COMPULSORY MILITARY TRAINING.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sra,---Only Mr. Punch has so far taken any serious notice of the manifesto of the Social Democratic Federation on Mr.
Haldane's Army scheme. Yet, from the point of view of Mr Rowland Hunt's letter in your last issue, it is well worthy of
notice, and of very serious notice. It practically adopts the Continental view. Here are the ipsissima eerie
"Now is the time to demand a thorough reform of military organisation, the revising of military law, and the complete civilising of the military service. Away with incompetent, wastrel officers, drawn from wealthy idlers ! Let us democratise the service, and have the officers chosen by the men they will have to lead—chosen by reason of their competence and ability. Away with the antiquated system of Courts-martial ! Lot a man who is serving his country retain the same civil right as any other man—the right to be tried by his peers for any offence that may be charged against him. Down with the whole system of militarism ! We want no standing Army at all—no class of men set apart from their fellows, divorced from civil life, regarded and treated almost as convicts (Mr. Brodrick compared the soldier to the Chinese coolies in South Africa), and subject to the arbitrary will of irresponsible and incompetent officers. We simply want that every man should be trained and drilled—every man, with no class exception—so that he may be able to take his place and play his part in the national defence in case of need. To do this it is not necessary that any man should be taken from civil life, deprived of his civil rights, and made subject to military law. A national citizen force is not conscription. It is your duty to oppose conscription, but this can only be done successfully by ensuring that every man shall be trained to the use of arms as a Whether a man goes through his training on the village green, as in mediaeval times, or in barracks, does not affect the principle that he should be trained and drilled so that he may be able to take his place and play his part in the national
defence in case of need. On the Continent every able-bodied citizen is trained to arms and is enrolled in the national Army
till he is forty-five. There is no longer any conscription, there is no longer any Army, apart from the nation. In Switzerland three months' training in barracks is exacted, in other countries a longer period. But our people apparently object to barracks; then let us try training outside. If we cannot have boarding training-schools, let us try day training-schools.
Surely that would be better than no compulsory training at all as proposed by Mr. Haldane.—I am, Sir, &c.,
OLD LIBERAL.
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