Drink and the recruiting system.

Date:
[1867?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Drink and the recruiting system. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    made in the condition of the soldier, as recommended by the Recruiting Commission ; but two changes are so indispensable that, although they have not been recommended, public opinion will surely insist upon them as soon as the evidence appended to the report has been sufficiently considered. One is, that recruiting should be dissociated from drunkenness, by providing proper places in each district where the recruits may be received until they can be for¬ warded to the depot battalions ; and the other, that recruits should be protected from the delusion of the 4 shilling a day and one penny beer money/ by being made clearly to understand that the real terms of service are free lodging, free clothing, free rations, free education, and free medical attendance, with a neb rate of pay, which amounts at present to 3d. or 4d. a day, but might with much public advan¬ tage be increased to 6d., and be combined with additional encourage¬ ment to making deposits in the savings bank. A reference to the evidence indexed under 4 public-houses’ and 4 rendezvous’ will show how open we are to the reproach of tainting our soldiers, at the outset of their career, with that vice which is the cause of most of the crimes committed in the army, and of the flogging, branding, and other punish¬ ments which too often complete their demoralisation. Even the non-commissioned officers detached from regiments for the purpose of recruiting become deteriorated in character and morals before they join again. As regards the stoppages, 4 it must be recollected/ as was said before the commission by an officer wffio had been pro¬ moted from the ranks, 4 that the soldiers are now in a position to form an opinion for themselves;’ and it is therefore time to drop an obsolete, fictitious machinery which is as fertile in misconceptions and irritating questions, as it is cumbrous, obstructive, and the occasion of unnecessary administrative complications. These abuses of the recruiting system were alluded to as follows by the late Mr. Godley, in a memorandum appended to the report of the com¬ mission :— 41 believe that system to be essentially evil, based on falsehood and fraud, and tending directly to infinite immorality. I believe that no thoughtful man can have observed the scenes that take place daily and nightly at the taverns frequented by our recruiting staff, or at the head-quarters of a militia regiment on the day that volun¬ teers for the line are called for, without feeling shame and disgust that such proceedings should form part of the recognised machinery of the British military service. I believe that a fearful responsibility lies upon the Government which deliberately scatters such tempta¬ tions among the poorest and most helpless classes of its people, and which, for its own political ends, takes advantage of their weak¬ nesses and feeds their vices.’ ” The following extract from Mr. O’Reilly’s speech in the House of Commons, when moving an address for a Royal Commission on Recruiting, Eebruary 21, 1865, illustrates a point referred to by Mr. Godley :—44 But how were volunteers too often procured ] He knew one instance, and he feared it was far from a solitary one, when a whole regiment of militia was confined to barracks for a week—the men being discharged from all duty, and unlimited sup-