We are glad to see that Colonel Weston, the Unionist
candidate for Kendal, has had the courage to come forward in favour of compulsory military training. This is a matter in which if any progress is to be made men must have the pluck to speak out and to state their own views, and not what they guess—generally wrongly—to be the views of those whose votes they are soliciting. We sincerely trust that Colonel Weston will win a signal victory for National Service and training as well as for the Union. He is being most unscrupulously abused and misrepresented by the Liberals, but the brazen lying about conscription which they appear to be practising will not, we believe, really injure him. The common law of England makes it a legal duty which must be performed under the penalties of felony, to resist the King's enemies by force if they invade these islands. That is the law of the land. The awful moral crime which, accord- ing to the Liberals, Colonel Weston is committing is to suggest that the men on whom this obligation is imposed should be given some training by the State in the methods of performing the duty. In this context we may note the good news that Mr. Sandys has won the second place in the ballot for his Bill making service in the Territorials compulsory on every able-bodied man over eighteen. The discussion of this Bill should be most useful in making clear the true aims of National Service.
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