25 MARCH 1916, Page 3

Excellent as has been the work done by the National

Reserve in guarding vulnerable places on the coast as well as inland, it is not its whole work. Class I. of that Reserve were at the beginning of the war drafted into the Special Reserve, and were used to bring it up to its full strength. Unless it had been supplied in that way, the mobilization of the original Expeditionary Force would have been incomplete by some thirty thousand men. When the Royal Defence Corps is fully organized we hope to be able to return to the subject, and to point out in detail how completely, owing to the force of circumstances, the original hopes of the founders of the National Reserve have been fulfilled.