MILITARY TRAINING FOR BOYS.
(To vas EDITOR or THE " BIKHTIT011.".1 Sin.—I here very much that some scheme may he formed for training boys of sixteen to eighteen in drill and 613001i lig, as Mr. Linger urges in your imam of January 4th. Not all parents nor all employers will like it; even in the worst hours of the war there were too many who talked about the danger of encouraging a spirit of militarism, and the waste of time involved in learn- ing the rudiments of drill. These will need elaggtion, and a great shoal of it. But as for the boys themselves, they will make no objection. Many of those who have helped since 1911 le organize nod train the Volunteer Force have seen for them- selves bow keen the lads were, how readily they learnt whatever an instructor taught them—whether they were the grant-earn- ing Volunteera of seventeen or the "cadets" of sixteen. Is my own town and county, when we were called upon last May to furnish our quota of the Volunteers required for coast defence, it was the "seventeeners" who responded in the largest nuntbere; many went to the East ('oust, and more would have gone if official restrictions had not compelled us to reject them. But apart from this exceptional opportunity of useful service, and apart from the obvious advantage to the Army of getting recruits who had already learnt the rudiments, con- sider the enormous benefit to the boys themselves at an age when they are "wax to receive, and marble to retain." I am not speaking of boys at Public Schools) they will be always
looked after well enough. It is the others, who have little opportunity of developing esprit de corps and prompt obedience and the necessity of doing things "just so "—nay, very often even of getting healthy exercise in the open air. And once carolled in some orgavized body most Inds will thoroughly enjoy the training. I do not know what is going to happen to the Volunteer Force, but I know this, that if it is disbanded altogether (as seems probable) its disappearance will be re- gretted by many of its youngest members—unless the Govern- ment is going to provide them with a substitute.—I am, Sir, Se., A. D. GODLEY.
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