ADDRESS AT THE ANNUAL DINNER OF THE
KENTISH MEN AND MEN OF KENT
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
Whilst seeing the present little book through the press an opportunity
unexpectedly offered itself to me of speaking to some officers of the
existing Territorial Force in regard to the dilemma in which they are
placed between their duty as patriotic citizens and their growing
conviction of the inadequacy of the Territorial Force to perform the
task imposed upon it in the event of war.
I therefore subjoin the address which, on the invitation of the
officers themselves, I delivered at the annual dinner of the Kentish
Men and the Men of Kent, on November 27, 1912.
In that address I was able to state more fully than at Manchester my
reasons for criticizing the Territorial Force with regard to
discipline, numbers, equipment, and energy.
ADDRESS AT THE ANNUAL DINNER OF THE
KENT TERRITORIAL ASSOCIATION,
LONDON
NOVEMBER 27, 1912.
GENTLEMEN,
Words fail me when I try to tell you what a great pleasure it was to me
to be able to accept the invitation of the Kentish Men and the Men of
Kent to their annual dinner. I was more than gratified by their
invitation, for I felt that I should not have been asked to be their
guest had they interpreted my comments on the Territorial Force in my
Manchester speech in the way some people have done, as an attack upon
the members of the Force. Indeed, I am profoundly grateful for this
opportunity having been given to me to explain my views about the Force
more fully than it was possible for me to do at Manchester.
Well, gentlemen, if I am right in feeling that you acquit me of any
desire to disparage the officers and men who compose the Territorial
Force, and that you will believe me when I repeat, what I have often
said before, that I am second to none in my admiration of the
patriotism and self-sacrifice displayed by them in their endeavour to
make Lord Haldane's scheme a success--you will not, I am sure,
misunderstand me if I now express my views quite frankly to you.
At the Manchester meeting I gave it as my opinion that the Territorial
Force is a _failure in discipline_, a _failure in numbers_, a _failure
in equipment_, and a _failure in energy_. Let me say a few words on
each of these supremely important points.
_Failure in Discipline_.--Gentlemen, only those who have taken part in
war, or have carefully studied the history of wars, can, I am
persuaded, realize to its full extent the significance of discipline as
applied to war. They alone can know that it is by discipline, and
discipline alone, that bodies of men can be relied upon to work
together in times of great difficulty and danger, and to withstand the
disintegrating effect of war; for they have learnt that it is
discipline alone which prevents panic seizing upon men when unforeseen
circumstances arise. They alone know that amongst untrained or
ill-trained troops panic spreads with lightning rapidity, and that when
there is no sense of discipline to be appealed to and to keep the men
together, defeat is the inevitable result.
It is discipline alone which gives the soldier confidence in himself,
reliance on his comrades, and belief in his officers. It is discipline
alone which gives him the courage to face vastly superior numbers; to
continue marching, though worn out with fatigue and want of food, ready
to fight again, and yet again. It is discipline alone that supports
him under the strain of lying still for successive hours in the
punishing fire zone--one of the most trying of the many exacting
conditions of modern warfare. It is discipline alone which makes the
soldier obey the word of command, even under such circumstances as I
have described. Clear understanding of and prompt obedience to an
order become an instinct to the properly trained soldier, whereas the
imperfectly trained man, when he finds himself in an unfamiliar and
trying position, frequently misunderstands the word of command, and,
when matters become acute, he does not heed or even hear it.
Gentlemen, when I tell you that discipline is the backbone of an army,
I ask you whether it is possible for that essential quality to be
instilled into the ranks of the Territorial Force with the amount of
training that is given to them.
_Failure in Numbers_.--Gentlemen, despite the untiring efforts of the
Territorial Associations--a large proportion of whose members are
staunch supporters of the National Service League--the Territorial
Force is still far short of its established strength of 315,000 men.
Possibly this is a blessing in disguise, for if men had come forward in
sufficient numbers to bring the Force up to its establishment,
politicians would have assured the country, even more fervently than
they do now, that our Home Defence Army is in all respects what is
needed. The truth is that the number 315,000 has no relation to our
real requirements. It was fixed upon because the experience of fifty
years had proved that a larger number could never be forthcoming under
the voluntary system. As with the Regular Army, so with the Home
Defence Army, the strength is governed by what is known to be the limit
obtainable by voluntary effort. It has no relation to the requirements
of war. It solves no known problem. Again, therefore, gentlemen, I
ask you whether it is possible to regard the Territorial Force as
fitted, in respect to numbers, for the defence of the United Kingdom.
_Failure in Equipment_.--In common with the Regular Army the
Territorial Force is armed with a rifle inferior to the rifle possessed
by foreign nations, and with a less deadly bullet than is used by them.
