CO885(1-2) — Page 18

18

I should further observe, that at the period above alluded to, one regiment of cavalry was to be relieved in India, but as I now understand that the regiment about to be sent out is to be considered in addition to the force in India, it will be necessary that the cavalr at home should be increased to that extent.

The Marquess of Normandy.

(Extract.)

I have, &c.

(Signed)

HILL

Inclosure in No. 8.

Lord Hill to Lord Glenely.

Horse Guards, January 7, 1839.

I WOULD take leave to suggest for your Lordship's consideration that an augmenta tion should be made to our depots generally, so as to augment the establishment of each regiment of infantry to 839 rank and file; but under any circumstances to the depots of such of our regiments whose service companies have been augmented to 559 and 600 rank and file.

If each of these depots were to be raised to the same numbers as the others, and thus all the depots placed upon the same establishment of 260 rank and file, the whole of the augmentation would amount to no more than 3,698 rank and file, and which not requiring any additional officer, could be easily reduced, and within a short period of time; while if the augmentation be carried to the extent of my first suggestion of making each battalion 839, by adding 100 rank and file to each battalion (exclusively of the regiments in India and which must depend upon the Court of Directors) the addition would amount to 8,300 rank and file, a number not too great for the urgent demands made upon our force, under the present circumstances of the country.

I will now conclude by observing, that the regiment of Scots Fusileer Guards, being the only regiment of Foot Guards which has not been augmented, and consequently remaining less than the other regiments by 128 rank and file, it would be of essential assist- ance to our military arrangements, if the strength of this regiment of Guards could be so raised as to enable them to resume their proper station on the Tower duties, by which measure, one battalion of the line now in the Tower would be at liberty for other service.

No. 9.

April 23, 1839.

IN a memorandum of Lord Hill's, dated 12th March, 1888, the objects in view in the establishment of the depôt system are stated to have been as follows:-

"1st. To facilitate the rapid increase of the army upon an emergency without incurring the inconvenience which had been found to result from the various plans formerly adopted for that purpose.

"2nd. To carry on the reliefs for the foreign stations, and to keep the garrisons abroad in a state of more complete efficiency than before.

"3rd. To provide for the sudden calls of home service, without breaking up the regiment or compelling them to remain abroad on colonial service for a period which in some cases, in India, has considerably exceeded twenty years."

It appears to me upon a close examination of the practical effects of the experiment during the fourteen years it has been in operation, it may be shown not to have answered as fully as was expected these intended objects, and that by a different organiza- tion of the infantry of the line, it would be possible at once greatly to diminish the pressure upon the troops of the colonial service, and also to make some reduction in the expense of maintaining the same amount of force as at present.

, it

1. In the first place, with respect to the alleged facility of increasing the army, i is to be observed, that this does not result from the division of regiments into service and depot companies, but from the number of officers in proportion to rank and file, cord- ing to the existing establishment. A regimental establishment of 799 rank and file, with the officers for ten companies, affords the means for either reducing the army to the extent of 8 or 9,000 men by checking recruiting, or of raising it as much above its usual strength by increasing the rank and file in each regiment, and thus enables the Government with great ease and great economy to vary within these limits the whole amount of force kept up, according to the varying wants of the public service. But whether the regiments are divided into service and depôt companies, or not, this method of increasing the army is equally practicable, as is most conclusively shown by the fact, that at this monent the force in India is to be increased by upwards of 5,000 men, by the mere addition of rank and file to the regiments serving in that part of the Empire, though these regiments are not divided into service and depôt

19

companies in the same manner as those serving on most of the other foreign stations. Again, if such a further increase of the army were necessary as would be required by the breaking out of a war, it is perfectly true that the readiest and most effectual mode of making the augmentation, would be increasing the existing regiments and dividing them into two battalions, since in this manner the additional force raised, would have its due proportion of experienced officers and trained soldiers, by which the whole would become much more rapidly fit for duty than if entirely new regiments were to be raised. But this also is a measure which could be just as well adopted, though the present system of service and depot companies were not in force;-in truth, the facility of thus augmenting the army, depends chiefly, if not entirely, first upon the supply of men which can be obtained by recruiting, and secondly, upon the amount of the force already trained with which the new levies can be amalgamated, and upon the number of experienced officers and non-commissioned officers, who are available for bringing these levies into a state of discipline.

