A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
SIR ARCHIBALD SINCLAIR'S note of warning about the tendency to talk compulsion, even if it is only com- pulsion for labour service, in this country is certainly not unjustified. Mr. Robert Boothby's speech on the subject voiced an individual opinion, but the column leader in The Times, with the speech in question as starting-point, put com- pulsion much more squarely on the map. And then there was Sir Edward Grigg's article in laSt Sunday's Observer. Let me quote three or four points from it :
"The camps or training-centres should all be in the country. No special camps for special classes ; the same quarters, rations and discipline for everyone, and also the same (extremely modest) allowance of pocket-money. This should be paid by the State. . . . Physical exercises, drill, some form of manual labour and games should constitute the active and open-air part of the daily programme. . . . The camps or centres should be mixing places for every class of youth and every variety of opinion."
There is not a word there from which I, at any rate, would dissent—for there is no word there about compulsion. In any case, if compulsory labour camps are ever to come— and no sort of a case has been made out for them—it is essential that they should be preceded by a prolonged, resolute and sincere experiment on voluntary lines. You are not going to get any real fellowship by compulsion. If the spirit of a camp is to be worth anything, it will be because young men see the value of life under discipline for three months or six or whatever the period may be. That being so, it is the plainest common sense to plan a voluntary movement on an impressive scale, with of course full financial and other backing by the Government, and do everything to make it a success. To compulsion there would be a resistance that would surprise its advocates.
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