74 
KECRUITITO. 
extent of tramps, casuals, and perhaps worse. All we can judge of is by 
what we know, and not what we surmise. In 1878 the whole of the 
Reserve was called out; it then consisted of only 14,154 men—13,684 
men responded to the call out of those 14,154. In 1882, 11,032 res¬ 
ponded out of 11,642 called up for the Egyptian War, and out of 14,965 
called up between 1st January, 1888, and 31st March, 1890, for instruc¬ 
tion in the use of the New Rifle, only 339 failed to attend. Those 
figures shew that the Reserve, at any rate, is not a sham or a bogus 
factor. The one objection to it is the want of training, but that is 
certainly not the fault of the Military authorities, because they have 
pressed the necessity for training over and over again. The German 
Infantry soldier serves two years with the colours, and five years in the 
Reserve, during which latter period he may be called out for two periods 
not to exceed eight weeks, and in his first period of five years in the 
first Ban of the Landwelir he may be called out for two trainings of 
from eight to 14 days. 
I will come to another item closely connected with recruiting, and 
also with the Reserve, and that is deferred pay. Opinions differ 
greatly as to its value ; the Wantage Committee recommended 
its abolition, but there were two very prominent dissentients 
as to that : one was Sir Edward Bulwer, who had been 
Inspector-General of Recruiting, and the other was Sir Arthur 
Haliburton. Some people state that deferred pay is absolutely neces¬ 
sary to encourage recruiting, and that the men should go home with 
money in their pockets ; other people say they very rarely reach their 
homes with any money in their pockets (applause), but that when they 
do go home they stand treat all round, and clergymen and magistrates 
will give you a very poor account of the reservist when he first arrives 
in his village. This may be true sometimes but I do not believe that 
it is so in the majority of cases. I must say I do wish there was some 
way of sending a man’s deferred pay, to which in principle there can 
be no objection, and putting it into the Savings Bank or putting it out 
of his power for a little until the first flush of his discharge from the 
Army has passed away. 
Then there are certain obstructions to men who wish to re-enter 
the service which are said to exercise a very prejudicial effect on 
recruiting, and on those I am not justified in pronouncing an 
opinion. The first is that a man must restore his deferred pay, which 
it is not very easy for him to do when he has once parted with 
his money. Another point is that a man must re-engage or rather 
extend his service within a year. That is said not to be a very wise 
thing for this reason : that a very good man may try his best to succeed 
in civil life and fail ; he may save his money, but if he does not return 
to the colours within a year he is not accepted, even though able to pay 
back his deferred pay. I think some modification may be made as to 
this (applause). The Wantage Committee, with only one dissentient, 
recommended that there should be a considerable change in these con¬ 
ditions and that we should not weaken our first line quite so much for 
the sake of the reserve. Mind I am pronouncing no opinion, I am only 
giving you chapter and letter as things exist. 
As to the linked battalion system it was intended that when both 