But the Territorial rifle is even inferior to the present Regular Army
rifle in range, in trajectory, and in stopping power.
Then the gun in use with the Territorial Artillery is a mere makeshift.
It is distinctly inferior in power, range, and rapidity of fire to the
gun of any first-rate State, and it is not too much to say that, if our
Regular soldiers were armed as the Territorials are armed, they could
not keep the field against the troops of any European nation. If this
is so, how unfair, how disastrous, it would be to ask Territorial
troops to undertake a task which their seasoned and disciplined
comrades of the Regular Army could not face.
Then as regards mobilization arrangements, supply and transport
services, ammunition columns, trains, horses, vehicles, harness, even
boots for the men--in none of these essentials are the Territorials, as
a Force, complete. I therefore repeat that _failure in equipment_ is
not an unfair statement.
_Failure in Energy_.--By failure in energy, I do not for a moment mean
to imply that individual members of the Territorial Force are wanting
in energy. I know how earnestly many of them have striven to learn and
to do their duty under adverse circumstances. My criticism applies to
the Force itself--to its corporate energy--if I may use such an
expression. And even those who are the firmest believers in the Force
must, I think, admit that, under existing conditions, it is not
practicable for it to attain that combined action, that alertness, that
intensity and vitality, all of which are essential to success in war.
But, gentlemen, in addition to the shortcomings of the Territorial
Force which I have enumerated, there is one defect in its conception
which would alone show its unfitness for what you all know is its
primary duty--that is, to defend these shores from invasion. That
defect lies in the strange condition which is an essential factor in
this scheme--a condition unprecedented with any army in the
world--namely, that the Force is to receive six months' training, after
war has broken out, before it is even supposed to be capable of dealing
with an invading army. Can any scheme for the defence of any nation be
more madly conceived? We have been given an object lesson in the Near
East as to the insanity of the idea that our Citizen Army will be given
six months to prepare after war has been declared. On October 8
Montenegro declared war, and in four weeks the Turks were beaten in all
directions and were making their last stand within a few miles of
Constantinople.
Gentlemen, I am told by my opponents that it is unpatriotic of me to
express these opinions, and that by doing so I am discouraging the
Territorial Force. But which is really the more unpatriotic course, to
tell the truth about the Force, so that the people of this country may
insist upon its terrible deficiencies being remedied, or to gloss over
these deficiencies and thus to expose to certain disaster the few
patriotic men who have joined it, and who are asked to be prepared with
a Force untrained, under-officered, and under-manned to cope with a
highly-trained enemy.
I venture to think, gentlemen, that I am doing you no disservice in
speaking plainly about the Territorial Force. My hope is that when its
grave condition is no longer concealed from our countrymen, they will
realize the folly of trusting the defence of these shores to a
make-believe Army, that they will take to heart the false position in
which the patriotic members of the Force are placed, and that they will
insist upon a law being passed by which all able-bodied men must be
prepared to take their place in the Citizen Army. The Territorial
Force must either be made efficient in all respects, or it will
speedily cease to be a Force even in name.
I hope, gentlemen, you will understand that I am thinking and speaking
of the Territorial Force as a Force that must be prepared to move and
live, to march and fight as an army. I am not thinking of individual
men, or companies, or batteries, or squadrons, but of a Force which, if
it is ever called upon to take the field, will have to deal as a whole
with highly-trained picked troops.
What, then, gentlemen, is right for the Territorial officers to do? It
seems to me that a tremendous responsibility rests upon those officers.
If they agree with me that neither they themselves, nor the men they
command, are sufficiently trained to take the field against first-class
soldiers; if they agree with me that neither in discipline nor in
numbers, neither in equipment nor in vital energy, can the Territorial
Force be reckoned as a modern army; if they agree with me that no great
improvement either in efficiency or numbers can ever be reached under
the conditions necessarily imposed upon all citizens who enter a
voluntary force; if they agree with me that the safety of these
islands, and therefore of our Empire, is endangered by this state of
affairs--then their course of action is clear. While still giving of
their best to the Force to which they belong, while still setting the
fine example which they have consistently done, they should make the
Government and the nation distinctly understand that, in their opinion,
they are unable to carry out the duties entrusted to them, and that
unless they are given the trained assistance of the manhood of the
country, they can never guarantee the safety of these islands and the
integrity of the Empire.
Such a warning, coming from such men, will awaken the country in a way
that I can never hope to do. Such an announcement, coming from the men
who alone in the country have obeyed the call of duty, and who, at the
cost of convenience, time, and money, have tried to fit themselves for
the defence of their country and the security of the Empire--such a
summons, I say, will arouse the People, and they themselves will call
upon the Government to enact a law which shall impose upon all citizens
of a military age the noble duty of defending the country and the
Empire to which they have the glory to belong.
THE END
BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD.