Art. 2.-ARMY EDUCATION. 1. L'Armée Nouvelle. By Jean Jaurès. Paris: Rouff, 1915 (first published 1910). 2. Report of Imperial Education Conference (June 11 and 12, 1919). London, 1919. THE establishment of a closer co-operation between the army and the rest of the nation': such, in the words of Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, is the aim of the present system of army education. Une armée n'est forte qu'à la condition d'exprimer la vivante réalité sociale'; in this phrase the great socialist orator and thinker, Jaurès, summed up the object of his elaborate scheme of reform expounded in 'L'Armée Nouvelle.' Both phrases imply the same ideal. In his attempt to realise it, Jaurès, true to the genius of his nation, elaborated a scheme, clear and logical in every detail, of army reform and army education; we, as characteristically, started an educational scheme hurriedly, to meet a pressing and limited need of the moment, and found, as it was developed, that it might secure the far greater object defined by the Chief of the Imperial General Staff. On the other hand, it is significant that the inception of such a scheme should have followed, in our case, in circumstances similar to those in which Jaurès wrote in 1910; that is, at a time when the whole manhood of the nation was in the army, and most Englishmen had a chance, such as they never had before, of realising what are the conditions of military service. No one, probably, would deny that before the war the relations between the army and the rest of the community were not so close as they should have been. The army formed a class apart, with interests of its own. The civilian took little account of the soldier's peacetime routine, while the soldier was carefully shielded from the pre-occupations of his fellow-citizens. He was encouraged to eschew politics, and, so long as he had the knowledge that conformed to a very elementary standard, he was not usually tempted to take interest in anything but his military duties. It is hardly wonderful, therefore, that on leaving the army he found himself uprooted and out of touch with his contemporaries. In the case of officers this divorce from the civil community was not quite so apparent. They mixed more with men of other professions and, having a more permanent career than the rank and file, did not find themselves uprooted at so early an age. The officers, too, who came most to the front and were best known to the world, were as a rule men who realised that their profession exacted deep study of the world and of many branches of learning not immediately concerned with military science. But this was not true of the average officer; his exclusively military education and prejudices, and his disinclination to take a serious interest in anything but military routine, served to keep him out of touch with civilian thought. How often has one heard such an expression from the regular officer as: 'I am simply a soldier and I know nothing and care less about politics or literature or what not'-said, too, with an air of self-satisfaction, as if it were something to be proud of! This divorce between the army and the rest of the nation was bad for both; the nation suffered, because it did not obtain an army as good as it might have been; the army, because it felt itself cut off to a great extent from the nation, to which it is its mission to give the highest service that men can be called upon to give. Before the war some steps had been taken to remedy this state of things. For some years previously, in addition to normal methods of obtaining regular commissions through Sandhurst and Woolwich, a few commissions were given to men who had had university training. This system introduced into the officers' messes men who had developed some interest in affairs not exclusively military, and could bring minds broadened by intercourse with men entering other professions to the consideration of army problems. The officers appointed by this system were a great success. The question of the men was more difficult, and it was not seriously considered until the unpopularity of the army had been demonstrated by the fall in recruiting returns. Much, it is true, had been done between the South African War and 1914, especially by Lord Haldane, to make the army more efficient and attractive. The serious training required of the striking force at home and its organisation on war footing had given to men as well as officers an object in their military careers, which had not always been apparent under previous systems in peacetime. Still, for many years before 1914, the strength was below establishment; and it was found impossible to obtain the needful 30,000 recruits a year. The pay, which in spite of slight improvements was still low, had something to do with this; but a deeper cause was the fact that a soldier during his seven or nine years' period in the army was so cut off from all interests and crafts of the civil community that, when he was discharged, he had no career open to him. 6 The army, as Mr H. A. L. Fisher recently expressed it, 'has been in a sense, for at any rate the majority of the rank and file, a blind-alley profession.' Sent forth in the prime of life into the labour market after a period of service as fatal as could have been fixed on,' to quote Lord Roberts, whether the convenience and welfare of the soldier or the interest of the State be considered,' the discharged soldier was ill-prepared for any other work. The routine of drill and fatigues gave him little scope for the exercise of faculties which would be useful in civil life; and his shielded existence in