Statements in House of Commons, Sept. 10, by Prime Minister Asquith and Bonar Law.
The House went into Committee of Supply, Mr. Whitley in the chair.
On the question that an additional number of land forces not exceeding 500,000 of all ranks be maintained for the service of the United Kingdom, in consequence of the war in Europe, for the year ending March 31, 1915.
Mr. Asquith (Fife E.) said: The House of Commons voted earlier in the session, before any outbreak of war was anticipated, under normal conditions, under Vote A, 186,000-odd men for the regular army. It is perhaps not necessary to point out, but it may be convenient to put it on record, that the total number of men under Vote A does not include either the army reserve, the special reserve, or the territorial forces. When we come to vote the financial provision under Vote 1 of the army estimates, which is consequential upon the passing of Vote A, we make provision not only for the 186,000 men already sanctioned for the regular army, but also for the army reserve. In the subsequent Votes 3 and 4 provision is made for the special reserve and territorial force. The army reserve and the special reserve are not called upon to serve until, under regular constitutional machinery, consequent upon the outbreak or imminence of war, they are summoned to do so. It may be convenient to the committee to know that at the time when war broke out and when the reserves were called to the colors the state of things was this: Parliament had voted 186,000-odd men—call it roughly 200,000. The army reserve and the special reserve then became available as part of the regular forces of the country, amounting also roughly to another 200,000 men. That was altogether 400,000 men. On Aug. 6, after war had been declared, I made a motion in committee which was assented to in committee and by the House on report, for the addition of 500,000 men to the regular forces. These 500,000 men, assuming them all to have been raised, would, in addition to the 400,000 I have just mentioned, amount to a total of 900,000 men. I think it will be interesting to the committee before I state the reasons for which I am going to ask them to make this further vote to know what has actually happened in consequence of the vote of Aug. 6.
Enlistments Since the War.
The number of recruits who have enlisted in the army since the declaration of war—that is, exclusive of those who have joined the territorial force—is 438,000, [cheers,] practically 439,000. That is up to the evening of Sept. 9. The committee will therefore see that, having sanctioned, as it did, very little more than a month ago, the addition to the regular forces of the Crown of half a million of men, we are now within some 60,000 of having attained that total. The numbers enlisted in London since Sunday, Aug. 30, have exceeded 30,000 men, and the stamp and character of the recruits has been in every way satisfactory and gratifying. [Cheers.] The high-water mark was reached on Sept. 3, when the total recruits enlisted in the United Kingdom on one day was 33,204. [Cheers.] I may mention—I am sure it will be gratifying to honorable members on both sides who represent Lancashire constituencies—that on that day 2,151 men were enlisted in Manchester alone. That is a very satisfactory result, but it by no means exhausts the requirements of the case. The response to the call for recruits has been in every way gratifying. But I am aware, not only from a discussion that took place in the House yesterday, but from communications which reached us from various parts of the country, that there are complaints of grievances, causing legitimate or otherwise deeply felt dissatisfaction at the manner in which some parts—I say advisedly only some parts—of this operation of recruiting have been conducted. I should like the committee to realize what were the conditions of the case. ["Hear, hear!">[
A Year's Recruits in a Day.
We have been recruiting during the last ten days every day substantially the same number of recruits that in past years we have recruited in every year. [Cheers.] I suppose our annual recruiting amounts to about 35,000 men for the regular army. As I pointed out a moment ago, on Sept. 3 we recruited 33,200 men. No machinery in the world which man has ever contrived or conceived could suddenly meet in an emergency and under great pressure the difficulty of bringing in to the colors and making adequate provision in a day for that in which past experience we only had to provide for in the course of a year, and that, be it observed, by a department which during the whole of this time has been engaged in superintending and executing an operation I believe unexampled in the history of war—the dispatch to a foreign country of an expeditionary force—I will not give the exact number, but roughly 150,000 men, which has had to be, as the committee I am sure is well aware, in consequence of the necessary and regrettable losses caused by the operations of war, constantly repaired by reinforcements of men, guns, supplies, transport, and every other form of warlike material. [Cheers.]
War Office's Double Task.
If our critics—I do not complain of legitimate criticism even at times like this—but if they will try to imagine themselves equipped with the machinery which was possessed by the War Office at the time the war broke out, and then consider that side by side with the smooth, frictionless, and most successful dispatch of the expeditionary force [cheers] which left these shores and arrived at its destination—I am speaking the literal truth—without the loss of a horse or a man, [cheers,] the wastage day by day and week by week has had to be repaired in men and in material, repaired often at a moment's notice, and it has been necessary to keep constantly in reserve, and not only in reserve, but ready for immediate use, the material to replace further wastage as days and weeks rolled on—if you remember that that was the primary call on the War Office, and that side by side with that they had to provide for recruits in these few weeks of no less than 430,000 men, he will be a very censorious, and, I venture to say, a very unpatriotic, critic who would make much of small difficulties and friction and who would not recognize that in a great emergency this department has played a worthy part. [Cheers.] My tenure at the War Office was a brief one, but no one who has ever had the honor to preside over that department can possibly exaggerate the degree of efficiency to which it has been brought under the administration of recent years. Everything, as the experience of this war has shown, was foreseen and provided for in advance with the single exception of the necessity of this enormous increase in our regular forces.