HC Deb 04 March 1902 vol 104 c399

Our programme for the year is this. We shall continue the work of organising our Army Corps, and as troops return home they will settle in the various places in the Army Corps which they are to fill in the future. We hope by the increase of pay that we shall improve the class of recruits. We know that, if the terms of service are generally accepted, we shall build up an adequate reserve, besides building up reserves for the Militia, Volunteers, and Yeomanry, as I have described. If we succeed in these matters, we shall have surely made a long step forward. The education of officers, the training of men, the reform of the Medical Department and of the War Office itself, give evidence that even during the progress of an exhausting war we have not altogether kept out of sight organisation at home. It is our determination that, if this war has been larger and costlier than we or anybody anticipated, at least this result shall come from it, that our Army shall come out of it more efficient than before, and, if we succeed in our efforts, our Empire will come out of the war much stronger than it entered into it.