peace-time, with the minute regulations that mapped out his daily life, was a bad preparation for the hard struggles of the outside world. Except in one of the specialised corps, the soldier had no training in any trade which would be useful to him thereafter; and he was lucky after discharge if he obtained anything better than casual employment. These being the conditions, it is not surprising that in times of flourishing trade it was impossible to attract enough men to the army, and that at no time the serious man, who took a long view of his future career, would join it, unless he had an overwhelming passion for soldiering. In a few regiments with good traditions and public-spirited officers inducements were offered to the men to fit themselves for some craft before their discharge; and they were assisted in finding satisfactory employment on their return to civil life. But these provisions were not general. In the summer of 1914, however, when the recruiting problem was acute, in addition to expedients such as public meetings, advertisements, and recruiting marches, the more radical remedy was suggested of providing such an education in the army that discharged men could find themselves more in touch with civil conditions and have qualifications for some trade. This, from the men's point of view, would have removed the most telling reproach against the army system. Accordingly, a committee was appointed to consider how the men in the army could be given technical instruction which would qualify them on discharge for some trade or profession. But, before the committee had reported, the war broke out, and the War Office had more urgent matters on hand. During the first eighteen months of the war the paramount considerations were to obtain as many recruits as possible, to train them with the utmost despatch, and to send them out to reinforce our weak lines. But from the beginning of 1916 the Military Service Acts enabled the War Office to train men more deliberately, since the numbers available at any time could be calculated and recruits called up as they were required. At the same time a new Chief of the Staff came to the War OfficeSir William Robertson, a firm believer in sound education for the soldier. He not only instituted an improved system of purely military training, but, in his directions for the instruction of young soldiers, planted the seed of the present army education system. Young men of eighteen, though called up for military service, were not liable to be sent abroad before nineteen, except in such a case of dire emergency as occurred in March 1918. Hence more time could be devoted to their training at home than could be spared for the older men. At first they were given an exclusively military training, but from the beginning of 1917 onwards, the Army Council was able to recognise its special responsibility for these young men, many of whom had not yet completed their training for civil work, and all of whom were at an age when their moral education and general outlook on life needed development. In accordance with this policy, in addition to the hours allotted for military training, special periods were set aside for school education and organised games; and from March 1917 young soldiers were concentrated in formations where they could obtain special attention and special methods of instructions, In announcing to the public the institution of these Young Soldier Battalions, the Secretary of the War Office stated that great importance is attached to the welfare and education of these young men; and the headquarters of their battalions have been carefully selected with this end in view.' But the practice in some battalions fell far short of these excellent intentions. Some of the commanding officers knew little and cared less about any form of training not obviously of a military nature, and to a large extent ignored the new regulations. On the other hand, the enthusiasts for the change were given their chance of imparting a sound education to the best part of the nation's youth and used it to the full. At Cannock Chase, for example, the Rev. Richard Brooke, then an army chaplain, now headmaster of Liverpool College, enthusiastically supported by his General, who had himself known what it was to acquire education under difficulties, and, in the 23rd Army Corps, Captain Egerton and Lieutenant Shelley, who had devoted themselves to educational problems in civil life, were allowed to make the fullest use of the opportunity for serious education given by the Army Council Instructions. It was not difficult to find capable instructors among the officers and men of the units, and by a careful system of grading-for the attainments of the young soldiers were naturally very unequal-to secure profitable courses of instruction for every man. At Cannock Chase these classes were supplemented by lectures from the Master of Balliol and other scholars; in the 23rd Army Corps local education authorities freely gave help; at Sheffield, another centre where good work was done, the classes for young soldiers were almost entirely conducted by teachers in the Technical Institute. These pioneers took no narrow view of the education needed; besides the groundwork of general knowledge, instruction was given in some trade or business likely to be useful in civil life, chiefly in evening classes, where the attendance, though voluntary, fully justified the experiment. In France, meanwhile, an educational movement had sprung up spontaneously. The older soldiers there craved for some intellectual interest as a relief from their monotonous lives; and the Y.M.C.A. has the credit of |