29 MAY 1915, Page 12

[To 711. EDIT. Or 7. Elrlouroa."1 SIR,—There is one aspect

of this question that I have not seen noticed. We have on one hand the very flower of our population, the bravest and the best, giving their lives for their King and country at the front, and on the other band we have the ordinary slacker, and the sordid slacker of the Lao. tramway type (who is worse), safe at home. Then what about the future generation and its effect on the country, for the children of the latter will have the peculiari- ties and weaknesses of their parents ? That is why conscrip- tion ie necessary, so that the bravest and the "white feather brigade" may run an equal chance. Under the beading of " Poltrons," for the benefit of the girls in the district, that they might know what lads were worth having and who were not, Gamhetta in 1870 ordered the village Mayors to put on the church doors a list of unmarried healthy young men who would not fight for the country. Could not this plan be tried in Wales and Ireland, where (outside Ulster) the r: craiting percentages are so very low P—I am, Sir, &a.,