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260 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUDIES
the subject, that all the discussions hitherto have been
in the air, because the authorities will not face the
dilemma in which they are placed-the one horn being
that of paying the Army properly so as to ensure a
supply of men, and the other that of conscription so
as to obtain by force a service that is not given in
sufficient abundance by those who are competent to
perform it. This is the crux of the whole question of
Army Reform. Men are wanted, and men are not got
under present conditions and at the present rates of
payment. As my military friends are never weary of
repeating, the position is that the pay of the Army is
quite insufficient to attract young men old enough and
intelligent enough to go into the fighting line after
a few months' training, and with constitutions sound
enough to stand the wear and tear of service. Instead,
we have lads who are many of them rather stupid, who
take a year or two to train, and who take a year or
two, perhaps two or three years, to grow old enough
for the work. The result is a formidable wastage.
One-third of the recruits, I am told, never become
soldiers at all, but have to be discharged, and the time
of drill-instructors and officers is wasted in trying to
convert intractable material into fighting men. In such
conditions it is a miracle that so much good material
is obtained, but unfortunately there is not enough.
The official establishments are not only fixed too low,
but they are not maintained. As to the remedy, I have
myself no doubt. We must, like other employers, pay
the wages needed to attract the service, if we can
afford the money, as I have no doubt we can. What
the addition to the Army pay should be is, of course,
a difficulty. It would be folly to offer too much. It
would be equal folly to offer too little and fail. But,
as far as I can form an opinion, the sum to offer the
private is an effective 2S. a day or thereabouts and all
found, as compared with the present offer of Is. a day
subject to stoppages and without everything being
found. Two shillings a day would come to about £40