[TO THE EDITOR OY THE "SPECTATOR. "] S111,—Your campaign in favour
of National Service deserves the deepest gratitude of everyone who cares for the country. In your last article you write: "It is no good to say that there is no means of taking a Referendum in this country and that none can be devised. Lord Balfour of Burleigh's Bill with perfect ease and lucidity adapts our existing electoral machinery to the purposes of a poll of the people. The thing is perfectly simple. We have only got to hold an election, though without candidates, under the ordinary machinery." Might one suggest an effort being made by the National Service League, to take one selected area, and to poll the whole of the electors in it, so far as they will consent, upon this simple issue ? This should, of course, be preceded by careful education of the "constituency" in the true bearings of the question, carried out—so as to avoid partisan bitterness—by speakers of both political parties, if possible, nay perhaps even of all three British parties, if Mr.
Blatchford could be induced to help. As in a hotly contested election, every possible means should be employed to win supporters and counteract the influence of misconception, pre- judice, selfishness, and inertia. If a majority of the electors could be induced, on personal application, to set their names to the voting paper, the moral effect with the country at large would be great. It would constitute what Mr. Gladstone called a "capital fact." Many would probably decline to vote at all. These could be considered as opponents, although it might be thought fair to deduct a percentage of abstainers corresponding to the average who cannot be brought to the poll at ordinary elections. One remembers the excellent results that flowed from trying another important experiment in a selected area—the registration of National Reservists in the County of Surrey—and one does not forget to whom that experiment was due. And the principle is capable of further application. What one wants is to test the feeling of the voiceless masses of English manhood, who, we decline to believe, are at heart less patriotic or less brave than Servians or New Zealanders. What is principally the trouble with them is sheer ignorance of the situation and its perils.—I am,
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