World Notes Britain

The cold war is over, so why is there so much saber rattling in Britain? When Defense Secretary Tom King announced last week that the British army will be reduced to its smallest fighting strength since 1830, the military reacted with anguished cries. The number of troops will shrink more than 40,000, to about 116,000, and the British Army of the Rhine will be halved. Twenty-two cavalry and infantry regiments -- many in existence for centuries -- will be forced to merge with old rivals.

Leading the parade of pared-down regiments: the royal household's elite Life Guards, which sprang up in 1659 to restore Charles II to the throne; and the Blues and Royals, whose origins go back to the early empire. Scotland will see four famous regiments fused into two. The Queen's Own Highlanders and the Gordon Highlanders will be united, and two Lowland units, the King's Own Scottish Borderers and the Royal Scots, will be merged. Sir John Chapple, Chief of the General Staff, tried to put the best face on the situation. "Our objective will be an army that is lethal, versatile, smaller, but effective," he wrote to army commanders. And still with some colorful vestiges of a long tradition.