If that is the plan, we can only say that,
in our opinion, it can only be justified if the announcement has coupled with it a statement to the effect that compulsory legislation will be introduced as soon as Parliament reassembles. Till such legisla- tion is passed, the gate of voluntary enlistment will still remain open. If young men are wise, they will take advantage of the breathing-space afforded them by the Christmas holidays, and by joining voluntarily, in their own case at any rate, defeat compulsion. To this warning the Prime Minister should, we hold, add that as in any event those compelled would be a small minority, they would be bound to suffer all their lives frOm being pointed' out as men who, when' nearly four million of their countrymen willingly offered themselves, had to be compelled to do their duty. That prospect is one from which all young men must shrink. They cannot save themselves from it by drifting.
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