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THE DUTIES OF SUBALTERN OFFICERS: 
BY 
Lieut. A. M. MURRAY, R.H.A. 
1. For some years past it has been gradually becoming apparent that 
the position, duties, and responsibilities of the junior regimental officers 
of the Army must undergo an entire change in order to meet the 
altered conditions of modern warfare. While on the one hand, owing 
to the introduction of arms of precision, and the development of military 
science generally, the task of training soldiers has been rendered more 
difficult, and while the recruit requires greater individual attention 
than formerly, on the other hand the time in which his military 
education is expected to be finished has been considerably shortened, 
and the means of instructing him have become diminished. The 
necessity for forming a substantial Reserve of trained soldiers has led 
to the establishment of a system of short service in the British Army,* 
which precludes the possibility of the recruit remaining more than a few 
years with the colours before he is passed into the Reserve. When 
the full effects of this system are felt, the ranks of the Army will be 
entirely made up of young soldiers, who, instead of entering the service 
as used to be the case by twos and threes, will be enlisted in large 
batches, and will not have the advantage when they begin their military 
life of being associated with old and disciplined soldiers of long 
standing. Moreover, we in Fmgland are beginning to find, what the 
German and French military authorities found when short service was 
first introduced on the continent, that the supply of experienced non¬ 
commissioned officers is falling off. The Government are scarcely able 
to compete successfully in the labour market for ordinary recruits, still 
less to offer sufficient inducement to the lower middle classes to embrace 
a military career. As the old non-commissioned officers die out by 
degrees this difficulty, which is already creating serious inconvenience^ 
will increase, and will have to be met by offering better rates of pay 
# Although it is believed that Lord Airey’s Committee have proposed to introduce certain 
modifications in the Army Re-organisation Act of 1871 with a view to retaining soldiers 
longer with the colours than was proposed in that' Act, still it is understood that the 
principal of the legislation of 1871, which aimed ab the creation of a large Reserve by 
passing men through the regular army so soon as they had become trained soldiers, is 
recognised by the Committee as sound. We may therefore expect to find that the short 
service system of enlistment, though in an amended form, will be enforced by the present 
government. 
f In a paper contributed to the Nineteenth Century for July 1879, entitled “ Boy 
Soldiers,” by Lieut.-Colonel W. W. Knollys, the want of non-commissioned officers was 
alluded to as “ the crying need of the present hour.” 
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