In the House of Commons on Thursday Mr. Asquith made
a speech of very great importance. He asked for a vote for five hundred thousand men over and above the half-million already sanctioned. Before the war the vote for our Regular soldiers was for one hundred and eighty-six thousand men. This, however, did not include the Army Reserve, the Special Reserve, or the Territorial Force. Now that the extra five hundred thousand have been granted, Parliament has sanc- tioned an Army of, roughly, one million two hundred thousand. Mr. Asquith went on to point out that the number of recruits enlisted since the beginning of the war, exclusive of those who have joined the Territorial Force, is four hundred and thirty- nine thousand. (Mr. Asquith's figures, however, only go up to September 9th, and therefore by this evening there will doubtless be half a million.) After pointing out how gratifying had been the response to the call for recruits, the Prime Minister went on to insist that the time had not come when we should in any way relax our recruiting activity. " We shall want more rather than less. Let us get the men—that is the first necessity of the State."
