C URRENT LITERAT UR E.
NATIONAL DEFENCE AND UNIVERSAL SERVICE.
The Problem of National Defence. By Major Ross, D.S.O., The Norfolk Regiment. (Hutchinson and Co. 12s. net.)—Offence not Defence ; or, Armies and Fleets. By Captain C. Holmes Wilson, R.F.A. With Maps and Plans. (George Allen. 3s. 641. net.)—These two books, 'appearing simultaneously, cover much the same ground. Both argue the strong case which there is for more effective and larger land forces, and in order that this may be accomplished urge the introduction of some form of compulsory service. The method of argument in both books is on similar lines; but while Captain Holmes Wilson treats his facts soberly and leads us to a statesmanlike and practical con- clusion, Major Ross, in a somewhat laborious and overlengthy volume, is only able to read history through the coloured glasses of the narrowest military opinion, and spoils a good case by the extreme impracticability of his recommendations. Like so many other keen soldiers who can see only the military point of view. Major Ross seems to imagine that the nation exists for the Army, and not the Army for the nation. In his general exposition of the nature of war, and in his somewhat unconvincing historical retro- spect of the causes of the decline and fall of the Empires of of the past, ho is dominated by the idea that the soldier alone has made nations great, while the politician alone has brought them low. When he reaches his conclusions and lauds the moral aggressive as a virtue, or tells us that his ideal 'is that our land forces should be numerically • superior to those of any other Power, and that our minimum requirement is a million men 'ready at a moment's notice to embark for the Continent, he not only destroys any confidence we might have been disposed to place in his expert opinion, but he positively tires our patience. His remedy, which consists of an obligatory three years at least of continuous service—a part of which is apparently to be spent in India—for all able-bodied men, followed by another three years of severe and continuous training for those who wish to be officers, is even less worth consideration. His ridiculous suggestion that in order to force this millennium of his upon a people who, he admits, would never voluntarily agree to it, "the fighting men of the Nation " should appoint a Royal Commis- sion "to consider the question of national leadership, the capacity of politicians and the necessity for compulsory service," and in the last resort appeal to force against " the millions of able-bodied but effeminate shop-boys cheating inside," distinctly discounts the value of his diatribes against the ignorance and lack of patriotism of the politician, and serves only to show clearly the depth of the gulf which separates so many professional soldiers from the sane opinion of their civilian contemporaries. In the true interests of national defence, and of a sane system of compulsory training, the publication of books like this by a soldier on the Active List should bo forbidden by the Secretary of State for War.—It is a relief to turn from this work to the thoughtful little volume by Captain Holmes Wilson. Captain Wilson, as the title of his book implies, also argues the necessity for strengthening our land forces. He draws a parallel between the position formerly held by Carthage, "a community which refused to believe in the possibility of war, with the result that it was never prepared for it when it came," and that now held by Britain. In his later chapters he reminds us that sailors, even British sailors, like other people, are capable of making mistakes, and gives instances in which the British Fleet has failed in the past to prevent the landing of an enemy. From a reminder of the advantages of the strategic offensive—not the moral—over mere passive defence he proceeds to show us what a weapon we should possess if our splendid Navy were backed by an effective national force, and to attain this he con- cludes by advocating a reasonable measure of universal service- While he is not, perhaps, sufficiently informed as to the very high standard of efficiency which has been reached of recent years by the Yeomanry and Volunteers, the question why a small pro- portion of the population should be sacrificed to those who refuse service of any kind is pertinent enough, and he lays stress on the pernicious uselessness of the man who refuses to do the drudgery of training in peacetime on the ground that ho can " chip in" in times of emergency and so save his reputation. He also points out how a mild form of universal service, such as obtains in Switzerland, would remove the real difficulties that lie in the way even of the patriotic employer in allowing too large a pro- portion of his employes to serve in the Auxiliary Forces. The details of his plan, though he wisely does not insist upon details, are a six months' preliminary training for all youths at nineteen years of age, followed by compulsory service for some four years in regiments training much as the Volunteers and Yeo- manry corps do to-day, but with an obligation to serve anywhere in time of war. This would give us about a million two hundred thousand in the first line, with proportionate reserves. Officers of the national Army should pass through a Training College. All others, of whatever class, should serve in the ranks. In short, Captain Holmes Wilson is for Mr. Haldane's terms of service compulsorilyenforcedon all, with an obligation for service abroad in time of war, not in peace ; the Regular Army to continue as at present and to provide for the Indian and Colonial garrisons in time of peace, as well as for small and native wars. These pro- posals are perfectly practicable. Not only so, but we are con- vinced that, before many years are over, wo shall find our Terri- torial Army ordered very much on these lines. The result will be an immense increase in that power of offensive warfare which, as the author shows us, " history tends to.prove is the best means of defence," and, we may add, is also the surest guarantee of peace.
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