formation of a Eeserve they practically despaired. For a solid Eeserve they said we must look to the Militia ; and for two or three years after their Eeport, nothing in this respect was done. But meanwhile the country was dissatisfied. The Crimean War had indeed shown, some years before, that without a Eeserve of men who had passed through the Army, our military force would soon be exhausted ; but it was the two great wars in which Germany was concerned that occasioned the deepest anxiety in the public mind. In 1866, Prussia, with an army consisting of men between 20 and 23 years of age, enlisted for three years with the colours, and, supported by reserves, had, in seven weeks, totally defeated the more veteran troops of Austria; and in 1870, the French army, which had 6 only recently been re-formed on the basis of contain- ing a much larger proportion of old soldiers, received a still more crushing defeat at the hands of Germany. Is it to be wondered at that the difficulty in obtaining recruits, and the impossibility of forming a Eeserve with long service, taken in connection with the evi- dence of what a short- service system could do on the Continent, made pubhc opinion all but unanimous in favour of such a system being tried here ? Lord Card well, however, did not eifect this change all at once. In the artillery and cavalry it com- menced in 1874 ; and as the period with the colours was fixed at 8 years, it is only in the financial year 1881-82 that the Eeserve will begin to be fed from these arms. In the infantry it began in 1870, and for some time recruits were accepted both for long service (that is to say, 12 years with the colours) and for short service (or 6 years with the colours and 6 in the Eeserve). But it was soon found that both systems would not work together. Men would not enlist for long service, if they could enter the Army for the shorter period ; and at present the only term of infantry service, with unimportant exceptions, is 6 years. Lord Card well's second reform, the first in point of date, was to recall from the Colonies a large number of battalions serving there, until the number of the home battalions and of those serving in India and the Colonies were just equal. He then took advantage of this equality to combine the battalions in pairs, a system which he found in existence with respect to the 25 first regiments ; and for this purpose adopted a plan proposed by the Commander-in-Chief, for hnk- ing, as it was called, a pair of battalions, so that each battalion abroad should be mainly fed by drafts from the one at home ; which, when low on the roster, would be little more than a recruiting machine. With the two Line regiments he linked two county Mihtia regiments, establishing depot centres for the four battalions, which formed a brigade ; and to this depot he appointed a colonel and other officers, both for the recruits to the two regiments and for training the Militia. Lord Card well's third reform was the Abolition of Purchase. The disadvantages of that system were manifest ; but it had one great merit, inasmuch as it enabled officers who did not care to make the Army their profession, or saw little chance of advancement, to retire by the sale of their commissions, and thus secured a most unequal, but still large, flow of regi- mental promotion. It remained, however, to be seen how this promotion could be secured in a professional service. We have now. Sir, had from eight to ten years' experience of these changes, and the time has arrived for reviewing them, and, if any defects have ap- peared, for applying the necessary remedies. I will endeavour to point out to the House some of their merits, in what respects they have been criticised, what blots, if any, have been hit, and how we propose to cure them. I will take in the first place the question of the 8 . proper length of service. Now, there can be no doubt whatever that to short service we owe the fact not only that we have obtained of late years an ample supply of recruits, but that they are almost from year to year of a better class, and of a higher average of age. Comparing 1871 and 1879, we had in the Army at the former period 190 men in every thousand under 20 years of age, and in the latter only 106 ; and the percentage of recruits under 20 years of age in 1874 (which is the first year in which the information is shown in the official returns) and 1879 was 58 and 43 respectively. But, on the other hand, there are two consider- ations to which I think great weight must be attached. The first is, that whereas Lord Cardwell only appears to have contemplated that three-fourths of the recruits should be enlisted for short service, and one-fourth for the whole term of 12 years, the fact that the two systems of recruiting would not work together has led to the whole of the Line being recruited for short service, and hence arises the inability to retain any men with the colours for more than 6 years, except with their own consent. The