Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/103

 DEFENCE 51

Defence.

During the later years of the Great War important questions of naval and military policy were determined by the War Cabinet, which developed from an amalgamation of the functions of the Cabinet with those of the Committee of Imperial Defence. In 1920 the Committee of Imperial Defence was revived, and again became responsible, as it was before the war, for the co-ordination of naval, military, and air policy. Of this Committee the Prime Minister is ex-officio President, and he has power to call for the attendance at its meetings of any naval or military officeis, or of other persons, with administrative experience, whether they are in official positions or not. The usual members are the Secretaries of State for Foreign A for War and Air, the Colonies, India, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the First Lord of the Admiralty, the First Sea Lord, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, the Chief of the Air Staff, the Directors of the Intelligence Departments of the War Office and the Admiralty. It is probable that in view of the part played by the Dominions in the Great War, representatives of the Dominions will be members of the Committee, and will attend all meetings at which Imperial Defence in its wider aspect is discussed.

I. A KMT.

During 1920 great progress was made in the transition of the army from a war to peace basis, but the extended commitments of the British Army arising out of the war prevented the completion of the reduction of estab- lishments to the scale which prevailed in 1914. Garrisons have to be main- tained on the Rhine, in Palestine, in Mesopotamia, and in Constantinople, while a number of war-time sick and wounded, of men employed on salvage work in the various theatres of war, and in the re-interment of the dead in permanent cemeteries, swelled the establishments and increased the estimates. Actuallv the British Exchequer paid for approximately 550,000 men during 1920-21, as compared with 186.400 in 1914-15. 130,000 of these men con- sisted of native, Indian, and Colonial troops, as compared with 8,700 in 1914-15, the great majority of these coming from the Indian Army, and ig outside the confines of India. During 1920 a series of Arab risings on a considerable scale in Mesopotamia began in the month of June and con- tinued throughout the year. This necessitated a considerable reinforcement of the garrison of Mesopotamia, chiefly by Indian troops, and at the end of 1920 there were more than 100,000 troops in that country, of whom 13,000 were British.

The land forces of the United Kingdom consist of the Regular Army and of the Territorial Army. The British troops of the Regular Army serve both at home and overseas and are commonly referred to as the British Army in contradistinction to the Indian Army or Native Army, and to the Local Forces in certain British Colonies and Dependencies, the personnel of which is native with a proportion of British officers.

The Regular Army, whether at home or abroad, except India, is paid for by the Imperial Exchequer (although certain Dominions pay contri- butions towards its upkeep) ; India pays a contribution towards the cost of troops at home owing to these serving as a depdt for the regular troops in India. The Territorial Army serves only at home in peace time, but as the destruction of the German fleet and the supreme position of our Xavy in Home Waters has practically eliminated all risk of invasion, members of the Territorial Army are now asked to accept liability for service "overseas in

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