7 MARCH 1914, Page 2

On Friday, February 27th, an influential deputation organized by the

National Service League was received by the Prime Minister. Among those introduced by Lord Roberts were Lord Curzon, Field-Marshal Lord Grenfell, General Elise, Lord George Hamilton, Sir James Crichton- Browne, the Dean of Durham (Dr. Hensley Henson), Admiral Noel, and Admiral Seymour. The address and Lord Roberta's speech put with great force, but also with great moderation, the urgent claim of the National Service League for the attention of the Government to their proposals. These pleas are too well known to the readers of the Spectator to need repetition. We may note, however, special arguments used by some of the speakers. Lord George Hamilton, for example, pointed to the facts in regard to national health and physique which had conic under his notice an Chairman of the Poor Law Commission. He also noted how military training bad in recent years undergone an extraordinary revolution. Its character and aims have been entirely transformed, and the objects of its teaching and training have inculcated in those receiving it a spirit of self-restraint, self-reliance, and patriotism by which the whole civil community would morally benefit In other words, military service has become an educational development necessary to meet the evils due to concentrated industry and a congested popu- lation.