nd, the Secretary of State for War said:--

"The total number of Territorial Battalions in France and ordered
there is 19. I am selecting two more to make up one per Brigade."

These arrangements had been made in response to my urgent
requests that whatever Territorial regiments of yeomanry or
battalions of infantry were ready and available should be sent to
France at once and incorporated with the regular forces there, and
that we should not wait for the divisional formations to be prepared
and completed.

The history of the Territorials is well known. The Volunteers, from
which the Territorial Army sprang, came into being in the years just
following the Crimean War.

For some 10 to 20 years afterwards the Volunteers may be said to have
met with little better than derision. It was said that they only
wanted to wear a uniform and play at soldiers, and hardly anyone
believed in the wonderful spirit which really animated them from the
start. The military and other authorities gave them but little help
and hardly any encouragement, in fact they refused to take the
Volunteers seriously.

In spite of all these drawbacks this wonderful force, under the
leadership of such men as the late Lord Wemyss, Lord MacDonald, and
others, went steadily on, struggling against adversity, but increasing
in strength all the time. The great patriotic spirit which has always
been the soul of the Volunteers, was kept alive by their great leaders
in face of slights and neglect, but it was reserved for Lord Haldane
to devise the scheme which was to make the fullest use of the
Volunteers and bring them to the zenith of their reputation. He
realised that their patriotic ardour might be put to good purpose, and
drafted the scheme whereby, whilst remaining volunteers, they were
formed into a great Territorial Army, administered by the so-called
Territorial County Associations, to whose energy and devotion the
country owes so much.

The result of Lord Haldane's statesmanlike foresight has
been clear to anyone who, during the past four years, has cast his
eyes across the Channel and seen the splendid behaviour of our citizen
soldiers in the field.

I have spoken already elsewhere of what I have always regarded as our
great initial administrative mistake in the war, namely, the raising
of an entirely new Army, when the machinery for expanding the
Territorial Force--especially established by Lord Haldane for the
purpose--I mean the Territorial