To call in a particular district upon an unorganized civil
population of, say, thirty thousand people to do some definite piece of military work would in all proba- bility result in nothing, or very little. If, however, there are a couple of thousand Home Guards in that community who have been drilling for three months, who know their leaders, who can shoot a little, can dig a little, and, above all, are accustomed to do what they are told in an orderly and methodical fashion, an appeal to the townsmen for auxiliary work becomes a totally different proposition. Compare, for example, the effect of telling unorganized townspeople to go to a line of hills three miles from the town and entrench them with the effect of a similar order given to two thousand Town Guards who have had the sort of rough training we have described. We are sure the thing is worth doing if it is done properly under the perfectly sound though strict rules issued by the War Office. But it cannot be done unless the central body has the sinews of war. That is why, though loth to do so, we appeal to readers already bled white by war appeals.
