26 APRIL 1913, Page 19

The solution of this attempt to meet us with a

dilemma is obvious. If the whole of the manhood of the nation is trained to arms, we may be quite certain that out of that great reservoir of trained men we shall always be able to get plenty of volunteers for service abroad at a time of national danger. At present the trouble is that the men who would volunteer by the hundred thousand would be quite useless, since they would have received no training and have no knowledge of the military art. National Service would not only make us absolutely secure from raid or invasion, but give us a reservoir of trained men on which we could draw in case our oversea Empire were threatened or in order to prevent a destruction of the balance of power in Europe which might prove fatal to us as a nation.