In the House of Lords on Thursday Lord Rosebery made
a strong but, in our opinion, not too strong attack upon the military proposals of the Government, which he condemned as inadequate on very much the same grounds that we have adopted. He was specially strong on the failure of the Government to grapple seriously with the problem of getting hold of the trained men. It is, we believe, only a question of generous treatment and trouble to obtain at least one hundred and fifty thousand of these men. We wish that Lord Rue bery would consider oar scheme for supplementing the Government prop,: ale by voluntary Enlistment Com- mittees in every parish, whose business it should be to get into communication with the trained men in their own areas, to explain to them the Government proposals, and, where necessary, to smooth the minor difficulties which often prevent otherwise willing men from volunteering. Is it too much to hope that Lord Rosebery will put himself at the head of a movement for forming such Parish Committees ? There is always a nucleus in the resident J.P.s and the clergymen of various denominations. They have only to add to themselves one or two men of influence, working-men and employers, and the thing would be done. We may add that the terms of service offered to the trained men should, besides a bounty, include an old age pension.
