NATIONAL SERVICE.
WITH the general spirit of Lord Cromer's letter on National Service which appeared in the Times on Monday we are in hearty agreement. It is on the shoulders of Lord Kitchener, as Secretary of State for War, that the tremendous responsibility rests of providing soldiers in sufficient numbers to secure the safety of the realm by beating our enemies in Flanders, at the Dardanelles, and wherever else we are in conflict. It is, remember, a question, not of carrying out this or that express or implied contract with our allies, but of heeling our enemies. It would be a poor consolation for us, if we were vanquished—and if our allies are vanquished so are we —to point to the fact that before our defeat we did a great deal more than we promised to do or than anybody thought it possible we could do. We have got to win, and therefore we have got to pat out enough strength to win, let the effort cost us never so dear in blood and treasure. It is idle to say that we may be ruined by winning in this fashion when it is obvious that we shall be far worse ruined if we fail. Indeed, in the true sense success, however dearly bought, cannot mean ruin, but merely difficulty, depression, and exhaustion. Failure, on the contrary, means either national extinction, or reduction to a condition so abject that extinction would be pre- ferable. Lord Kitchener understands all this as well as we do and needs no teaching on the subject. If, therefore, he decides that he is getting, and can continue to get, enough men to prevent defeat and secure victory without recourse to compulsory military service, he must have his own way. He knows all the facts, he knows the nature of the responsibility, and he can weigh the respective merits of compulsion and voluntaryism. In these circumstances, as Lord Cromer points out, the notion of trying to force National Service upon Lord Kitchener is absurd. Even advocates of universal military service as strong as we are must recognize that at, the present moment, if the country were asked to choose between the opinion of the supporters of National Service and that of Lord Kitchener, it would be sure to support Lord Kitchener. The country has given him its confidence, and given it rightly, as we think, and it means to accept the consequences. He will be allowed to decide what must be done and what left undone.
To say this, however, is not to say that those who think National Service inevitable, and that we shall not get through the war without it, mtist cease their efforts to convert the country, and to eradicate from the minds of a portion of the public certain prejudices and misappre- hensions, and make them understand how much fairer and much more democratic universal service is than service under the uneven and often reckless compulsion of public opinion. Lord Cromer tells us also that at the moment silence is golden, and with this we agree, if by golden silence is meant refraining from violent language, attempts to raise prejudice, personal attacks upon indi- viduals, recriminations, and imputations of motives. To a good deal of the recent advocacy of National Service in some of Lord Northcliffe's group of newspapers Lord Cromer's words are particularly appropriate. We were advocates of National Service long before the Times or the Deity Mail or the Evening News supported the cause of the National Service League--a body which has always acted, and is now acting, with admirable tact, good sense, and good faith. We will have nothing to do with any campaign for National Service which is even remotely concerned with a movement to drive Lord Kitchener from office or to paralyse his efforts, and this is, we believe, a view shared by the vast majority of the members of the National Service League. But though we hold that we must not attempt to force Lord Kitchener's hand, but must wait till he and the rest of his colleagues in the Government tell the country that the time has come to adopt universal service, we intend, as we have maid above, to continue to prepare the public mind for what, rightly or wrongly, we believe to be inevitable, and so to smooth the path of the military authorities if and when they find that they cannot get sufficient men on the voluntary system. A metaphor will most easily explain our position. A man bent on an errand of vital import 'is riding a horse which shows signs of breaking down. We point out the fact to the rider and advise him to take another mount. Ho replies : "I think you are mistaken. Volunteer ' may look a bit tired, but I am sure I can get another ten miles out of him, and that ought to do the job." As we have confidence in the rider we, of course, are not going to meet this decision by trying to drag him out of the saddle. What we do say, however, and what we have a right to say, and, further, what it is prudent to say, is : " Very well. We bow to your opinion, and shall certainly not attempt to fight you on the matter. We mean, however, to get ready a second horse, and then if we should unhappily prove right and your present horse goes down, you will have something to ride, and need not suffer the appalling penalties due to a breakdown with nothing in reserve." At the present moment what the whole nation is deploring is the fact that last summer and autumn we did not lay down plant to turn out rifles and shells and other munitions of war in sufficient abundance—in case we should want them " twelve months hence." We made some provision for expansion, but, as we now all realize, not nearly enough. By preparing the ground for a possible recourse to National Service we are getting ready the plant for supplying men—should the necessity arise. Even if we never use that plant, the fact of its existence in reserve will be a source of strength.
It cannot be laid that the course we suggest—an uninflammatory, unprejudiced, impersonal advocacy of compulsory service—will in any sense prejudice a further recourse to the voluntary system, provided that Lord Kitchener decides for the present to make no change. On the contrary, the existence of a reasonable movement for compulsory service should do a great deal towards helping the Government to get the last ounce of energy out of the voluntary. system. In the first place, those who are passionately attached to the existing plan of raising men, and to whom it is a matter of pride that we should get through without recourse to the Draft, are much more likely to make a supreme recruiting effort if they think that compulsion is drawing nearer than if they see no dissatisfaction with our present arrangements. Again, there are no doubt thousands of men throughout the country who, are determined that if they must go to the front they will go as volunteers and not as compelled men. Unquestionably they will be stimulated to take the plunge by the fact that a large section of the nation is doing its best to convert the country to universal service, and is making such rapid progress in the work of conversion. By advocating recourse to compulsion we are aiding, not impeding, the Government in the work of getting volunteers.
