9 - ‘Quite as much political and imperial, as it is military’: Hutton's war in South Africa and raising an Australian army, 1900–03

Summary

When Hutton returned to London he was terrified that events in Canada might have sullied his reputation and thereby ruined his future prospects. He need never had worried. Lansdowne and Chamberlain assured him that not only was his work in Canada highly valued but also that they well understood the great ‘difficulties’ under which he had laboured. His spirits buoyed, Hutton chose this moment to address the issue that had been forefront in his mind since leaving Canada, namely, his ideas of a ‘Militia System of Co-operative Defence’. Chamberlain was interested and asked Hutton whether he thought a militia system on the Canadian or New South Wales model might be applied in Britain. Hutton assured him it could. The present ‘fragmented’ auxiliaries in Britain, in that they still consisted of infantry units without field artillery, mounted units or military departments, could and should, Hutton argued, be restructured as a self-contained army. Chamberlain initially doubted the quality of such a militia, but Hutton assured him that ‘with a good system of organisation and a good set of experienced officers it mattered little if the men were at first somewhat ill-trained’. Chamberlain was so impressed that he took Hutton at once to see the First Lord of the Treasury and future Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour, who was deeply alarmed by the British military weaknesses exposed in South Africa. To Hutton's delight, Balfour reiterated the government's satisfaction with his service in Canada. Hutton then once more outlined his idea for a British militia, based on his Canadian and New South Wales model and its potential to fit into his wider ambition of a cooperative imperial defence system. Balfour explained that his senior military advisers had told him militia artillery regiments were impractical, but Hutton countered by arguing that what had been possible in the colonies was possible in Britain. Balfour seemed impressed. It was an important moment, the first time Hutton had openly pitched his grand scheme to those in a position to do something about it.