RIFLE CLUBS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SpitarArori."]
SIR,—It is a pleasure to see so prominent a place in your columns occupied with opinions and suggestions as to the rifle club movement. It is curious that there should be even the shadow of opposition to such clubs, or of a desire to limit them in any way. We must beware lest we allow any of those already concerned in drill and shooting to set up a claim to vested interests. In this matter there must be no monopoly. Free-trade in rifle-shooting would'strengthen vastly the latent military power of the country. The Volunteers—of whom I myself am one—have no right to say : 'No civilian not in our ranks shall fire a shot if we can help it.' That a general rifle movement must bring quantities of recruits to the Volunteer force—men who have learnt how to shoot before they join it— is a probability that hardly admits of a doubt. The view that if a man wants to shoot he should become a Volunteer is plausible, but it assumes too much. Besides the many whose occupations genuinely debar them from giving the necessary time to drill, there are large numbers debarred by difficulties of space. In the county to which I belong, one mainly agricultural, there is a strong Volunteer battalion with its companies widely distributed. But it would be an exaggera- tion to say that fifty parishes out of some two hundred and twenty which the county contains contribute, or can con- tribute, to the Volunteer personnel. The villages, nearly all small and in many cases miles from a railway, cannot form units for drill purposes. Yet at a time of emergency they are quite as anxious to be useful as their neighbours. Then there is quite a large section of the population who are ex- Volunteers, ex-Militiamen, or ex-soldiers. Any movement which would enable these men to keep their hands in at shooting must be a real source of strength to our defences.
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