DRILL FOR SCHOOLBOYS.
[To TIM EDITOR or Tss " Blazer/cos:1 Snt,—You have always been in favour of a reasonable amount of training for the young, and may be glad to know what is being done by at least one local education authority some- what on the lines you have suggested. In response to argent representations by the Liverpool Education Committee, the Board of Education have agreed to recognize classes for a combined course of military and physical drill and miniature
rifle shooting in evening continuation schools, but, so far as their recognition now goes, they will only sanction the classes as part of a group course. The Committee asked the Board to recognize attendance at these classes as a single subject course, but to this they have not yet assented. Furthermore, the Committee desired the recognition of classes in miniature rifle shooting for boys over thirteen volunteering from public elementary schools. They made a similar application some six years ago when I was myself a member of the Committee, but the application then, as now, was refused. Undeterred then by the attitude of the Board of Education, a voluntary Committee, at private expense, established two ranges in elementary schools kindly placed at their disposal by the Education Committee, and year by year between two and three hundred young volunteers—only admitted to the classes with their parents' consent, and certified by their teachers to be "steady boys and fit to handle a rifle "—have been turned out with some useful knowledge of a manly art.
Content, however, with the modicum of recognition now given by the Board of Education to preparation for the urgent needs of the country, the Committee have gone ahead. They have established at four centres miniature rifle ranges of the latest pattern, provided the necessary rifles, and organized classes not only in miniature rifle shooting, but also in combined physical and military drill and signalling. Three instructors have been engaged for each centre—care being taken not to utilize persons who ought to be at the disposal of the Army authorities. No fewer than five hundred youths from fifteen to seventeen years of age, in attendance at evening schools, came forward in a single week, and the enrolment has had to cease for the moment in order that the classes may not be swamped at the outset. These five hundred young fellows commence their course this week. Each youth will have, in the course of his two hours' instruction, one hour's physical and military drill and one hour at miniature rifle shooting and signalling. But they will be urged to supplement what is done in class by keeping themselves fit throughout the week by regular exercises when they rise in the morning, and by walking to and from work at a brisk pace' rather than by taking the tram. Furthermore, it is believed that their enthusiasm will induce them to take part in voluntary parades from time to time on Saturday after- noons, when they can have a little route marching and &rill in the open. Whatever line these young fellows take next year, they will have the satisfaction now of feeling that they are " doing something," and that physically and morally they will be better men for it.
The Dean of Lincoln has called attention to the remarkable success of Government Departments in throwing cold water upon every independent effort to get up a little steam. The Board of Education for years have been bitterly hostile to even the semblance of military drill. They placed the subject entirely in the hands of their Medical Department, and a fine example of the special pleading whereby they have attempted to justify their unbending attitude will be found on p. 181 of the Chief Medical Officer's Report for 1909 (Cd. 5426). How- ever, the Board have surrendered the advanced trenches of the position where they thought they had successfully dug them- selves in, and it is probable that what is being done in Liverpool is being done elsewhere.—I am, Sir, &c.,
R. S. PORTER, Lieut.-Colonel.
5 Grove Park, Liverpool.
[The attitude of the Board of Education, if our corre- spondent has not misread it, appears to us perverse in a high degree. Surely they do not regard learning to defend one's country as a kind of vice. Possibly, however, the Board have some defence of which we are ignorant, and in reality have been fostering patriotic action and the acquisition of the knowledge of how to defend one's country.—En. Spectator.]
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