LORD HALDANE AND THE TERRITORIALS. [To THE EDITOR OF THE
" SPECTATOR.") ffne—In your remarks in your issue of December 21st concern- ing the Haldane apologia in the Times, you do not mention the vital fact that the opinion of the General Staff on Lord Roberts's National Service scheme was merely the opinion of its sole mouthpiece, Lord Haldane himself. Your statement that " the Territorial system was the framework of the wonderful mili- tary creation of this war " shows an obliquity of vision equal to that of any Bourbon, and is a slur on the late Lord kitchener, the creator of the New Armies, which were, of course, sweated on the lines of our old Regular Army. The essence at the Territorial system was unreadiness for war, with a paper organization " in order to hoodwink a lethargic, pleasure- loriug nation. That " organization," as all men know, was put on the shelf when war broke out, and the " Terriers" were «rafted into "brigades of Regulars to fill gaps, when they were sufficiently ready to fight; such was the Territorial system ! It is to be hoped that we have seen the last of this " sham " Army, as the late Lord Roberts rightly called it.—I am, Sir,
[Colonel Reid will see from the second article on Lord Haldane that the General Staff cannot be exonerated at Lord Haldane's expense. We disagree entirely with his condemna- tion of the Territorials, whose organisation proved of great value in 1914.—En. Spectator.]
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