Topic: Canadian Militia
Canadian Army Training 1903
the very fact that the soldier is now called upon to exercise "individuality" is just the very reason why he requires even more careful training than in the days when battle-drill and barrack-square drill were identical …
Blasts From the Trumpet
Quebec Saturday Budget, 28 March 1903
The Army and Navy Gazette says:
Signs are not wanting that Canada is seriously considering the question of reorganizing her military forces, so as to enable her to place trustworthy troops in the field at short notice. There seems, however, to lurk in her counsels one of the most dangerous heresies begotten of the late war—namely, that the modern soldiers requires less training than his ancestors. Accordingly, in the majority of cases, the very fact that the soldier is now called upon to exercise "individuality" is just the very reason why he requires even more careful training than in the days when battle-drill and barrack-square drill were identical, and the best-drilled troops were, other things being equal, superior to less perfectly-trained adversaries. Canada must not deceive herself. Her "back-woodsmen," indeed, may need but little training in order to render them very valuable troops indeed, but the citizens of her great towns have no greater claim to being "born soldiers" than the inhabitants of European cities. The latter depend for their efficiency entirely upon training, and, unlike the former, have nothing but whatever physical courage and stamina they may possess as the foundation of their military efficiency. The backwoodsman, like the Boer, is a natural soldier who needs only to learn how to work in harmony with his comrades as part of a tactical unit; but the townsman must learn everything. His initiative can only spring from acquired knowledge. He is an exotic as compared with the indigenous plant.
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