second is, that the Army has to provide, not only for service in this kingdom and its Colonies, but, so far as European troops are concerned, for India ; and that a 6-year term of service, especially where the Army is to a great extent recruited at 18 and 19 years of age, does not practically give an average of more than 4 years in India. There is, I admit, great difference of opinion, both medical and military, as to the proper length of a soldier's Indian service. But after care- fully considering these conflicting views, I think it may be fairly said that 6 years is, according to the best authorities, about the time during which a soldier who is not invalided should generally be kept in India, and this undoubtedly points to an increase in the present time of service. This question of the proper length of service was, in 1879, referred by my predecessor to a Committee of eleven officers (generals and colonels), over which Lord Airey presided. I do not mean that this was the only question upon which the Committee were invited to advise the Secretary of State, but the others were subsidiary to it, except perhaps the best means for obtaining more efficient non-commissioned officers. Much difference of opinion was expre^ed by the Committee. One member did not sign the Eeport, and five more signed it with qualifications. But on the question of the length of service, a decided ma- jority were in favour of enlistment for 14^ years, of which six months were to be at the depot, eight years with the colours, and six with the Eeserve. One very distinguished member of the Committee, Sir Lintorn Simmons, who is known as the writer of letters signed ' One who has served,' wholly differed from his colleagues, and advocated enlistment for three years only with the colours, any extension of that period for foreign service being voluntarily made by the soldier. We do not think that it would be possible to rely for the defence of our possessions abroad, requiring about 90,000 men in India and the A 5 10 Colonies under arms, on siicli a system of volunteer- ing ; and, after well weighing its merits, I am unable to adopt Sir Lintorn Simmons's plan. But with some modification, the plan of the Committee is, in my opinion, more feasible ; and I will now state in what respects I think it faulty. It assumes that men could be enlisted for 14^ years without infallibly raising a claim for pension. Now, I do not believe this. Under the system in force in 1867, it was found very diffi- cult to obtain 13,000 men for the Army with the obligation to only 10 years' service. I doubt, there- fore, whether, without the promise of pensions, or without large bounties, 25,000 men could be got annually for a service of 14.^ years. But with pensions, the expense would be such as no House of Commons could be expected to pay. Reference to the 73rd Appendix to the Eeport of the Committee, which will be in the hands of Hon. Members to-mor- row, will show that without pensions the proposals of the Committee would add to the normal expense of the Army about 700,000/. a year ; with pensions, this increase would reach at least 1,500,000/. The Report of Lord Airey's Committee also con- tains a proposal for abolishing the system of finked Regiments, and for obtaining recruits for each batta- lion separately, whether at home or abroad, from large training depots. I must refer to this part of their Report with some quafification, because, however eminent may have been the gentlemen who consti- tuted the Committee, their opinion on this question was not souo^ht in the official reference to them. On 11 the contrary, they were told ' that there was no inten- tion on the part of the Government to depart from the general principles of reorganisation which had been accepted by the country since 1870 ; ' and the ' Formation of the Army in Eegiments of more than one battalion for the purposes of mutual support* was expressly stated to be one of those general prin- ciples. I find, however, that at the last moment, when five-sixths of the evidence had been taken, and when the Committee were on the eve of preparing their Eeport, a note, in an unofficial form, of which there is no record in the War Office, was received by the Chairman of the Committee, saying that they were not ' precluded from touching on ' this question. Whatever may have been the authority for this note, I must decline to treat the recommendations of the Committee on this head, in which they were not unanimous, as other than the personal opinions of a body of officers for whom, as individuals, I have the greatest respect. On the question of the effect of promotion on the abolition of purchase, it became soon evident that, without the adoption of some comprehensive scheme, great stagnation would occur under the new system. As I had for some years before taken, myself, a great interest in this question, and, anticipating the consequences of the abolition of purchase in the Line, had studied it as chairman of a Select