It is quite likely, when the six hundred thousand men
who are the subject-matter of Mr. Asquith's Bill have been fined down, first by the voluntary enlistments, next by the decisions of the doctors, and finally by the exemptions as "indispensable" granted by the tribunals, that not more than two, or even one, hundred thousand men will actually be taken under the Act. It was a great honour to be in the first hundred thousand. Can any young man seriously desire to be in the last hundred thousand, and to be reminded, not only in the trenches, for that will be the least unpleasant part of the business, but all the rest of his life, that he was in the "slackers' brigade " ? We do not suggest for a moment that the comrades in arms of the compelled men would treat them with brutality or with physical violence or anything of the sort. The danger is something very different. It is that they will ignore them and refuse to admit that they are full comrades in arms.
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