THE BRITISH BOYS' TRAINING CORPS.

[TO THE EDITOR. OP THE " SPECTATOP."]

SIR,—We shall be obliged by your kindly permitting us to draw attention to a scheme for providing a systematic course of combined military and industrial training for lads from the age of fourteen years upwards. The object of the British Boys' Training Corps, on behalf of which we write, is the moral, physical, and industrial advancement of the cadets enrolled in it, to train them in the duties of citizenship and to fit them for a life of industry. Military organization and exercises will be used as a means for developing their moral mid physique, and promoting among them habits of discipline, application, adaptability, and resourcefulness, which are indispensable to proficiency in the workshop or the factory. The Corps will not compete with the Boy Scouts, the Church Lads' Brigade, or any similar movement ; rather, it will strengthen them by stimulating the growth of those principles of modern education on which they depend for success. In fact, the Corps owes its inception to the excellence of their work, and the consequent desirability of adopting their methods on a more extended and comprehensive scale. Their activities are mainly concerned

with boys in employment, whose opportunities for training are necessarily intermittent. The British Boys' Training Corps will, in effect, be a military and industrial school, and is de- signed to train and instruct a boy for a period of three or four years continuously from the time he leaves the elementary school.

Alike upon social, economic, and industrial grounds we con- fidently commend the scheme to the public. The annual loss to the nation of promising material presents a grave problem. Far too many boys on leaving school are engaged in " blind- alley " occupations ; when they have outgrown these they find themselves adrift without either the skill or the knowledge to qualify them for permanent employment; they swell the ranks of casual labour, and the prison or the workhouse is the ultimate destiny of an increasing number of them.

To mitigate these evils in some measure at least is our aim. Those boys, moreover, who may afterwards join the Army will on discharge be in a much better position to obtain re- munerative employment than they would otherwise be, owing to the technical trade instruction which they have previously received, while their prospects in the Army itself would be considerably in advance of those of the usual recruit irrespective of their enhanced value as soldiers. The direction and control of the Corps will be undertaken by Lt.-Colonel Alsager Pollock, who organized and conducted the Spectator Experimental Company with such conspicuous success in 1906. The experience gained upon that occasion conclusively demonstrated the beneficial effects of military training for even a few months. Upon its industrial side the Corps will be modelled on the admirable schools of the Christian Brothers at Artaue and elsewhere in Ireland. It is estimated that the cost of establishing and maintaining the Corps at first will be 215,000. No appeal for funds has yet been made, but two members of the Council have generously promised to guarantee 21,000 and 2500 respectively towards the expenses, on condition that the total amount guaranteed or subscribed is not less than £15,000; and various un- solicited donations, including an anonymous one of 250, have already been placed to the credit of the Corps at the Bank of England.

In issuing this appeal for financial support we would emphasize the fact that the movement is in no way connected with any political party. The Council includes members of all parties and distinguished representatives of almost every aspect of national life. The realization of the project will fill a distinct gap in English education, for the existing facilities for efficient practical training during the years of adolescence are deplorably inadequate, and it will, we trust, lead to the establishment of similar Corps in other parts of the country.

Subscribers will have the privilege of nominating boys to the Corps according to a fixed scale. Guarantees, donations, or subscriptions may be sent to the account of the Corps at the Bank of England (Western Branch), Burlington Gardens, W.; to Colonel Pollock, Wingfield, Godalming; or to the Hon. Secretary, Mr. J. C. Medd, 37 Russell Square, W.C., from whom particulars of the scheme can be obtained.—We are, Sir, &c.,

ALEXANDER OF TECK, President.

BEDFORD.

PORTLAND.

ROBERTS.

RELY.

GLENCONNER.

Taos. Boon CROSBY, Lord Mayor of London.

CHARLES WARREN.

[The distinguished supporters of the British Boys' Training Corps will, we trust, meet with a generous response from the public. We wish the experiment every success.—En. Spectator.]