The division of regiments into service and depot companies upon the present plan neither facilitates recruiting, nor increases the means of bringing new levies into a state of discipline; it can hardly, therefore, be said that the facility of increasing the army upon an emergency, depends upon this system.

II. The next point to be inquired into, is the alleged advantage of the depot system in keeping the garrisons abroad in a state of efficiency and providing for the reliefs.

With a view to the efficiency of the garrisons abroad, it is undoubtedly true that there must be some description or other of depôt, where recruits may be trained so as to be ready to supply vacancies in the ranks abroad, as they occur; but there is no evidence whatever to show that for this purpose, it is necessary to keep at home so large a propor. tion of each regiment as is the practice under the present system; while it is obvious that, so far as regards reliefs, the effect of this system must necessarily be, with the same number of regiments and the same force at home and abroad, to lengthen the period which each corps, must pass on foreign service.

This effect of the system will be best shown by the accompanying comparative return, No. 1, of the rank and file of infantry of the line, und of regiments at home and abroad, in each year from 1820 to the present time.

By this return, it will be seen that since the establishment of the depôt system, of the whole number of battalions in the service, a much larger proportion has neces- sarily been kept upon foreign service than formerly, while there is no such change in the proportion of the force at home to that abroad. But it is obvious, that in a series of years, if a uniform system is adhered to, and equal shares of duty are assigned to different regiments, the time which each will pass at home and abroad, will be determined by the proportion which exists between the number of battalions employed at home and abroad.

This will be illustrated by a comparison of the state of the army in the present year *ud in 1820. In these two years-the present depôt system not having been adopted in the former-the proportions of the whole infantry of the line abroad did not materially differ; in 1820 the number of men abroad was 41,170 out of a force of 68,770, that is 60.3 per cent.; in the present year the number of rank and file of infantry of the line abroad is 47,100, out of a force of 76,167, or 61.9 per cent. of the whole. This, con- sidering the very unusual demands of the colonial service in the present year, is a very small increase indeed of the proportion of the infantry of the line serving abroad, as compared to the year 1820; but if a similar comparison is made as to the number of regiments abroad at the same two periods, the result is exceedingly different. In 1820, out of uinety-seven battalions of regular infantry, fifty-five were abroad, or 56.7 per cent. of the whole; whereas, in the present year, out of 103 battalions, seventy-eight are abroad, or 75.7 per cent. of the whole, showing an increase in the proportion of bat- talions abroad of 19 per cent., although the increase of the proportion of the force abroad is little more than 1 per cent.

Now it has been generally considered, that each regiment in India ought to be elieved at the end of sixteen years' service, and those on other foreign stations at the end of ten years; to effect this, according to the arrangement of 1820, it would have been necessary to send abroad annually 44 regiments, or thirty-nine in eight years; and as there were forty-two battalions at home, the time which each would have had to pass at home would have been eight years and nine months.

But, according to the present arrangement, in order to afford reliefs to the regiments serving abroad, after a service of the same length as in the former case, it would be neces- sary that 6, battalions should be sent abroad annually, or sixty-nine in ten years, which as there are only twenty-five battalions at home, would give to each no more than three years and seven months at home, after each tour of colonial duty; a severity of service which it is obviously impossible to impose upon the troops for any con siderable time.

It must further be observed, that if the depot system had been strictly adhered to, and the regiments divided as was originally intended, into service and depôt companies, it would have been impracticable to have sent the force we now have abroad, even for ever so short a time, without a considerable augmentation of the army beyond its present amount, and that it has been necessary to depart in fact from the system, by raising the service companies of no fewer than nineteen regiments to 600 meu, leaving with the depôt companies no more than 139 rauk and Glễ.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference -

ITTLE C.O. 885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO