A HOME DEFENCE LEAGUE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR"}
SIR,—Like your correspondent, "H. H. K.," I have been " watching your columns every week," and, I may add, the columns of the Times every day, "to find some keen outward response" to the suggestions that " a society should be formed to concern itself with the organisation and develop. ment of our military resources." It will never be well with this great Empire and its peoples until a system of " thorough " has been established in every department of the State. We as a nation make a profession of two things, both of which are in their essence "thorough." We profess the religion of Christ, and we claim to be scientific. In this one principle of "thoroughness" the religion of Christ and modern science are absolutely at one. Christ says, " If thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light." Science says, " Gatheryour facts, and exclude all else ; comprehend your facts ; base your conclusions and your conduct on the facts alone." That is, " Fix your eye solely on the facts, and then you shall know the truth." In like manner, Christ says, "If thy hand offend thee, rut it off : If thine eye offend thee. pluck it out." So science, us in medicine and surgery, in dealing with an evil of any kind, says always,—," First find out the cause of the evil ; then remove it." When this is done your cure is on the way to being complete. Without this there can be no care at all. In other words, true religion and true science are thoroughly absolute and absolutely thorough. In the affairs of the State this very principle of thoroughness, and no other, must be adopted; and now, more than ever, when the Empire is so in- finitely complex in its interests and so vast in its magnitude. Honesty we have in our public depart. ments; honesty, that is to say, so that nobody steals, lies are not encouraged, and jobbery is so rare as to be a factor of little importance. But " thoroughness," most assuredly not. And whilst we have not thoroughness we cannot have real honesty in any high and wide sense; much less can we have efficiency. Are we the least likely to have thoroughness, with its corresponding efficiency, in the "organisation and development of our military resources," if things are left in the hands of party politicians and of the permanent officials of the War Department ? All past experience says " No." If things be so left, what we shall have in the future will be what we have had in the past. A new organisation is needed : rather, an "Army League," per- haps, than a mere "Home Defence League." It should con- sist of persons, being voters, who have no private axes to grind, and who will have the conscience, the deliberateness, and the force of character to gather all the facts necessary for the formation of right judgments ; and then to insist and persist until those facts have told their tale and produced their fruit in the right quarter. In this country every voter is a legally and constitutionally established factor in the State. He is a son of the house, and it is not only his right, but his duty, to do everything which is in his power for the safety, the prosperity, and the honour of the house. He should refuse to be ground down by any person whatever. On a memorable occasion the great leader and statesman, Moses, said to some sycophants : "Would that all the Lord's people were prophets." In like manner, every modern statesman who is worth the name will say : "Would that every voter were an intelligent politician, and insisted upon contributing of the very best that is in him to the purifying and strengthening of the State in every department." I hope many of your readers will join with me in asking you, Sir, to use your influence in the most strenuous way towards the speedy establishment of a right " Army League."—I am, Sir, &c., It seems to us that the best thing to begin with is for men who feel with our correspondent to form small committees each in his own district or parish, and then to affiliate with other committees throughout the Kingdom till a central organisation is built up.—ED. Spectator.]
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