HL Deb 29 April 1901 vol 93 cc5-19

[SECOND READING.]

Order of the Day for Second Reading read.

*VISCOUNT FRANKFORT DE MONTMORENCY

My Lords, before explaining the objects of this Bill, I think I ought to say that for some time a large number of schools have been doing good work in the matter of drill. Drill is one of the subjects laid down by the Charity Commissioners, who control the majority of the public secondary schools, but there is no authority which undertakes to supervise the method of instruction, the result being that in many schools drill is neglected, or only taught to a portion of the scholars. The present system, or rather want of system, is very unsatisfactory. There is no recognised method of teaching and no supervision, and I believe there is no way of insisting upon the school authorities carrying out the intention of the Charity Commissioners. Still, the fact remains that it is the duty of public schools to teach drill. I mention this, my Lords, to show that the aim of this Bill is for some recognised system of teaching and some regular organisation. I have introduced this Bill to put drill and military instruction on a sound permanent footing. The Bill has been drawn up in the main by Dr. Warre (Headmaster of Eton College) and Mr. Gull (Headmaster of the Grocers' Company's School), and it was approved by the Headmasters' Conference, representing 102 of the larger schools, and by the Associated Corporation of Headmasters, representing 450 of the smaller schools. I think it may be fairly said that a large proportion of the gentlemen engaged in teaching the youth of the country are entirely in favour of some recognised system of instruction being laid down. The Bill provides that the youth of the country shall undergo a course of military instruction as part of their education. Being taught at the most receptive period of their lives they would in later years be ready, at a few days notice, to take their place in the ranks. I know this is disputed. In fact, some go so far as to say that in a few years they would have forgotten everything they had learned. But the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Roberts, writes— Lads who have been efficiently trained would probably become quite as effective soldiers in an equally short space of time as would reserve men after being absent from the colours three or four years. It is intended to provide some permanent regulation for imparting military instruction (to include physical drill) by the formation of what may be called instructional corps, being either corps formed in connection with public schools, or cadet corps, companies, and battalions formed under the Volunteer Regulations. It is hoped that the Bill will make it possible to regulate, encourage, and develop these instructional corps, so that they will form a valuable source of supply of officers as well as of rank and file for the Regular and Auxiliary forces of the Crown. The Secretary of State for War has just appointed a Committee to inquire into the education of officers, and one of the members of that Committee—the headmaster of a school well known to your Lordships—takes great interest in this Bill. The Bill deals mainly with the training of lads at school to take their place among the rank and file if our country were ever threatened with invasion, but Clause 4 enacts that, if the Secretary of State directs, military instruction may be given in the following subjects—namely, physical and elementary drill and instruction in musketry, manoeuvre, and the elements of military topography and military engineering. If the Secretary of State does direct these subjects to be given, you have at once a foundation for this Committee to work on. The Bill provides for a capitation grant of 10s. for efficient cadets under the age of seventeen years, for instruction, for arms and ammunition, and the use of the War Department's ranges for musketry practice. It is impossible to work out the cost, as we are unable to say what standard of efficiency the Government will lay down as necessary in order that cadets may earn this capitation grant, but it cannot possibly be great. The instructors would be non-commissioned officers. They are already in the pay of the Government, and therefore no cost would be incurred under this head. Any extra fees for instruction would be paid for by the schools out of the capitation grant. Naturally the lads would use second-class arms, which may just as well be in the school store-rooms, which this Bill insists upon schools providing, as in the Government arsenals. Arms would therefore cost nothing. As to ammunition, the expense would not be large. It would depend upon the number of rounds given by the Government gratuitously. If the Government gave two million rounds, the cost would be about £8,000. What the schools purchased would of course be paid for by the schools out of the capitation grant. I do not see what expense the Government would be put to in the matter of ranges. The markers and any damage done would be paid for by the schools out of the capitation grant.

Now I come to the capitation grant itself, which is not so large as I should like to see it. It is more than probable that the Government will insist—and I think they will do so rightly—that musketry must be a large factor in the earn- ing of the capitation grant. In that case the whole of the smaller boys would have no possible chance of earning anything, so that I do not see how it could cost more than £50,000. But suppose it costs £100,000, it is money well invested, for in a few years a goodly proportion of the young men of the country would be drilled and ready for any emergency. With regard to corps in connection with schools, the Bill would provide for two classes of corps—(a) Artillery, Engineer, and Rifle Volunteer corps; (b) junior Volunteer corps. Artillery, Engineer, and Rifle Volunteer corps in connection with schools would be formed, as heretofore, under the Volunteer Acts, but boys would be enrollable on attaining the age of fourteen years, instead of, as previously, on attaining the age of seventeen years—the general age for enrolment of Volunteers. Junior Volunteer corps would be formed in schools by the school authority, with the consent of the Secretary of State, for the purpose of giving military instruction to all pupils who had attained the age of twelve years, whose parents or guardians consented to their becoming members of such corps. The Bill also provides that cadet corps and companies and cadet battalions already formed or to be formed may come under certain provisions of this Act. That is briefly the purport of the Bill. It has been well said that the advantage of having a large percentage of the educated youth of the country conversant with military work would be considerable. The effect upon the education of officers would be greatly felt, and level. The Regular Army and Auxiliary it would tend to raise it to a higher forces would have a living source from which to derive their officers in the future. It would be a kind of policy of insurance for the safety of the country. Drill is a most popular subject in schools. Boys like it, and there is no question as to its advantages in connection with physical development, the promotion of discipline, and the encouragement of patriotic feeling. Lord Wolseley has expressed himself strongly in favour of all boys being drilled. The noble and gallant Viscount said— As a species of physical training drill is a great benefit to all boys; it opens the lungs, exercises the muscles, and imparts a manly bearing. But, my Lords, the moral training it affords is a far more important factor in national education. It teaches qualities no book-knowledge can supply, and yet without which no young man can be regarded as well brought up—I mean habits of punctuality, personal tidiness, smartness of appearance, quickness of apprehension, respect of superiors, and obedience to those in authority. In fact, the discipline of both mind and body working together turns out a good citizen. As cadet corps increase in number a proper system of organisation becomes absolutely necessary, and it is to enable such a system to be thoroughly carried out that we are asking for the help of the Government. We ask them for instructors, arms, and ammunition, the use of ranges, and the annual inspection of cadets by a competent military officer. Without this assistance I am afraid we shall not get the best results, but with it I am sure this movement will succeed and will have far-reaching results, lifting the whole military education of the country on to a higher level.

It may be thought by some that the object of this Bill is to put military work at the head of all school work, but that is not the case; it is to instruct boys while young in order that they may, when older, be ready to help in the defence of the country at short notice. It will make very little alteration in the curriculum of schools. Most schools at the present moment have cadet corps. Therefore, drill will go on as at present, except that it will be properly organised and will naturally be attended with better results. I hope, my Lords, that I have made the object of this Bill clear. There can be no doubt as to its advantages to the country when we consider that should it become law we would have in a few years large numbers of the educated youth trained in military subjects, some to a high order, spread over the whole of England, ready to repel a military raid if our hearths and homes were ever threatened, to say nothing of the numbers who would join the rank and file from the elementary schools as well as the secondary schools with a good knowledge of military work. Surely this is worth consideration at the hands of the Government, even if it costs more than I think it will. Why should not the mother country do what its children are doing? In all our colonies cadet corps are fully recognised, and they already receive from their Governments what we are asking now from His Majesty's Government. The war in South Africa has proved the use of such corps. In Natal, as soon as the colony was threatened, the older hands left their professions and their businesses; the senior cadets left their books, and the whole in a few hours were in the saddle and ready for field service. That is how we should be in England. The magnificent contingents Canada, Australia, and New Zealand sent to South Africa, which have done such splendid service during the war, owe, in the vast majority of cases, their military knowledge to the training they received as cadets at school. I beg to move the Second Reading of this Bill.

Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a.—(Lord Frankfort de Montmorency).

*THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (Lord RAGLAN)

My Lords, the Government are fully aware of the enormous advantage likely to accrue from the training of the youth of the country in habits of military discipline. All civilised nations do so train the youth of the country, but they wait until they have arrived at the military age. Habits of discipline, of punctuality, and of obedience, inculcated in early life, are, of course, of the greatest possible benefit. Drill is, as the noble Viscount has pointed out, a pleasant form of athletics, and, generally speaking, boys are very much devoted to it. Target shooting, again, is a most interesting and useful exercise, and too much cannot be said in favour of encouraging it. If all this could be done without any very great expense, as the noble Viscount seems to think, there would be no doubt as to the course which should be adopted. But when it involves large financial aid from the public funds, it behoves us to examine most carefully into the whole scheme, and to consider its drawbacks as well as its advantages.

There can be no question that the expense will be far greater than the noble Viscount seems to imagine. It is hardly necessary for me to point out to your Lordships that the time of the officials in the War Office has been fully occupied of late, and that we have had but little time to consider a scheme of so far-reaching a character and entailing a colossal expenditure. At the present moment the land forces of the Crown consist of the Regular Army, the Militia, the Yeomanry, and the Volunteers. There are, besides, cadet battalions and cadet corps; and lately there have been introduced civilian rifle clubs and drill for industrial schools. Many other suggestions have been brought forward for adding to the armed forces of the Crown, all of them calling for grants of public money. I would also like to point out that lately there has been a large increase in the Volunteer fore. That increase, which has been going on for some years, has, since the commencement of the war in South Africa eighteen months ago, proceeded by leaps and bounds. If this increase continues at the same rate as it is going on now we shall find ourselves within measurable distance of possessing more Volunteers than we shall be able profitably to employ in the defence of the country. For years there has been great difficulty in providing officers and non-commissioned officers for a very large mass of the Auxiliary forces, and I cannot see, therefore, that any very large addition of men who must necessarily be imperfectly trained would tend to the military strength of the country. In the Bill the noble Viscount asks for a good deal more than he mentioned in his speech. The Bill asks, first of all, for annual inspections by competent military authorities. It then asks for a capitation grant of 10s. per head, and for all the allowances now made to the Volunteers. At the end of Clause 6 there are these words— Provided always that the various allowances provided for in the Volunteer Regulations shall also be granted to every efficient member of school corps. The noble Viscount omitted any reference in his speech to that little paragraph. The Bill further asks for paid instructors, for schools of instruction, for officers and allowances, for pay to officers when attending schools of instruction, for arms, ammunition, and stores free, for the use of ranges, and for freedom from rates in respect of all store houses, etc.

I will tell the noble Viscount how far we are able to go in this matter. I am pleased to tell him that we shall be able to arrange that these cadet corps shall be inspected by competent military authorities. With regard to the question of officers attending schools, substantive commissions have been granted to the officers in these cadet corps and battalions, and pay and allowances at the usual rate given to Volunteer officers will be granted to them while attending, the schools. The use of ranges we most readily grant to these cadet corps when they are not required for other purposes. As to arms, at the present moment the cadet corps and battalions are provided with arms half serviceable and half unserviceable, but good enough for drill purposes, and we hope that when the obsolete carbines are returned into store we shall be able to issue some of them to these corps. By the Bill of my noble friend public elementary schools are exempted from its operation. I do not see how it would be possible in a matter of this kind to draw the line there. We should be opening a door that we could not possibly shut. If it is to the advantage of the country that youths should be drilled and trained, we should by that limitation be leaving out youths who certainly require as much training as those in secondary schools. Why should we limit this advantage to the children of the upper and middle classes and cut out those of the working classes? I have had some difficulty in arriving at any figures on this subject, but I am informed that the number of boys in the public elementary schools in Great Britain is about 2,700,000. About a quarter of that number would be eligible under this Bill to receive these particular sums of money from the public funds, and I estimate that about 400,000 would join these corps. The average cost of a Volunteer is, in round figures, £6, which includes his capitation grant, special allowances, the proportion of pay and pension earned in the Volunteers by instructors who belong to the Regular Army, grants of ammunition, and so forth. The only difference this Bill makes is to lower the capitation grant from 35s. to 10s. That would bring the cost of these cadets to £4 15s. per head. Therefore, assuming that 400,000 lads were trained, they would cost close on £2,000,000 a year; and there would naturally be an agitation to extend the privilege to the public elementary schools, in which case the expenditure would be multiplied four or five times.

With £2,000,000 a year many things might be done to increase the efficiency of the Army. To begin with, you could practically increase the pay of the warrant officers, non-commissioned officers, and men of the Regular Army by 30 per cent., and you could double your force of Militia. There is another direction in which I venture to think you might spend the money with even better results—namely, in extending institutions similar to the Duke of York's School and the Royal Hibernian School, than which no institutions are doing better work. The excellence of the non-commissioned officers derived from these schools is beyond all praise. I am sure that any philanthropic persons wishing to found an institution which would confer benefit on the country could not do better than found such an institution as the Duke of York's School. I am certain no (Government would object to pay for its upkeep. In such a school £2,000,000 a year would keep 100,000 boys. But if we could expend this enormous sum of money for what is, after all, a secondary military object, our military advisers would naturally ask why we could not spend a considerable part of it on branches of the land forces which would be immediately available for war. The spending of this large sum of money under the Bill will have no immediate result; these lads, however high their patriotism, and however excellent the pitch of training to which they are brought, must of necessity be so youthful as to be unable to serve their country in the field, and they would be under no obligation whatever to serve their country in the future, when they had arrived at a time when they could do so. I am afraid we cannot support the Bill, and if the noble Viscount carries it to a division His Majesty's Government will be compelled to vote against it.