Here we may note that if the Government are really determined to wring the very last drop from the voluntary system they cannot do better than follow the precedent set them by Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln deliberately used the Draft to stimulate volunteering by working the two systems together, and by insisting that the volunteer should always have better terms than the compelled man. If the Govern- ment were to let it be known—to use Lincoln's words— that men must be got, that they can only be got volun- tarily or involuntarily, and that if they are taken involun- tarily they cannot expect such good terms as if they come voluntarily, they would have done a great deal to stimulate volunteering. We, as advocates of National Service, have of course no wish that the compelled man should be less generously treated, say, in the matter of his dependants than the volunteer. We merely suggest that if the Government are determined to make a supreme effort on voluntary lines they had better follow Lincoln's policy. In other words, if Lord Kitchener's decision is in favour of another two or three turns of the voluntary screw, then we would urge the Government at any rate to work the voluntary system scientifically, and to give it every chance of succeeding. In no way can they do this better than by saying: " If you force us to be at the trouble of coming to fetch you instead of coming yourselves, you must not expect the same consideration which is now given to the volunteer." Remember, once more, that this is a volun- taryist argument, and not one which we, as uuiversalists, care for in the least on its merits or desire to make our own. We merely put it forward out of loyalty to the Government, and to show them how they can best play their own game, granted they decide to play it for all they are worth. Before we leave the subject we should like to meet the .objection, which will.pi'obably be raised, that in spite of our flue words we are really opposing and hampering Lord Kitchener. We are doing nothing of the kind. On the contrary, we are supporting him, and mean to support him to the very best of our ability. In the first place, it is ridiculous to suppose that Lord Kitchener is a violent anti-compulsionist, like, say, the editor of the Nation., who would rather that the country should perish than that it should be saved by what he would consider ille- gitimate means. Lord Kitchener, of course, holds no views of that kind. Though we have no knowledge, direct or indirect, as to what his exact opinion may be, we do not think it is very difficult to form a fairly accurate guess at his general position. We expect that he looks at the matter, as undoubtedly he ought to look at it, from the practical, or, let us say, the higher opportunist, point of view. He wants to get men for the present war, but he is not very much concerned how he gets them as long as he does get them. We guess, further, that when the men arc coming in freely he inclines to the view that it is a mis- take to swap horses while crossing a stream, or to abandon a system which is working fairly well for one which, though it promises better, may perform worse. In fact, he bases himself on the well-worn formula : " Why go out and look for trouble i " If, however, the men do not come in well, we may feel pretty sure that Lord Kitchener, like a wino man, and with a full consciousness of the tremendous responsibility upon his shoulders—a responsibility that cannot be shared with any one else —will begin to consider whether he may not very soon find himself faced with the problem with which Lincoln was faced owing to the drying up of the supply of volunteers.
Before things came absolutely to that point, a soldier- statesman in Lord Kitchener's position would want to know a great many things as to the feeling of the country. Chief among these he would want to know whether the country was prepared to give him National Service if he asked for it, whether the meaning and advantages of that system had been properly put before it, and whether the prejudices which have always gathered round any system of compulsion have been removed. In fine, we imagine Lord Kitchener coming to the point where he would say : " The time has come when I should like to have recourse to compulsion, if only I could feel that the people would understand, and that there would be no serious friction." If that moment comes, as unquestionably it may come, then without doubt Lord Kitchener will bless those who, without fuss or disturbance, and without a campaign of injustice and recrimination, have brought the country to see how much fairer open compulsion may be than that concealed compulsion which now goes under the name of voluntaryism--a system which allows the sly and selfish to escape the burden and lay it upon the simple and the generous. To put it in another way, no Secretary for War could ever feel any- thing but grateful to a body of men who said to him : " We have convinced the country that it is necessary to renounce the old fiction that it is part of the liberty of the British subject not to fight for his country, and if now you tell the nation that you must take from it another two million men, and that the sacrifice must be spread evenly throughout all classes, you will find that the people of Britain will answer your ' You must' with We will.' " The crop of prejudice raised against universal service by the more bitter and less scrupulous of its opponents sprines up so quickly that it is very difficult to deal with it. We should like, however, to dispel one special misappre- hension which we understand is at this moment doing a great deal of harm. Certain opponents of National Service amongst Trade Unionists appear to think that National Service will mean forced labour in the munition factories —that men would be taken under a system of com- pulsion, and not trained and then sent to the front, but sent to work at soldier's wages in a factory. Nothing, of course, is further from the thought of any sane advocate of National Service. Exactly how this ridiculous notion has arisen we cannot say. We presume it has somehow come from the fact that we and other exponents of universal service have guarded ourselves by pointing out that under any system of compulsion certificates of exemption from service in the field must bo given to men who are making munitions. As we have always said, the preliminary to any sound system of military compulsion must be the giving of certificates of exemption to persons who are more wanted here than at the front. In our opinion, however, such exemption must not be forced upon a man if he is so strong-willed and hot-headed that, even when told be is doing the best for his country by stopping at home, ho insists upon going into the firing line. There would not be many such cases. The majority of men, if told that it was their duty to continue making shells at high wages—for of course their wages would remain as they are now—would do so. It would be the same with the miners and railway and Government workers. A proper system of certificates of exemption would meet the case. But we must remember that these certificates will only be given to workers, and not, as was the case in America, to those who pay for them. We will have no exemptions for the rich or for mon. with a political "pull." When we have set aside the men whom we cannot compel to serve without injury to the production of munitions, all must faro exactly alike. Compulsion is for military service, and for military service only. But it will of course be open to the Government, if they have by mistake taken a man who is better fitted for shell-making than for fighting, to give him the option of going back to the factory rather than remaining iu the trenches.
In no possible circumstances will there be forced labour in factories or elsewhere. That has not been, is not, and never will be asked for by the National Service League. And here let us say that if people want to know what is meant by National Service, they should read the literature of the National Service League and hoar the authentic voice, rather than form their view of this great question from vague gossip or from newspaper paragraphs written by those who are inflamed by the blundering zeal of the convert who has been converted by panic rather than by reason.
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