Com- mittee with reference to the three corps in which purchase did not exist, I mean the Artillery, the Engi- neers, and the Marines, I hope I may be permitted to 12 detain the Committee for a few moments while I explain the conclusions at which I arrived, and which formed the basis of the scheme of naval retirement of 1870, with which my name is connected. No plan will secure an efficient and steady system of promotion which is not constructed according to mathematical rules in two respects — one the proper proportion of the higher to the lower ranks of the service, and the other the ages at which officers must retire from those ranks. If the higher ranks are unduly small compared with the lower, you must provide from tlie latter a very burdensome and un- popular forced retirement at an early age. If you are able to increase the proportion of the higher ranks, this forced retirement may be minimised and even almost dispensed with. Now, this was what I effected in the Navy, and what Lord Cardwell did in the Artillery and Engineers. By largely reducing the number of cadet entries, and the volume of the ranks of sub -lieutenant and lieutenant as compared with the higher ranks, the Admiralty will be able, when the great surplus list of officers has been reduced, to keep promotion in an efficient state. Similarly, Lord Cardwell reduced the captains and subalterns, and created majors, of Artillery and Engineers, with the result that there will be in those corps little or no forced retirement from the rank of captain. But with respect to the Line and the cavalry, the Secretary of State who succeeded Lord Cardwell appointed a Eoyal Commission under the presidency of Lord Penzance, which, not feeling itself authorised to pro- 13 pose any alteration in the relative mimbers of regi- mental ranks, necessarily fell back on compulsory retirement at early ages, and so, if they solved the problem at all, did so at an enormous cost, and in the way most distasteful to the officers themselves. I shall give the figures when I describe the remedy we propose, but in passing I will only say that the present system will force out of the Army more than half its officers before or when they reach the early age of forty. I think I have now brought my narrative of the changes introduced into the Army between 1867 and 1872, and of the controversies which they have evoked, pretty well down to the present day, and I proceed to explain what proposals we have determined upon. I Avill do so as concisely as possible, first ex- plaining what are those which are of a general cha- racter ; then giving in more detail the alterations in length of service and regimental organisation which we consider necessary. I will first take changes which affect specially the Auxiliary Forces. Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to decide that the number of her aides-de- camp shall be increased by four, and that these much- prized though honorary distinctions shall be conferred on Volunteer officers. Her Majesty has also approved of an alteration in the regulations of the Order of the Bath, under which five Knight Commanderships and twenty-five Companionships of the Civil branch of that Order will be conferred upon officers of the Auxiliary and Eeserve Forces who may, while in 14 command of a regiment, have contributed in a marked degree to its efficiency. Perhaps I may here state that I am permitted by Her Majesty to announce her intention to hold a review of the Volunteers in Windsor Park, unless anything unforeseen should occur to prevent it, either in the middle of May or towards the end of June. My attention has been drawn to some anomalies in the reojulations under which Mihtia and Volunteer officers are allowed to retain their rank or to obtain steps of honorary rank after long service or on retire- ment. It has been decided that after fifteen years' commissioned service in any of the Auxiliary Forces or in combination with Army service, an officer will be allowed, if duly recommended, to retain his rank and wear his- uniform ; that after twenty -five years' similar service in the Militia or Yeomanry, or thirty years in the Volunteers, a lieutenant-colonel or a major will be allowed a step of honorary rank, and a captain after twenty years in the Militia or Yeo- manry, or twenty- five in the Volunteers. The same boons, if not already granted while serving, will be granted on retirement, and in each case combined service will count hke service in the corps from which the officer retires, or in which he gets the step of honorary rank. There is one other question in connection with the Volunteers, about which, after taking the highest legal advice, I have net felt able to comply with a suggestion from time to time made in this House, namely, that Volunteer officers should be exempt from 15 serving on juries, to the same extent as Militia officers. Militia officers are, in fact, only exempt while on full pay, which Volunteers never receive ; but that is