LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
MR. OLIVER ON COMPULSION.
[To Tea EDITOR OF THE "SFECTATOR."1 SIR,—Mr. Coulton, writing in your issue of July 3rd, appears to be under the impression that in a recently published volume (Ordeal by Battle) I have stated that ninety per cent. of the thirty-five thousand recruits taken annually in normal times for the British Army have been induced to enlist by a form of pressure which Lord Roberts described as "the con- scription of hunger." But in fact I have nowhere offered any estimate of the proportion which should be reckoned under this heading. It is enough for my argument that the pro- portion is a very considerable one. From Mr. Coulton's quotation, Sir Ian Hamilton would seem to put it as high as eighty per cent.
After describing (p. 383) a typical recruiting scene in one of our towns "on a raw, cold day of winter or early spring," I went on to say in the next paragraph that there is no need for pity or regret that these young men should have taken the King's shilling, for the reason that " in nine cases out of ten enlistment saves them; perhaps even in more than that." This certainly was not intended to refer to the proportion who are induced to enlist under the pressure of want, but to the proportion of those who, baying enlisted under the pressure of want, are made men of by the profession of arms. I am bound to say that, on re-reading pp. 382-384, it still appears to me that the meaning which I intended to convey is also the meaning which my words actually express ; but as so friendly a critic as Mr. Coulton has been misled, I shall take care, in the event of the book going into a second edition, that my true intention is put beyond any doubt.—I am, Sir, &c., F. S. Oraysa.
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