On Friday week, July 19th, Lord Roberts addressed a crowded
meeting at Guildford in furtherance of the aims of the National Service League. Nothing could have been plainer or more straightforward than Lord Roberts's repudia- tion of the notion that the National Service League favours conscription or compulsory military service of the kind which prevails on the Continent. In a very interesting history of the word "conscription" he showed how the Roman armies began by being national armies, but bow later they became conscript armies,—i.e., men engaged and paid, by the State for the work of fighting its battles. Thus in reality what we have got now is a conscript army, and what the National Service League proposes is the opposite of conscription,—viz., the training of the whole manhood of the nation to arms, so that, in the first place, men who volunteer to serve their country at a crisis will be able to offer a service which is worth having; and secondly, that an overwhelming force will exist at home to repel invasion,—a force disciplined to arms and organised into efficient military units. Politicians on both sides just now are terribly afraid of proposals for universal training ; but, unless we are greatly mistaken, there is no real foundation for the notion that the nation at large is horrified by the idea. On the contrary, we believe that the necessity for some form of physical and moral training beyond what is new given in schools is beginning to be realised by the people. Such training can be secured without the evils of militarism, —evil which come from confining men for two or three years in barracks.
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