not the only difficulty. I do not see on what ground we could exempt Volunteer officers and not privates, who for the most part are of the same social class ; and if we exempted the latter, among whom there must be many thousand jurymen, a heavy burden would be thrown on the rest of the community, which it would be impossible to justify. I have therefore arrived at the conclusion that I should not recommend to Par- liament an amendment in this sense of the Juries Act. I believe, however, as a matter of fact, that Judges will always excuse Volunteers shown to be absent in camp, or on similar duty. With respect to the Militia, I shall explain, before I sit down, the arrangements we contemplate, acting on the Eeport of my Eight Honourable predecessor as Chairman of the Committee of 1876, for still more closely connecting this ancient constitutional force with the Army proper, by making county Militia regiments the 3rd and 4th battahons of the new territorial regiments. But in thus bringing the Mihtia into stiU closer connection with the Line, I think it will be necessary to apply to their officers some rules as to age retirement, the absence of which has certainly produced some remarkable anomalies. I find among colonels and lieutenant-colonels actually commanding regiments (I do not include honorary colonels) officers of over 70 years of age, and some nearly as old among majors. In future we intend to provide 16 that no colonel, or lieutenant-colonel commanding^ shall retain his appointment after 55, or, under special circumstances, 60 years of age ; and that none now serving remain after 67, or, if at present under 60 ^ after 62 years of age. All future majors will retire at 50, and all present majors at 55. All captains will retire at 50. Passing from the Auxiliary Forces, I will now fulfil the promise which I gave to the late First Lord of the Admiralty a few days ago, that I would explain our policy about ordnance. I hope to give full details of the materiel to be bought or manufactured this year when we arrive at vote 12 ; but, meanwhile, I may say that we are now engaged in a series of important experiments with breech-loading guns of various calibres, from the 43-ton gun to a 13-pounder field gun ; and the recent renewal of the controversy between the muzzle-loader and the breech-loader, and the multiplicity of proposals for ordnance of every variety of construction, have led Her Majesty's Government to the conclusion that it would be desirable to recur to the advice of an independent Ordnance Committee, with functions somewhat differ- ing from those of the former Committee. It will consist of ofiicers of the Artillery, of the Navy, and of the Engineers, with two eminent civil engineers ; and while we hope to obtain from this Committee tech- nical advice of extreme value, we have determined not to run the risk of the disadvantages felt in con- nection with the old Ordnance Committee, and strictly to limit its functions to such inquiries and experiments 17 as may be categorically referred to it by the Minister holding my office. We have every reason to believe that the additional cost to the country, about 3,000/. a year, of the services of these gentlemen will be far more than compensated for by the valuable results which the weight of their authority may be expected to secure. I had hoped to be able to name to-day the gentlemen selected for this service ; but I find I must postpone doing so for a few days. I will now state to the House what we recommend as to length of service. In the first place, we propose to raise the mini- mum age Avhen a man may be enlisted from 18, at which it now stands, to 19 ; and not only to that age nominally, but so that no man who (though 19) has not the physical equivalent of that age -will be ac- cepted. I should have been glad to raise the mini- mum age to 20, and I hope that this may be possible before long ; but if we did so at present, we should risk not obtaining a sufficient number of recruits. No man under 20 years of age, or with less tlian a year's service, will under any circumstances be sent to India or to a tropical station ; and it is most desir- able that after arrival he should not be employed on active service for a year or so, that is to say, until he is acclimatised. In the second place, we propose that the term of enlistment should remain 12 years, as now, but that the period with the colours should be 7 instead of 6 years ; and that all soldiers serving abroad should be liable to remain with the colours 8 years, and, if serv- A 9 18 mg in India, should always be required to give this additional year. This extra year's service is rarely enforced now, but we propose to make it the rule. The effect of these two changes will be, that instead of serving from 18 to 24 years of age, every man who goes to India will serve in the Army at least from 19 to 27. We have well considered whether it would be safe to make obligatory colour service longer than 8 years, but we have