tatives bearing the
flag and little more. The extent of territory, the numbers of possible
enemies, the vastness of the interests which the 1,689 men in China
and the 1,407 men in the Straits Settlements had to watch, are
perhaps, to those who realise the geography, almost as significant.
Always it had been assumed that, if at any time some addition was
necessary to reinforce these far extended outposts of Empire, it was
to be provided from the regular army stationed at home. Up to the year
1888 no official declaration had ever been made of the purposes for
which the home army was to be used. In that year Mr. Stanhope issued
the necessarily often mentioned memorandum, which declared that,
though it was highly improbable that so large a force would ever be
required, yet two army corps, with a cavalry division, or a total of
81,952 men, were to be available for the purposes of action beyond the
seas. As will be seen from the chapter on the work of the Navy, it was
only in the year 1899 that the Admiralty, who necessarily would have
to transport whatever strength was thus employed, became aware for the
first time that the War Office would need shipping for more than one
army corps. The British army has had more, and more varied, service
during the nineteenth century than any other in the world. It
undoubtedly included more officers and men, who had experienced what
it meant to be under fire, than any other. But these experiences had
all been gained in comparatively small detachments, and each was so
unlike that of any other, that it was practically impossible that
those trainings by service, which are much more efficient in their
influence on the practical action of an army than any prescriptions,
should be uniform throughout it. At the same time, this had given both
to officers and men a habit of adapting themselves to unexpected
incidents which may perhaps, without national immodesty, be said to be
unique. In the year 1870 what is known as the short service system had
been introduced. Under that system there were, in 1899, in the British
Islands, 81,134 reservists available to be called up when required for
war, retained only by a small fee. The principle on which the scheme
was worked at the time was this: that as soon as the army was ordered
to be mobilised all those men who had not completed their training in
the ranks, or had not yet reached the age for service abroad, were
relegated to depots; their places were taken