LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
NATIONAL RESERVE.
[To THE EDITOR Of TEM " SPECTATOR:9
Sin,—A preventive to the greatest peril that can happen to our country is of utmost importance, and your scheme of a huge "National Reserve" is excellent in that, the want being immediate, the solution is at hand. But is this new line of
defence to be temporary or permanent? To some the best remedy is a form of conscription. Compulsory military training would not only be of the greatest benefit to the nation, would not only create a new huge line of defence, but it would enormously- increase the physical well-being of our youths. If your scheme of a National Reserve is to be permanent, then the days of conscription, which at one time seemed to be getting nearer, will be as far off as ever. While the Government can fall back on half a million of more or less veterans, the military training of our young men will be ignored. The latter being so possible and so important, one pauses before adding their name to your lists.—I am, Sir, &c., 77 St. Helen's Gardens, W.
HUGH F. JACOB.
[While advocating the National Reserve we have never ceased to point out that the thing most needful is national service and universal training. Till, however, we get national service, and even afterwards the National Reserve will be invaluable. No one must suppose, however, that the formation and maintenance of the National Reserve will post- pone universal training and service by providing a substitute. It will do the very reverse. It is almost impossible to discover a member of the National Reserve who does not favour military training for the nation as a whole. Does anybody suppose that the organization of 340,000 men holding such an opinion is likely to delay its being carried into effect ? Not only national security at the moment, but national efficiency in the future is bound up with the National Reserve. —ED. Spectator.]
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