decided that this very consider- able increase on the present system goes as far as prudence will allow. I have carefully read the Ee- ports of, and the evidence taken before, the two Com- missions of 1860 and 1866, and Lord Airey's Com- mittee ; and while I find many officers anxious to revert to the old term of what is now called long colour service, i.e. 12 years, and indifferent to the formation of an Army Eeserve, which this would render impossible, I find hardly anyone advocating 9 or 10 years with the colours. The term we have proposed, and which was formerly recommended among soldiers by Sir Charles Napier, and among civilians by Mr. Godley, will, I believe, both supply us sufficient recruits, and, with the further provisions I shall explain, steadily build up a Eeserve. It must be remembered that it is to the attractions of short service with the colours, and passage to the Eeserve, that we owe the great majority of our recruits and their continuous improvement, and we must be cau- tious lest in making the term of service too long we spoil our market, and revert to the disastrous state of things in 1860 and 1866. 19 We also propose that the Secretaries of State for War and India should from time to time settle the extent to which, and the terms on which, a certain proportion of men in good health, and serving in India, should be allowed to extend their service with- in the period of their engagement. I doubt whether it will be often necessary to carry out this extension for more than 2 years, as the previous conditions will ensure from 6 to 7 years' service for all men in India who may not be invalided ; and probably not more than 10 to 15 per cent, of the privates of a regiment will, under any circumstances, be permitted so to extend their service. I come now to non-commissioned officers ; and in addition to the other advantages of pay, pension, and rank, which we intend to give them, we propose the following boons in respect of service : — First. Every corporal, on completing a year's probation and being confirmed in his rank, will be allowed to extend his colour service to the full period of twelve years. Secondly. Every sergeant will be allowed to en- gage for his second term of nine years, subject only to the veto of the War Office in each individual case ; and thus to have an ' assured mihtary career ' of 21 years, ending with a pension. His deferred pay will also continue during his second term of service, instead of ceasing as now after twelve years. Similarly, every corporal will be allowed, with the sanction of his commanding officer, to engage for his second term of service, and to earn a pension. 20 Finally, we shall arrange that sergeants, after 15 or 16 years' service, shall be liable to be trans- ferred to the permanent staff of their Militia batta- lions. I may say that we propose that the term of 7 or 8 years' service should be applicable to all arms alike, whether infantry, cavalry, artillery, or engineers. This change from 6 to practically 8 years' service will have an unfavourable effect on the Army Reserve. Under the present system the infantry Eeserve may be expected to reach, in about 1890, its maximum strength of 44,000, and even this I do not consider sufficient. To meet, therefore, the effect of the extension of ser- vice, and still more to strengthen the Reserve, I pro- pose two things : the first, that men serving at home, and not likely to be sent abroad, should be at liberty, and indeed encouraged, if the state of recruiting per- mits, to go into the Reserve after completing 3 or 4 years' service. One of the inducements to do this will be permission to receive, when so discharged into the Reserve, their accumulated deferred pay, none of which is now paid to men until the expiry of their full time of colour service. The second will be to allow Reserve men, on or before completing their 12 years' engagement, to volunteer for a further period of 4 years, during which they will receive pay at the rate of 4id. a-day, but will not be liable to be called out until after all the other Reservists. We shall limit the number of this class to 10,000. On the other hand, we propose to allow the Enrolled Pensioner Reserve gradually to die out, as such, without 21 diminishing the service liabilities of pensioners. It has been suggested to me that we might allow Volun- teers of certain qualifications to join the Army Eeserve, and I propose to take powers with this object. But I have not yet had time to mature a scheme for this purpose. Under these conditions we hope to secure for our military system two great advantages ; first, for all regiments on foreign and especially on active service, a full proportion of what are called ' seasoned soldiers,' by ensuring an average of about 8 years' service from all men not permanently invalided ; and secondly, a steady flow into the Eeserve, not only of men who have served 7, 8, or more years, but of a considerable number who have served 3 or 4 years, and