27 FEBRUARY 1915, Page 3

It is a little bard that these good offices, amongst

others, should not be credited to the National Reserve, while at the same time a series of stories, often apocryphal, of old and decrepit National Reservists fly about the country and are taken as typical of the force. Out of the hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand men, or whatever the number is, no doubt there has been a small percentage of rather cpmint "dug-outs." We venture to say, however, that these have not been more than trooper cent. Two per cent. when the figures are something like two hundred thousand means four• thousand examples. These are used to make an ignorant public say that the National Reserve were too old to be of any use.