11 MARCH 1916, Page 3

If any one should suggest that this is an impotent

conclusion, he will be entirely wrong. What we have been saying only applies to the Volunteers under normal conditions and before embodiment. If embodiment takes place, then the Volunteer from being a half-time or a quarter-time, or even a one-seventh- time, soldier instantly becomes a whole-timer—a soldier indis- tinguishable from the Regular or Territorial. But here again the Volunteer need have no fear of being unable to fulfil these conditions. The Government are pledged not to embody the Volunteers except in case of imminent national danger or a great emergency, by which, of course, is meant either invasion or a very grave apprehension of invasion. In such circumstances, however, no one will want to carry on his ordinary vocation. Embodiment need have no terrors for the Volunteers.