The question what is the shortest period that will suffice to produce cohesion belongs to educational psychology.  How long does it take to form habits?  How many repetitions of a lesson will bring a man into the condition in which he responds automatically to certain calls upon him, as does a swimmer dropped into the water, a reporter in forming his shorthand words, or a cyclist guiding and balancing his machine?  In each case two processes are necessary.  There is first the series of progressive lessons in which the movements are learned and mastered until the pupil can begin practice.  Then follows a period of practice more or less prolonged, without which the lessons learned do not become part of the man’s nature; he retains the uncertainty of a beginner.  The recruit course of the British army is of four months.  A first practice period of six months followed by fresh practice periods of a month each in two subsequent years or by four practice periods of a fortnight each in four successive years are in the proposals here sketched assumed to be sufficient.  If they were proved inadequate I believe the right plan of supplementing them would be rather by adding to the number and duration of the manoeuvre practices of the subsequent years than by prolonging the first period of continuous training.

The following table shows the cost of two years’ service calculated on the same bases as have been assumed above.  Two years’ service would mean an army with the colours not of 200,000 but of 390,000 men.  This would require double the number of officers and sergeants, and the annual estimates for personnel would be L34,000,000, and the total Army Estimates L41,000,000.  There would also be a very great extra expenditure upon barracks.

Estimate of Annual Cost for Two Years’ Service.

13,650 officers at L500 a year L6,825,000

27,300 sergeants at L100 2,730,000

Pension for sergeants’ annual class
  of 27,300, decreasing by 2-1/2 per
  cent., gives after twenty-five years
  L12,403; at L52 a year pension
  is 644,956

390,000 privates at L45 a year 17,550,000

Third year mounted troops, 20,000
  at L60 1,200,000

First-class reserve 997,000

Training supplementary officers and
  sergeants 500,000
                                            ----------
    Carry forward L30,446,956

Brought forward L30,446,956

Colonial troops                              3,500,000
----------
Total personnel                    L33,946,956

Materiel, allowing for extra
  numbers 5,000,000

Staff and administration, allowing
  for extra numbers 2,000,000
                                           -----------
                                           L40,946,956
                                           ===========