20,000 non-commissioned officers and men would cost . . . . . . . .  L18,295,215

   Second year of 20,000 mounted
       troops at L60 a year each . . . 1,200,000

   Add to this cost of first-class Reserve
       of 96,000 at L10 7s. 6d.
       each . . . . . . . 997,600

   Cost of 30,000 men for six months’
       extra training at the rate of
       L60 a year each . . . . . 900,000

Cost of extra training for supplementary
officers and non-commissioned
officers . . . . . . 500,000
-----------
L21,892,815
Add to this the cost of the troops
maintained in the Colonies and
Egypt so far as charged to
British Estimates . . . .  L3,401,704
-----------
Total personnel . . .  L25,294,519

Materiel (allowing for additional
outlay due to larger numbers) . . 4,500,000

Staff and administration      .    .    .   1,500,000
------------
Total Cost of Army at Home
and in the Colonies      .    .  L31,294,519

This is slightly in excess of the present cost of the personnel of the Army, but, whereas the present charge only provides for the heterogeneous force already described of 589,000 men, the charges here explained provide for a short-service homogeneous army of one million and a half, as well as for the 45,000 troops permanently maintained in Egypt and the Colonies.

The estimate just given is, however, extravagant.  The British system has innumerable different rates of pay and extra allowances of all kinds, and is so full of anomalies that it is bound to be costly.  Unfortunately, the Army Estimates are so put together that it is difficult to draw from them any exact inferences as to the actual annual cost of a private soldier beyond his pay.

The average annual cost, effective and non-effective, of an officer in the cavalry, artillery, engineers, and infantry is L473, this sum covering all the arrangements for pensions and retiring allowances.

I propose in the following calculations to assume the average cost of an officer to be L500 a year, a sum which would make it possible for the average combatant officer to be somewhat better paid than he is at present.

The normal pay of a sergeant in the infantry of the line is 2s. 4d. a day, or L42, 11s. 8d. a year.  The Army Estimates do not give the cost of a private soldier, but the statement is made that the average annual cost per head of 150,000 warrant officers, non-commissioned officers, and men is L63, 6s. 7d.  The warrant officers and non-commissioned officers appear to be much more expensive than the private, and as the minimum pay of a private is L18, 5s., the balance, L45, 1s. 7d., is probably much more than the cost of housing, clothing, feeding, and equipping the private, whose food, the most expensive item, certainly does not cost a shilling a day or L18 a year.