EARL SPENCER

My Lords, I confess that the speech of the noble Lord the Under Secretary for War has somewhat surprised me, for in reading the Bill I did not gather that it was intended to go to such a gigantic expense as the noble Lord suggested. I need not go into the question of the desirability of introducing military and physical drill into our schools, as that is fully admitted. I believe that in Scotland at this moment, under a very able Minute of my noble friend the Secretary for Scotland, a good deal is being done in that respect in the elementary schools, and with very beneficial results to the children. When I read the Bill I certainly felt considerable difficulty in adopting the whole of it, but I am very much in favour of doing something to put schools which have already enrolled Volunteers on a better and more permanent footing. Subject to certain conditions it would be a desirable thing that the age of enrolment should be extended to fourteen years instead of seventeen. But the measure goes too far in regard to the facilities, such as arms and ammunition, that it tries to obtain from the Government, and the proposal that the capitation grant should go to children below the age of seventeen, and even as young as twelve, would, I think, be extremely objectionable. As the noble Lord the Under Secretary has said, it would involve a very large and enormous expenditure, and you could not be certain that such children would hereafter join the Army or be of any use in improving recruiting. The noble Lord laid stress on the great increase at the present moment of the Volunteer force, and said that very shortly we might have more Volunteers than we could possibly employ if necessity arose. I should like to look on this Bill as a military instruction Bill, for I believe that by lowering the age of enrolment to fourteen the Army would materially benefit. I therefore regret to hear that the noble Lord the Under Secretary is prepared to throw the Bill out on Second Reading. The measure, in the particular section relating to military instruction, seems to possess considerable advantages, and if the Bill passed the Second Reading I certainly should he prepared to strike out the clause which extends the capitation to children of twelve and under fourteen. The drill of such young children ought to be provided for either voluntarily, or, as in Scotland, it might be given in the public elementary schools. Though no specific public grant is given for drill in Scotland, yet efficiency in it is considered when the grant is paid. Having such strong sympathy with part of the measure, I should be sorry to see it entirely thrown out.

THE LORD CHANCELLOR (The Earl of HALSBURY)

I think I ought to remind the House that the clause giving a capitation grant will have to be struck out, because it imposes a new tax, which cannot be originated in this House.

THE SECRETARY FOR SCOTLAND (Lord BALFOUR of BURLEIGH)

The noble Earl so pointedly referred to the Scottish Minute that I feel compelled to say that there is nothing in the action taken by the Scottish Education Department which is in the slightest degree inconsistent with the action of the noble Lord the Under Secretary of State for War in commenting adversely on this Bill.

EARL SPENCER

I did not intend to urge that. I only brought it forward to show that it was necessary to have drill in some way.

LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH

I accept the explanation of the noble Lord. The action of the Under Secretary for War is in line with the policy which we have adopted in Scotland. If this matter is taken up at all, I think it should be in connection with the ordinary work of the elementary schools, at any rate in its earlier stages, and not in connection with the special and more expensive agency proposed by the Bill.

*THE EARL OF JERSEY

I hope the Government will allow the Bill to be read a second time and go to Committee. The Under Secretary has admitted that the figures he quoted had not been carefully considered by the War Office owing to pressure of work. I am quite certain that there is no desire on the part of those who are promoting this Bill to involve the country in a very large expenditure. Their great object is that the youth of the country should be taught in their early days one of the great duties of citizens, namely, to prepare themselves to repel foreign invasion. It would be a very great pity if the Government stopped such a Bill on the Second Reading, and I hope they will reconsider their decision.

VISCOUNT CROSS

I hope the Government will allow the Bill to be read a second time. I admit that it goes a good deal too far as it is drawn, but that can be altered in Committee. I should be sorry to see a non possumus put out, because the movement is one in which the public schools take a very great part, and the head master of Eton is deeply interested in the promotion of the measure. Great benefit might accrue if some parts of the Bill were carried, and I trust it will not be thrown out on Second Reading.

EARL CARRINGTON

I should like to urge that the principle of this movement should be recognised by giving the Bill a Second Reading. I was certainly somewhat staggered at the statement of the Under Secretary for War that the scheme proposed in the Bill would cost two millions. That certainly seems a large estimate. Still, I hope the Government will, taking into consideration the remarks of the noble Viscount who has just spoken, allow the Bill to pass its Second Reading, subsequently cutting out the sixth clause.

*THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (The Marquess of LANSDOWNE)

My Lords, I think the noble Viscount who moved the Second Reading of this Bill is to be congratulated, because he has received from all those Members of your Lordships' House who have spoken nothing but adhesion to the principles which this Bill endeavours to enforce. Those principles are, I understand, two—in the first place, that it is good from an educational point of view, and good for their health and physical development, that the youth of the country should undergo a certain amount of military drill during their school course; and, in the second place, that it is desirable that we should, as far as possible, make use of the education given to the youth of this country at school for the purpose of encouraging them after they have completed that education to take their place in the military forces of the Crown. Nobody will, I think, be found ready to say a word against either of those principles. I am bound to say that I think the noble Viscount also deserves our thanks for the courage which he has shown in embodying his proposals in a Bill. Too often the advocates of new legislative proposals are content with vague and hazy resolutions. The noble Viscount has formulated his proposals, and has in consequence encountered a certain amount of detailed criticism, which he might have escaped had he taken the less courageous course. I must say, with regard to the criticism offered by my noble friend the Under Secretary for War, that I do not think that criticism at all went beyond what was justifiable under the circumstances. There is no doubt whatever that this Bill is very far-reaching, and I will undertake to say that no Bill of the kind has ever been carried in Parliament upon the initiative of a private Member. If your Lordships will consider for one moment what this Bill does, I think you will scarcely dispute what I have said. The first clause lays down that, notwithstanding anything in the Volunteer Acts or Regulations, any pupil in a public school, after attaining the age of fourteen, may be enrolled in the muster roll of any public school rifle corps. It will be seen that there is absolutely no limit to the numbers. Then the second clause enacts that the pupils of all these schools who are under fourteen years of age may be enrolled in a junior corps. In the third clause is found a provision, to which attention has not been called, to the effect that— Cadet corps and companies and cadet battalions, whether formed in connection with a public school or formed otherwise in accordance with the Volunteer Regulations may be maintained. So that literally there is no limit whatever to the number of young men and lads who may annually be enrolled under the provisions of the Bill. I want to call the attention of the House to the manner in which these new forces are to be dealt with. They may be given such military instruction as the Secretary of State may direct in a number of subjects which are enumerated. They may be annually inspected in such a manner as the Secretary of State for War may direct. Under Clause 10 the Secretary of State is empowered to make regulations for the general government and discipline of any of these corps. Well, my Lords, that is militarism with a vengeance. The governing body and the masters of school are to be pushed on one side, and the Secretary of State is to be brought in, with a military imperium in imperio for all schools. I notice the proposal with a certain amount of pleasure, for it seems to me to denote an amount of confidence in the Secretary of State which has not always been exhibited.

Some complaint was made of my noble friend, because it was alleged that he had taken a much too alarmist view of the cost to which the public would be put were this Bill to become law, but my noble friend was perfectly correct. As I have shown your Lordships, there is no limit to the number of lads who may be enrolled, and I will undertake to say that while the present wave of military enthusiasm is passing over the country, lads could be enrolled by the hundred thousand. All of them are to receive capitation grants and instruction at the public expense, and masters and instructors are to be allowed free attendance at military schools of instruction, and are to be allowed to obtain certificates for instruction, which I presume will entitle them to remuneration. Then, in the eighth clause, it is provided that the Secretary of State may supply, at the public expense, arms, ammunition, and stores. This is something additional to the capitation grant. The capitation grant may be earned, and on the top of that comes this grant for ammunition, arms, and stores. And, last of all, this great hoard of youthful warriors is to be turned loose on the public rifle ranges, which, as we all know, are not too numerous and none too extensive to meet the requirements of the Regular Army. Therefore I say that the Under Secretary of State was justified in warning your Lordships that this Bill did mean a very serious public expenditure. We are well aware that at the present time military expenditure is advancing by leaps and bounds, and we are at this moment passing through the somewhat sobering process of considering how the bill for all these things is to be paid. I think the representative of the War Office is amply justified in suggesting to the House that, if proposals of this kind, so far-reaching and so revolutionary, are to be taken up, they should be taken up on the initiative of His Majesty's Government, and after very careful examination of the expenditure involved. That, I think, is a fair note of warning to strike. On the other hand, we should be extremely reluctant to take any course in this House that might bear the appearance of hostility to the principles to which I have referred as governing the Bill of my noble friend. I would therefore suggest, for your Lordships' consideration, that the Second Reading might be allowed to pass unchallenged, but, of course, upon the clear understanding that we undertake no responsibility whatever in regard to the further stages of the Bill, and that it is submitted for the proper examination and criticism of the responsible department.

On Question, agreed to; Bill read 2a accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.