ARMY ESTIMATES, 1908–9. (Hansard, 19 March 1908)

§ MR. ASHLEY
called attention to what he described as the miserably inadequate pay of the regimental officers and non-commissioned officers who constituted the backbone of the Regular Army. These were the men who did the real training and fitted the regiments and battalions for war. In the last fifty or sixty years the regimental officer had received practically no increase of pay whatever. He thought the pay of the private soldier compared most favourably with the wages received by his class in civil life, though he thought that, in order to attract recruits, the State should undertake to give a preference to the old soldier in the distribution of the civil employment it might have to give at the end of his service. At present the soldier felt that after he had served three or seven years he had nothing certain to look forward to. If the State would lay down the principle that, other things being equal, preference would be given to the old soldier, it would pay the State ten times over, because a better class of men would be attracted to the Army. As to the regimental officer, a young man of nineteen or twenty got £95 a year, and 909 he did not think that was much to give him in view of his education and the examinations he had to pass. The officer afterwards became a lieutenant with £118 a year, at which pay he remained until he was twenty-eight or twenty-nine, when he became a captain with £208 a year. By that time he had probably married and had a wife and family to provide for, and appearances to keep up. He would ask the House whether they considered that an adequate pay. When he was forty or forty-five he might become a lieutenant-colonel with £420 a year. Perhaps the Secretary of State for War might agree with the President of the Local Government Board that no man should have more than £500 a year, but he thought it was absurdly inadequate pay for a man of forty or forty-five who had served twenty years at his profession. The result was that the good men they ought to have as regimental officer did not remain with their regiments. They tried to get into the Egyptian Army, or to get appointments on the West Coast of Africa, or elsewhere, where they would get higher rates of pay. They did not do the work they were primarily enlisted to do. That was an important point which ought to be borne in mind. The present pay absolutely debarred men without money from going into the Army at all. Men did not now go into the Army as officers as they used to do, and that was largely because the pay was inadequate. They said that if they were to treat the Army as a serious profession they were entitled to the pay of a serious profession.

§ MR. HALDANE
I have a great deal of sympathy with what the hon. Member for Blackpool has said about the pay of the officer. But there is this to be considered. I doubt whether the average pay of a general officer in the Army when he gets to the age of forty or forty-five does not compare very well with that of the average barrister. [An 910 HON. MEMBER: Oh!] I am speaking of the average.

§ MR. ASHLEY
pointed out that there was not the same danger attaching to the legal as to the military profession.

§ MR. HALDANE
I do know that; there is at the Bar the danger of starvation, and the same may be said of other professions. It should be remembered that the pay of the higher branches of the Army is very good, and that there are great positions to be attained, for the chance of which people go into the Army. But a study of the Estimates will show that an endeavour is made, in respect of travelling expenses and other items, to improve the position of the officers, and that has been the policy of successive Governments. I cannot hold out the hope of our making any very material increase of the pay of the officer until the country takes a different view on the subject, but still something has been done. I hope we may now get this Vote, as we have also got to get the Navy Vote through in. order to introduce the Army Annual Bill.

§ SIR F. BANBURY
said the comparison of the position of an Army officer with that of a barrister was hardly a good one. The right hon. Gentleman said that the income of the average barrister was small, but he would point out that the barrister who did not earn fees was not doing any work. [An HON. MEMBER: He devils for others.] The barrister for whom, he devilled paid him. If they could get private soldiers on the three and seven years system for the Army these men should not be turned adrift without some opportunity of obtaining other occupations. He thought that the State which secured their services during the years which would have enabled them to learn a trade should provide them with occupation after they left the colours, when there, happened to be any vacancies in State 911 employment. With regard to the officers, he did not quite agree with his hon. friend. To a certain extent, he agreed with the right hon. Gentleman that if one could get a "devil" or an officer for nothing, why should one give him anything more? His hon. friend had said that we were short of 8,000 officers, and that we could not get proper men as officers at the present rates of pay. But did his hon. friend suppose that if the subaltern's pay was increased from £90 to £120 they would get any more men, or that that would make any appreciable difference in their manner of living? The subaltern would still require an allowance from his father, and no more officers would be obtained than at present. We had increased the pay of the private soldier, but we had not got any more men. He believed that if the scale of soldiers' pay had been left as it was, there would have been as many recruits to the Army as now, and a very considerable expense would have been saved to the nation. Hon. Gentlemen opposite were against spending money on the Army, and if the pay of officers was raised that would he taken as an excuse for reducing the Vote of men for the Army not by 10,000 men only, but by many more. He only wished that the right hon. Gentleman had said straight out that the State could not afford to give more pay. He hoped that his hon. friend would not press this matter, because it would not do any good, and might prevent them from obtaining the requisite number of men for the Army.

§ SIR H. CRAIK (Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities)
said that he happened to occupy the office, of Chairman of the Qualifying Board for the examination of officers, and he knew that it was becoming more difficult to get the best candidates for the Army from the Universities. He knew that the existing rates of pay limited the choice to those whose fathers 912 could afford them a large allowance as officers in the Army. He was of opinion that a comparatively slight increase of pay would have a stimulating effect in drawing men from every class of the community to the Army from turning to more lucrative professions.

CAPTAIN CRAIG
said he quite agreed with the last speaker in regard to a slight increase of pay inducing many competent men to join the Army as officers; but at the same time the large shortage of officers at present was due to other causes than had been suggested. The difficulty of obtaining officers was created by the examinations which the young men had to undergo. It was not so much the question of pay but the extraordinary examinations that deterred them. There were boys in our public schools fit in every way to be officers as well as being physically fit and with the knowledge that most young Englishmen possessed of manly sport and all that young fellows were required to do in time of war. If a number of petty restrictions were removed, apart from any question of an extra £30 or £40, the Government would have a very much larger number of officers available. Anyone acquainted with the examinations would, he thought, admit that they were prohibitive in many cases, and prevented the cream of the really manly school boys from joining the Army. What prevented them from joining, although they were yearning to do so, was the fact that they would have to master foreign languages and some of the higher mathematics. This knowledge might, as they all knew, be necessary in some of the higher branches of the Army, but for Infantry of the Line or ordinary regimental duty it was not needed. It was only wanted in cases where in afterlife the officers had gone to the Staff College or got into prominent positions. If the Secretary for War would only use his great ability to make it more easy for some of these young fellows to get into the Army he would not only alleviate 913 their position, but perhaps save some of the money which the Radicals were so anxious to save on the Army, Navy, or any other Imperial object.