• Lord Lansdowne, dealing with the alleged compensations for reduotion,
pointed out that we could not have lower units and fewer units without the production of fewer Reserves. The organisation of the Special Reserve filled him with mis- givings. The creation of a hundred and ninety-six batteries of artillery for the Territorial Army lie described as a tremendous plunge, and he fully endorsed Lord Roberts's remarks on the danger of relying on insufficiently trained artillerists. He therefore strongly urged the Government to reconsider their whole position in regard to the Territorial artillery, which was an experiment for which they could find no analogy or support in any foreign army. Lord Elgin met the criticism directed against the insufficient training of the Territorial artillery by pointing out that it was based on the concurrence of three extraordinary events,—the despatch of an expeditionary force of a hundred and fifty thousand men, a great naval disaster, and an invasion. There was, he alleged, no precedent in our history for such a combination. He concluded by appealing to the Opposition not to hamper the organisation of the new force by assuming an irrecon- cilable attitude. Lord Midleton having expressed his dis- satisfaction with the attitude of the Government, the Motion was withdrawn. The question was raised in the Commons on Thursday, when Mr. Haldane read a letter from Sir John French which directly traversed the view expressed by Lord Roberts.
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