A TERRITORIAL ARMY IN BEING.* Tins little volume, which is
published under the auspices of the National Service League, and contains a preface by Lord Roberts advocating compulsory training, will be read with interest by those who are endeavouring to build up a National Army in Great Britain on the model which has been set before them by the Government and approved by his Majesty the King.
Colonel Delme-Radcliffe, as our Military Attache to that country, speaks at first hand of the Swiss system, of which he is, in common with all who know the Swiss Army, an enthusiastic admirer ; while Mr. Lewis opens up comparatively new ground by giving us the results of his recent investiga- tions in Norway. Both papers have already appeared in the Journal of the Royal United Service Institution, where they were delivered as lectures, but they are now usefully reprinted for wider circulation.
Of the two Armies, it is clear that the Swiss is much further advanced in training, and above all in organisation, than the Norwegian ; Colonel Delme-Radcliffe declares its mobilisation system, for instance, to be the best in the world. In Norway, on the other hand, all officers above the rank of Captain are professional soldiers, who, how- ever, are not generally employed all the year round, but have private businesses of their own,—e.g., farms to look after, &c. In both countries the physical training of boys and girls from ten to fifteen years of age is compulsory ; in Norway, in addition, there is obligatory rifle-shooting for schoolboys. Great stress is laid by both writers on the almost complete absence, in Norway no less than in Switzerland, of any fear of militarism or class-feeling, or of any sign of a democratic animus against personal and compulsory service. Meanwhile be it observed that in neither country is there any aristocracy whatever, and that the officers are drawn from all classes,—the one qualification for a commission being ability to pass the required examination tests.
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