Experience, let us remember, has shown that a battalion at
the front requires to be completely renovated almost twice in a year. Any one who bears this in mind, and believes that we shall be able in the long run to avoid compulsion, must have a sanguine temperament indeed. We are sometimes reproached with being unduly sanguine ourselves, but we confess that our optimism is quite unequal to a belief that voluntaryism, will continue to satisfy our needs. We earnestly hope that what- ever scheme the Government may have in Mind will be introduced quickly. Recriliting is admittedly slack, yet we are now preparing the men who will take their places at the front several months hence. If the Government reconcile themselves to a prolonged slack period now, the drafts will fail later on, Then there will be a repetition of the shortage of munitions, only this time it will be a shortage in human material. Fortunately, it is nearly as easy to avert the danger as it is to foresee it,
