Section D of the Volunteers contains thousands of men who
have made themselves efficient, have passed through their musketry classes, done their bayonet exercises, and received the badge of efficiency issued by the Central Association of Volunteer Regi- ments. Yet because their civil occupations did not permit them to say definitely that they could put in so many drills a month for the indefinite period of the war, they were to be cast out into outer darkness, and not even a record of their efficiency was to be kept. So far as we know, there was not even to be a register of their names and addresses. Most of these men have paid for their own training, and have either bought or subscribed towards their uniforms, and perhaps even their rifles. They were to be turned off without even a "Thank you." We are not defending the attitude of a man in Section D who could and ought to accept the higher obligations of Section A and does not do so. We are concerned only with the genuine Section D man, who is, one might almost say without exaggeration, the bedrock or normal Volunteer. We hope that Section D men will henceforth continue to be recognized as Volun- teers, and will be unreservedly encouraged to drill—at all events till they are absorbed in the Regular Army or so long as they are honestly unable to join Section A.
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