The most notable feature of Sir Auckland Geddee's speech was
his description of the modern army as a big community in which men of all ages were needed for its various activities. " To raise men purely on an age basis was not really a possible way of recruiting in a modern highly industrialized State." He doubted whether an army rolely comprised either of young men or of older men would be a good army. The young men disliked the monotonous but necessary guard duties. The older men steadied their young comrades and gave cohesion to the force. An army was much more than a fighting machine. "The fighting was on an average not more than one twenty-fifth of the more or lees civil work going on at any given
time." Moreover, the work to be done at home would suffer if some of the young men were not left to assist in it, or if too many of the older men were called up. In civil life as in the Army there should be a fair sample of the mixed population, of middle age and youth, to secure efficient work and to maintain a right balance of public opinion.
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