RECRUITING. 77 
Lt.-Col. W, L. Davidson, R.H.A., thought that the payment of men 
according to their rating as specialists or excelling in any particular 
line would be a stimulus to recruiting ; he concurred with Captain 
Cleeve’s remarks on the disadvantage at which an elder of two recruits 
may be placed, and thought a birth certificate could nearly always be 
produced by a recruit. He thought depot training the best for recruits 
and that it is a great mistake to stop recruiting as soon as the establish¬ 
ment is full, as the influx of recruits is thus checked, takes some time to 
recover, and many good men are lost. Col. Davidson advocated the 
teaching throughout the country of a soldier’s work and duty to all 
youths, and that a certain number of men should be allowed to enlist 
for home service only who, as soon as they have passed certain tests, 
might go to their business with the liability to come up for service 
with the colours when called upon. 
Major-General R. Dashwood, though not advocating a return to 
long service, quoted the Duke of Wellington’s speech in the House of 
Lords where, with reference to the extraordinary feat performed by the 
80th Regiment at Sobraon, he said : “ This feat would have been 
impossible except by old soldiers,” and “ entreated their lordships, 
whatever they did, never to agree with any measures which might 
deprive her Majesty of the services of old and experienced men, and 
thus pave the way to disaster.” He thought a good system of enlist¬ 
ment would be for six or seven years’ colour service, and at the end of 
that time a right to re-engage with an increase of pay, deferred pay 
being abolished, or to go at once to the reserve for 12 years with the 
prospect of a deferred pension at, say, 45 years of age calculated on the 
amount of colour service put in ; he maintained that by the present 
system a man’s services are lost even in the reserve at the age of 30 or 
32, when he should be at his prime. He pointed out that to ask private 
firms to employ reserve men is practically asking them to submit to 
extra taxation. 
Lt.-Col. F. 0. Barrington Foote, R.A., thought that an improve¬ 
ment of the moral tone and surroundings of a soldier’s life would cause 
an increase in the recruiting of a better class ; he also advocated the 
introduction of divisions or a cubicle for each man in the barrack room. 
REPLY, 
MR. ARNOLD-FORSTER—General Maurice, ladies and gentlemen. I have 
really nothing to add to what I have said. I am very gratified to find that what 
has been said has been a reinforcement and substantiation of my own views, and 
it has only made me more convinced that there is a sound foundation for the view 
I take, and that there is great room for improvement in the inducements which 
are at the present offered to the recruit. I hope to accept the invitation which I 
have had from Colonel Kilgour to-night to inspect the recruiting office at 
Woolwich, but I may point out, that why I dealt with the recruiting office at St. 
George’s Barracks was that, at that office two thirds of the recruits, who tender 
themselves for the British Army, are received. 
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