LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
CENTRAL ASSOCIATION OF VOLUNTEER TRAINING CORPS.
[To TER EDITOR or "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Though the Volunteer Training Movement is only some four months old, it has been through many vicissitudes. When in the early days the " Press " gave us cold comfort, the Spectator identified itself with the idea by its advocacy of Home Guards. Now that my Association is no longer under the official ban, and the cause that three months ago was vetoed is not only sanctioned but commended by the Govern- ment as worthy of popular support as a useful contribution towards national defence, it is not surprising that I should come to you for your blessing. The movement is spreading like wildfire. Corps are springing up every day, and there is hardly a county in the United Kingdom that has not got its Volunteer Training Corps. Scotland is asking for its Sub- Committee with its score of corps, while the number of companies in Wales will soon justify its putting forward the same request.
But we have no funds equal to the responsibilities. The Government, rightly I think, will not take any financial liability
for the movement : every spare penny of public money is wanted for the Expeditionary Force and the Regular Army. Besides, as soon as the Exchequer admits liability, claims for pensions, for salaries, with the attendant State machinery, arise. So long as the corps are voluntary, most will be self-supporting, many men will equip themselves, and expenses will be kept down to the minimum. But you cannot have a great army spread over the country without having proper central machinery. The corps must be inspected and a proper standard of efficiency insisted on. Though our very able Committee of soldiers are giving their services gratuitously, I do not think it is fair to ask them to travel at their own expense. Speakers are being sent all over the country to help the initiation of corps, explain the scheme, and put the local Committee on right lines. The correspondence is enormous, and though most of our workers at headquarters are volunteers, we have to have a little army of typists to answer and file letters. With an Income Tax of 2s. 6d. it may reasonably be said the citizen is giving quite enough to national defence ; but if the State became responsible for the men in the Volunteer Corps it would cost £8,000,000 to equip them, while there would be all the attendant liabilities for wages, allowances, and pensions. So by a free gift to the Central Association of Volunteer Training Corps not only are you helping a great national movement of defence, but you are assisting to keep the tax- gatherers from the door.
I know there are some carping critics who see no great use in this great citizen army, and who look upon invasion as a possibility so remote that it is not worth guarding against. But the presence of the great organized volunteer force will free troops from home defence and enable the War Office to pour more men into Flanders, to bring the war to a successful issue. So I do not hesitate to ask the readers of the Spectator to contribute to the funds of the Central Association of Volunteer Training Corps, whose Treasurer is the Public Trustee, Mr. C. J. Stewart, and whose address is as below. Money is wanted to help the poorer corps to get rifles, for the organization, co-ordination, and inspection of the hundreds of Volunteer Corps into a great Home Guard for National Defence.--I am, Sir, &c., PERCY A. Hasnr.s. Headquarters—Judges' Quadrangle, Royal Courts of Justice (Carey Street entrance).
[We have dealt with this letter in our first leading article.--• En. Spectator.]
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