RATIONAL RECRUITING.*
Ma. COULSON $1111NAHAN, whose delicate and ingenious fantasies have beguiled so many pleasant hours for us in the remote past of " before the war," has turned his remarkable psychological insight into character to a moat useful purpose in these last strenuous months. When the war broke out he was out of the Territorial Force under the age-limit. He at once sent in his name again as willing to serve, and was appointed as Honorary Recruiting Officer for the Rye Division of Sussex. At first, be tells us, he was naturally disappointed by being thus put aside from what seemed the direct path of helpfulness. " The unheroic and humiliating task of persuading younger men to a duty and to dangers which one's own more advanced age prevented one from sharing, was not, and is not, congenial, but it seemed to be the duty which lay nearest," From the very interesting, though simple and modest, account of his work which Mr. Kernel= has now published under the title of The Experi- ences of a Becruiting Officer, it is easy to judge that his labours in this sphere of operations have been a hundredfold more effectual than anything which he would have been likely to do in the actual firing line. He did notcome to the task of beating up recruits without a considerable equipment of useful knowledge, since he has long been known as one of the most sensible and eloquent supporters in the Press of the late Lord Roberte's campaign in favour of national training for military service— a campaign which, if it had met with the success which it deserved, would in all human probability have preserved us from the terrible and vital struggle in which the whole nation is now engaged. As an appendix to his book Mr. Xernahtua reprints an article, originally entitled "Why I Support Lord Roberts," but now called " Christ and the Sword," which be • The Experience. of s littoruiting 0,/ficar. By Coulson Nentahan. Loudon: Hodder and Stoughton. Da. tat.] published in the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine five months before the outbreak of the war. In the foreword to this reprint he reminds as usefully that the main issue raised by Lord Roberts still exists and must be reaffirzned "Otherwise—in the bewildering happenings of the war and in the breathless interest with which, at its end, the shifting of frontiers, nud the striking of great balances, will be watched— there is the danger, if only from reaction, that we slackly fall lack into our previous national inertia and national apathy; and that the little puddles of party politics (dirty paddles for the most part) once again matter more to us than to hold, sacred and inviolate, this great Empire, and these world-trusts, which God has seen well to commit to Britain's charge."
We strongly commend to all our readers Mr. %milldam's fascinating account of the way in which he has employed his keen sense of the national needs and his admirable knowledge of human nature to the high- and honourable task of feeding the firing lines in Flanders. Ho touches with his well- known literary skill on the various pitfalls which besot the path of the novice in recruiting. The chapter headed "Some Recruiting Don'ts' " provides, by a process of elimina- tion, most helpful instruction for those who are trying to " do their bit" in an amateurish way by stimulating the enthusiasm of the young and fit unman ied men of the numerous rural districts which—like the exquisitely peaceful Shropahire garden in which this article is being written—seem to be still untouched by wars and rumours of ware. Other chapters of Mr. Kernahan's book give striking silhouettes of the men who are now sacrificing—as it seems to a superficial glance— every prospect in life for the sake of England's need, and of the still nobler women who are not only permitting but encouraging their breadwinners to take due part in the war. We must not end without mentioning that Mr. Kernalian adds to his book a chapter in which Mr. Douglas Sladen describes the success of his crusade to obtain military bands for stimulating interest in recruiting.
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