Lord Curzon spoke very wisely on the recruiting question. He
did not ask for secrets to be revealed, but he thought it reasonable to say to the Government: "Are you getting sufficient men ? Do you want more? Are you satisfied with your present methods P If not, what steps do you propose to take ?" The voluntary system, according to Lord Kitchener's recent statement, bad been yielding thirty thousand recruits a week. If that rate continued, well and good ; but if not, com- pulsion would be necessary, and it was evidently in the mind of the Government already. But compulsion would require an elaborate machinery, and he hoped that the Government were making some preliminary preparations. As we have said elsewhere, Lord Haldane's ad missions have brought compulsion far nearer to us than it has ever been before.
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