On Wednesday Colonel Tate moved a resolution in favour of
supplementing the Territorial system with a system of national military training. He advocated national cadet training for youths from 14 to 17, and national training for men from 18 to 22. "Every able-bodied man, high and low, rich and poor, should go into camp in his eighteenth year for four months' training, and be liable for further short periods of training in the next three years if required. The result Nould be that every man would start upon his career in civil lvife sound in health, well trained, and sufficiently drilled to take e a part in the defence of his country should need arise." Sir i
I Craik, in seconding the motion, observed that the Opposition cordially agreed with Ministerialists in holding the Territorial Army to be a good thing—so far as it went—but they would add, "make that good thing coextensive with the nation." In the debate that followed Colonel Seely maintained that for the purpose of physical development compulsory military training of any sort was quite useless. The proposed scheme would cost an extra eight millions annually—or the cost of four Dreadnoughts—and would not assist our general military policy viewed as a whole.
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