MILITIA REFORM.
[TO THE Eorros OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sts,—As I have had three months' Militia training this year, I feel that lain in a position to endorse a great deal of "Victim's" letter (Spectator, September 19th). With regard to (2), I do not think your correspondent is correct, for I have always drawn full pay and allowances when attending any school of instruction. As regards (5), I do most certainly think that the post of Adjutant should be open to Militia officers ; but I would most certainly require of an officer applying for such a post a high standard of efficiency, and good drill and musketry certificates. Moreover, an Adjutant appointed from the officers of a battalion has naturally more interest in the battalion than one brought in from one of the Line battalions, and in some cases from another regiment altogether.
I thoroughly agree with your correspondent about the present- day training. What, I ask, is the use of trying to cram three months' work into one month? I do not mind work ; but the pressure at times this summer has been almost unbearable. How this affects recruiting can be readily understood. This pressure is quite unnecessary. The Militia should be made a force for defensive purposes at home. To carry out this idea, the first, and by far the most important, point to remember is the musketry training. Make your Militiaman a good shot and the necessary amount of training in the field can soon be taught him. Militia musketry as now carried out is, generally speaking, a farce. I speak from bitter experience, and as one keenly interested in musketry. During the past training shooting had to be carried out at high pressure from sunrise to sunset. Both officers and men were utterly disgusted. Systematic training in the handling of the rifle was impossible ; individual instruction was likewise an impossibility. Every one was only concerned in trying to get the required amount of ammunition expended in a given time, so that the returns might be filled in. The ammunition so expended was pure waste ; the men learnt nothing, and were tired and disgusted at the end of a long day.
Now for a remedy. I would make musketry the main feature of a training ; let everything else be subservient to it. First let your Militiaman go through a thorough and instructive course of musketry, and then if you have time let him do a little field training, to show him how to skirmish and how fire is controlled. Is it not better to have a dozen men good shots, and knowing little of field movements, than fifty men unable to shoot, with a fair knowledge of field movements ? Which would come off best in a fight ? If you make musketry the chief point of training, let it be thoroughly real ; introduce competitions among the men. Anything which tends to do away with the monotony of present-day training will soon give you recruits. One word more. We are told the Militia gave great anxiety in South Africa. Who was responsible for that ? Not the Militia. If the Militia had been looked after in the past, they would have given no anxious moments to any one. It is not too late even now to put the force in a sound position as a defensive force, provided you do not try to cram into four weeks what a Regular soldier takes months to learn.
[Most certainly musketry should be the chief item in the Militiaman's, as in every other soldier's, training. We would camp Militia regiments on ranges, so that every man might shoot a little every day.—ED. Spectator.]
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