OLD-AGE PENSIONS AND A HOME DEFENCE RESERVE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") Sra,—The article on "Old-Age Pensions and a Home Defence Reserve which appeared in the Spectator of January 12th con- tains the most valuable suggestions which have yet appeared on the great question of the day. Will you allow me to propose a plan by which it seems possible that your scheme might be so far expanded as to clear away the threatening shadow of con- scription with the least amount of inconvenience to the nation? Let it be laid down as a first principle that the country has a claim on the services of every capable adult.; that any man may satisfy this claim by submitting to a course of training in the Volunteers, Yeomanry, &a., and registering his name for service under such conditions as may be necessary ; that any man failing to take this step should be called upon to register his name for ballot for a short course of training in his territorial Militia in the event only of its numbers falling below a certain fixed standard; that persons failing to submit to these conditions should be sub- ject to certain disqualifications. What these should be is a matter of detail, but possibly, in addition to disqualification for the old-age pension, it might be possible to withhold service under the Crown, University degrees, and admission to the Bar from such defaulters. If failure to comply with the first condition named carried with it a stigma of this sort in addition to liability, however remote, for Militia service there can be little doubt that all the educated men in the country would submit themselves for training. Such men, if already taught shooting and company drill, would in case of emergency be quickly converted into efficient soldiers, for (as is proved by the deeds of the Imperial Yeomanry) the neces- sity of submitting to discipline and obeying orders is self- evident to such men, and the necessity for creating habits of obedience by a long course of training is in their case
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