[To THZ EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—I read in the Daily .Mail of Monday last a letter by Lord Roberts, in which he says that "what he asks" is that "all able-bodied young men should be passed through the ranks Lof the Territorial Force] for a continuous period of military training "—a description of the proposals of the National Service League which I do not remember to have seen before couched in exactly similar terms. Now, Sir, bearing in mind the immense, the unequalled power that resides in a word or turn of phrase to kill or to give life to the thing it connotes,
I venture to suggest that all who believe in Lord Roberts's great scheme should advocate it in the words of its founder, as merely a proposal that the youth of the country should be successively "passed through the ranks" of the Territorials. No completer answer could be conceived to the charge that the supporters of the League (1) advocate conscription, (2) seek to injure the Territorial Force ; while, on the positive side, the scope and meaning of the League would be instantly apparent to every soul in the country.—I am, Sir, &c., Wokingham. C. IL Humor/.
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