who will bring habits of steadiness and^ discipline into the civil employments for which their age will well fit them. Besides this, we shall be able to set against the great increase in deferred and reserved pay a solid reduction in the Pension List, which, for non-commissioned officers and men, is rapidly ap- proaching 2,000,000/. a year, but which, under our proposed system, will be applicable mainly to non- commissioned officers. Finally, I may say that this great economy will be much more felt by India than by the Imperial Exchequer, and will, I hope, be an answer to some of the plans for restoring a separate Indian army, upon which I confess I look with un- mitigated dislike. The second great branch of the changes in the period from 1867 to 1872, related to the locaHsation 22 of the Army, and especially of the Line, and I will now state our proposals on this subject. I must premise by stating that, from everyone who has studied this branch of the question, I have heard at any rate this undoubted proposition, that we cannot leave things as they are. Either we must follow the advice of those, who, like the late Colonel Anson in 1872, or my Eight Hon. friend and prede- cessor with his influential Committee in 1876, recom- mended the complete union in a territorial regiment of the four battalions, two of the Line and two of the Militia (and it must be remembered that on that Committee sat Sir H. Havelock, General Taylor, Sir G. Wolseley, General Bulwer, General Greaves, and General Herbert, besides the Duke of Buccleuch, Lord Exeter, Lord Limerick, and Colonel Corbett) ; or, according to every opponent of the system, we must repeal our whole legislation and undo our whole policy as to a territorial army ; convert the Depot Centre Barracks, for which Parliament voted 3,500,000/., into something else ; alter the whole system of brigade enlistment ; confuse the rights and seniority of every officer appointed during the last eight years, and, by making each regiment recruit for itself, through the agency of its own depot, add perhaps 11,000, perhaps, according to the Appendix to Lord Airey's Eeport, 15,000 ; or, accord- ing to some, 20,000 men to the Army. The first 25 regiments of the Line, which are already double- battalion regiments, would be broken up and made into ^50 single-battaHon regiments, and the Kifle 23 Brigade and 60th Eifles would be similarly divided into 4 regiments each. I have studied tliis question most carefully, with the aid of my professional advisers and by the light of the Committees which have investigated it during the last ten years, and I have come to the conclusion that in this matter we should adopt an advancing, not a retrogressive, policy. We propose, therefore, that the two battalions of the Line, and the two bat- talions of Militia which now form a territorial brigade shall henceforth form a territorial regiment with a county depot ; the 1st and 2nd battahons being Line and the ord and 4th Militia. The officers and men of the four battalions will have the same uniforms, only in the case of the men of the Militia distinguished by the letter ' M ' on their shoulder straps. The insignia and distinctions of the Line regiments will be care- fully preserved, but be common to both battalions. In fact, the whole Line will be organised as the 25 first regiments now are. To this there would be two classes of exceptions. We do not propose to disturb the 4-battalion organ- isation of the Eifle regiments ; and the special circum- stances of some of the Scotch regiments require particu- lar treatment. I will describe them with a little detail, as some most extraordinary misconceptions appear to exist about projects affecting them and their uniforms, which never entered my mind. At present there are nine Highland regiments, the 42nd, 71st, 72nd, 74th, 78th, 79th, 91st, 92nd, and 93rd wearing the kilt or trews, two double-battahon 24 regiments, the Royal Scots and Royal Scots Fusiliers, and three single-battalion regiments, the 26th, 73rd, and 90th, all locahsed in Scotland, and one, the 75th, locahsed in England. We propose to group these after a new arrangement, in a manner which I will now describe. 1. The 72nd and 78th will form the Seaforth Hidilanders, kilted and with the Mackenzie tartan. 2. The 92nd Gordon Highlanders will remain at Aberdeen, and the 75th will become its 2nd battahon, and receive the same dress. 3. The 42nd will continue at Perth, and the 73rd, which is a Perthshire regiment, formerly the 2nd battalion of the 42nd, will receive the same dress, and form with it the ' Black Watch.' 4. The 79th will have their depot at Inverness, and will be the odd battalion of the total 141 of the Army. 5. The 91st and 93rd will form a regiment, with their depot at Stirhng. They will be dressed in the kilt, wearing the tartan, which, we understand, is common to the Argyll and Sutherland clans. 6. The 71st and 74th will be combined at Hamilton as the Highland Light Infantry. 