THE NEED OF COMPULSORY SERVICE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—I have long believed, and feared, that the first con- siderable war would find our military system utterly inadequate. Great Britain, with her boundless wealth and her magnificent reserve of potential military force at home and in her Colonies, has now been at war for some four months with an enemy, well prepared and essentially formid- able, it is true, but unable to put into the field one-thirtieth of the force of which any one of the great Continental Powers can dispose. The result of this war, so far, has been that after undergoing a series of miserable and needless humilia- tions, after almost denuding the country of regulars, making serious inroads upon our trained and semi-trained reserves, accepting the generous assistance of our Colonies, and suffering a period of anxiety, strain, and confusion unknown for nearly two generations, we are just holding our own, and beginning to hope we may soon have the upper hand. That is sorely not a position of affairs whose possible recur- rence (with every likelihood of even more serious circum- stances) we shall willingly spare any effort to prevent. The ludicrous disproportion between our potential and actual military force must have been, by this, time realised by the dullest intelligence. The nation is determined that the long reign of military chaos, and foolish optimism, must be swept away to make room for a sound and adequate system that will put our armed forces beyond all question in efficiency and readiness. The obvious and manly method is the demo- cratic one of universal service, which spares none but the physically unfit. Our very admiration of the spirit of our Volunteers, never more splendidly shown than during the last few weeks, has blinded us to the glaring injustice of a system, which not only permits, but encourages, the apathetic citizen to shirk all personal service, while his patriotic brother does his duty for him. Mr. Reade and Mr. Roskill
have both borne eloquent testimony, in your columns, to the moral and physical benefits derived from military training, and I heartily concur with them in advocating universal service, not only upon the ground of national safety, but also on that of national improvement for civic duties.—I am,
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