24 APRIL 1915, Page 2

For ourselves, we should like to see the Government do

in regard to men of military age what the political parties do in regard to voters. Let the country be canvassed by a hot:me- te-house canvass such as the politicians use to discover who are their supporters at a very closely contested election. We would use this machinery not merely to find out who is military to go, as the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee did, but to ascertain in each recruiting district bow many men there are left of military age. The Government should then estimate the number of men they still require, and let the quota expected from each recruiting area be published. In fact, let them say that if such-and-such a district is to do its duty it must produce so many tbomgand men. This would not be compulsion or conscription. But while the voluntary system was maintained we should, at any tote, have made a serious attempt to spread the duty of military service fairly through- out the United Kingdom. As it is, we are always flogging the willing horses and letting off those whose traces are slack;