22 SEPTEMBER 1906, Page 12

THE " SPECTATOR " AND UNIVERSAL MILITARY TRAINING.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPRCTATOR.n

Sin,--May the National Service League be allowed to con- gratulate you upon the successful termination of the important Experiment in national military training which has been carried out under your auspices, and at the same time to express its deep satisfaction at your statement that you have been convinced, by till splendid results of that Experiment, of the enormous advantage to the nation which would accrue from making such training universal and obligatory for all young men (Spectator, September 15th) ? That statement, coming from one who has hitherto been averse to compulsion, does honour to the public spirit and sincerity which the country has always associated with the Spectator.

The fact that you are even more influenced by the immense improvement which this six months' training has produced than by the military advantages which would accrue from universal military training in no way diminishes the value of your support for the principle of universality. While the National Service League has always urged that our purely voluntary methods have broken clown as regards securing a great national reserve of trained men capable of supplying the necessary power of expansion to the Regular Army in time of war, it has constantly insisted upon the beneficial influence which universal compulsory training would exercise by producing those qualities which, in peace no less than in war, confer upon the nation "fitness to win."

As regards the military problem involved, the League agrees with you, Sir, that a six months' training followed by five or six years' training under Volunteer conditions, including a certain period in camp, would give us a true national reserve of trained men, and at the same time prove a valuable guarantee of future health and efficiency in civic life to those who undergo the training. There is only one point in your article with which we cannot agree. You hold that it is not practical politics at present to advocate the compulsory training of all youths between seventeen and eighteen for three months. What is practical politics? A reform enters upon the sphere of practical politics when there is a sufficient body of public opinion to support it. That public opinion is, I am glad to say, steadily and rapidly increasing. it the -Spectator will put aside doubts and difficulties, and join its efforts to those of the National Service League, public opinion 'will speedily demand that the Government shall take such action as will give us a "nation in arms," the ideal at which we should aim.

—I am, Sir, &c., GEORGE F. SIIEE, Secretary.

The National Service League, 72 Victoria Street, S. W.