PUBLIC-SCHOOL BOYS AND THE NATIONAL RESERVE.
[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR:9 Sig,—Re your letter in the Daily Mail about the National Reserve. What are you doing for fellows in my position? I am twenty-one years old, three years in my school corps, shooting two years. and am physically big and strong. What is there for fellows like myself ? The Territorials I will not join. I myself know at least ten fellows who would join an institution similar to the Naval Reserve or on the lines of the King's Colonials of Oxford. Were you to issue an appeal for the names and addresses of unattached public-school men with military training willing to serve in time of invasion, &c., well I fancy you would get 17,000 without trouble, were they sure the whole thing would not be a mockery of the regulars. Of course, I am aware we would be of no use against regulars with our present training, but the material could be shaped if the method employed was suitable.—I am, Sir, &c.,
C. B. G. [Why should our correspondent object to joining the Territorials? However, we will not argue that point except to say that his discrimination against the Territorials shows how necessary it is for us to adopt some system of Universa' Training and Home Service on the Swiss model. Pending that much-to-be-desired consummation we agree that it might be useful if a register of ex-public-school boys ready to volunteer in ease of imminent peril were to be created. The work, however, could not be undertaken by us, but should be done by some Federation of Public School Old Boys' Asso- ciations. We may add that such a register, though useful, could not, of course, compare for a moment in importance with the National Resene, whose members have had a true military training often including active service.—En. Spectator.]
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