7. At Hamilton also will be the 26th and 90th, formed into a Rifle regiment. The other two depots, Edinburgh and Ayr, will remain unchanged. There will thus be 9 kilted battalions and 2 in trews, as against 5 kilted and 4 in trews at present. Among the papers which will be distributed to- morrow will be found full details of the changes as to 25 uniforms, titles, badges, and colours, which this amal- gamation of the regiments will involve. This, Sir, is, I think, the place for explainmg to the House what changes I propose in the establishments of the infantry resulting in an aggregate increase of 2,792 men. One of the most important reforms which a study of these questions has impressed on me is the necessity for increasing our preparedness for such minor wars and expeditions as the history of the last 10 years has shown to be unavoidable. Should we be engaged in a European war, or a war for the preservation of our Indian Empire, we should of course at once call out the Army Eeserve, and 25,000 trained men so added to the army, to say nothing of the Militia Eeserve, would, even in the present state of the Eeserve, fill our battalions at home with sea- soned men, ready to take the field. But we ought to be ready for contingencies of a much less serious character, and I will explain to the House how we propose to effect this. According to the Establishments of the year 1880-81 there were:— 6 Battalions at home consisting of 800 rank and file. 6 6 6 43 All with depots of 80, except in the case of 8 brigades having both their battalions abroad, which had 280. )> J) 5) f iiKf j> >> )5 J5 >5 640 )5 J> J5 » >J 560 >) JJ » 5> )5 480 )> J> 26 In the Colonies there were 24 battalions, of which — 15 had an establishment of 600 rank and file. We propose that in future there shall be — At home 12 Battalions of 950 rank and file. J> 1: 5? Oc»V/ )5 55 99 4 5> 650 J? 5? » 8 5> 500 J5 55 » 43 5> 480 ?5 55 Eight of the battalions of 950 and four of those at 850 will have depots of 150 rank and file, which will furnish drafts to the other battalion of the regiment ; the remainder small depots of 50. In the Mediterranean and the Colonies there will be 20 battalions, each of 800 rank and file. The 12 first regiments, containing, with their depots, 1,100 rank and file each, and six of the Mediterranean regiments, containing 800 men each, and ready to be raised to 1,000 efficients from their home battalions, will, with three battalions of the Guards, six regiments of Cavalry, and 17 batteries of Horse and Field Artillery, be always in a state of preparedness ; and next to the 12 home regiments will come four of 850 each, which could also promptly be raised to war strength. We shall thus, after these changes have been completed, be able at any moment and on the shortest notice to bring together and despatch a Corps d'Armee, consisting of 18 battalions of the Line, 3 of the Guards, 6 regiments of Cavalry, and 17 batteries of Artillery ; and this without trench- 27 ing on the 4 regiments of Infantry required for our annual reliefs, under a system which I will endeavour to explain to the House. At present our seventy battalions abroad (fifty in India and twenty in the Colonies) are relieved by other regiments at the rate of six a year. These fre- quent reliefs not only are a source of great expense to India, but, under the system of double-battalion regiments, will be to a great extent unnecessary. We propose that, in future, reliefs of whole battalions should be, to a great extent, superseded by annual reliefs by drafts, both in the case of officers and men, so that neither officer nor man should serve in India for more than eight years. The head-quarters of the battalion would be relieved about every sixteen years, in some cases by the other battalion of the regiment, in others by another regiment, but so that every year one regiment furnishing a battalion to India will come on to the Colonial roster, and similarly one from the Colonial roster will come on the list of those furnishing battalions to India. Every regiment wiU thus take its turn for Indian and Colonial service, but at a much less expense than under the present system. I pass now to the tliird branch of the reforms which we contemplate, namely, those which con- cern pay, promotion, and retirement. I will take first the non-commissioned officer. I have already explained the advantages we propose to give this important class in respect of what has been called * Assured Service ' — in other words, tlie right to 28 continue in the Array until they have acquired pensions, with the privilege of transfer to the per- manent Staff of the Militia. We propose, however, much more than this. Every regimental sergeant- major will in future have the rank of a warrant oiScer, with pay in the infantry of 5s. a day, and with a higher rate of pension. Similar boons will be given to non-commissioned officers of an equivalent position. Colour-sergeants will receive on appoint- ment 35. a day, and sergeants on promotion 2^. 4