The Duke of Cambridge, in returning thanks for the Army
at this dinner, made a very significant statement. He said that he regretted the youth of the recruits, but with voluntary enlistment a State must take its soldiers when they were willing to come, and if it wanted more men, must be content to increase its esti- mates. He had had an opportunity of recently geeing the troops
at.Aldershcrt, "and all I can say is, that while deprecating war and hoping the necessity may not arise, I am perfectly prepared tomorrow, at five minutes' notice, to take every man of that force with me and to go anywhere without seeing any reason why they should not perform their duty just as well as the British Army has ever done in times past." That is satisfactory, but the- point is, how much duty could they perform ? Would the Duke of Cambridge undertake to defend Belgium with them against either Germany or France? No doubt ten years hence, if Lord Cardwell's plan succeeds, we shall have men enough, 80,000 trained men in the Reserve, who will not be boys; but how many have we got now? If war had broken out, as it might have broken out in the second week of April, we might not have had a week's warning.
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