travel books: Esher said, a voluntary member of the force. He may resign, as in the Curragh incident, because he objects to the Government's policy. An ordinary soldier, on the Qther hand, even though he is normally recruited while still a minor and unable in the eyes of the law to bind himself by contract, joins for six years. There is no escape save by the payment of a heavy fine, generally far beyond his means. However unsuited he may find himself to the conditions, however they may differ from what he was led to expect, he cannot go. While this leads to some cases of hardship and to others of insubordination in the effort to get dismissed, it has the additional effect of preventing the recruitment of many independentminded men, and probably lowers the tone of the ranks. Finally, the picture that we have of the top ranks of the army bears out our earlier impressions. Promotion seems to be so completely by seniority that even during the War strategy was under no one who had not forty years experience of the military machine behind him.(1) And as for social distinction, that is even more marked here than in the lower ranks of officers. Everyone is a gentleman, whether it be shewn by public school education, by descent from the peerage, or by marriage with the daughters of baronets, officers, or men of property.(2) The Royal Army, then, still reflects the conditions of a pre-democratic period. We do not find a British general living like Foch on £600 a year, or that he is, like Joffre, the son of a cooper or upholsterer. The British Army is clearly a reliable force for the maintenance of internal order on the lines of the present social structure. Whether it can be relied on to obey a progressive government bringing 1 Liddell Hart, op, cit., p. 164. 2 See appendix to this chapter, p. 284. books

Books > Old Books > The British Constitution (1938)

Page 204

THE ARMED FORCES

Esher said, a voluntary member of the force. He may resign, as in the Curragh incident, because he objects to the Government's policy. An ordinary soldier, on the Qther hand, even though he is normally recruited while still a minor and unable in the eyes of the law to bind himself by contract, joins for six years. There is no escape save by the payment of a heavy fine, generally far beyond his means. However unsuited he may find himself to the conditions, however they may differ from what he was led to expect, he cannot go. While this leads to some cases of hardship and to others of insubordination in the effort to get dismissed, it has the additional effect of preventing the recruitment of many independentminded men, and probably lowers the tone of the ranks.
Finally, the picture that we have of the top ranks of the army bears out our earlier impressions. Promotion seems to be so completely by seniority that even during the War strategy was under no one who had not forty years experience of the military machine behind him.(1) And as for social distinction, that is even more marked here than in the lower ranks of officers. Everyone is a gentleman, whether it be shewn by public school education, by descent from the peerage, or by marriage with the daughters of baronets, officers, or men of property.(2)
The Royal Army, then, still reflects the conditions of a pre-democratic period. We do not find a British general living like Foch on £600 a year, or that he is, like Joffre, the son of a cooper or upholsterer. The British Army is clearly a reliable force for the maintenance of internal order on the lines of the present social structure. Whether it can be relied on to obey a progressive government bringing

1 Liddell Hart, op, cit., p. 164.
2 See appendix to this chapter, p. 284.