THE " SPECTATOR " EXPERIMENTAL COMPANY AND NATIONAL SERVICE.
[To TIM EDITOR 01 THE " EITHOTATOILl Si,—May I venture to suggest that, whatever the success of the Spectator Company. its value as an argument for support- ing the scheme of the National Service League is practically nil P You begin by stating that the experiment has proved three things, of which the first is that "under zealous and intelligent training men can learn the work of an infantry soldier in six months." I should hardly have thought that this had been seriously questioned. What has been said is (in the words quoted as a preface by the author of "Fallacies and Facts "): "No Militia will ever acquire the habits necessary to resist a Regular force." In other words, as the quotation goes on to show, what is alleged to be lacking is the firm- ness and other qualities, now generally summed up in the expression "moral," which are supposed to be the monopoly of the Regular soldier. Does the Spectator Company afford any evidence that an army of civilians compelled to serve for from four to six months will be superior in moral to the Terri-
torial force P Again, the scheme of the National Service League, though it assumes a certain number of officers and N.C.O.'s for training the recruits, furnishes no evidence that they are procurable, much less that they will approach the zeal and intelligence which Colonel Pollock brought to boar in carrying out an experiment designed to prove a cherished
theory. How, then, do you deduce that the forced recruits will (" can" is not enough) be turned into efficient soldiers
ander the National Service League's scheme? Your second and third deductions relate to the general improvement pro- duced by six months' military training and to the fact that several members subsequently joined the Regular Army. But how much is really proved by the case of a few men who, how- ever they were recruited, were still volunteers, who became, and knew that they became, marked men whose progress and future would be a matter of anxious concern, who were trained in exceptional circumstances and under exceptional influence P Lastly, the objection to the National Service League's scheme on the score of its effect on the other fighting forces of the Empire does not rest mainly, as you seem to suppose, on the theory that men will get "fed up." It is based upon the effect on the labour market of the withdrawal at a critical period of some 150,000 young men and on the general policy of the
country of devoting pubbio attention and some millions of public money to the attainment of a passive security instead of that more potent defence which lies in the power to strike an offensive blow.—I am, Sir, &o., The Manor House, Shore. F. E. BRAT.
[The existence of the Swiss Army is the best answer to Mr. Bray's criticisms. That army is produced and maintained on National Service League principles. Yet English and Continental critics agree that it is a most formidable force, and this quite apart from the physical configuration of Switzerland. Possibly Mr. Bray will say that the Swiss have
moral and intellectual qualities not possessed by Englishmen. If so we cannot agree with him. The Swiss peasant is, in our
opinion. in no way the superior of the rural Englishman, nor the town Switzer of our urban householder. As to the " fed- up " argument not being the argument officially used by the opponents of the National Service League policy we can only
say that it is to be found in the memorandum addressed by Sir Ian Hamilton to Lord Haldane. We reiterate that if the " fed-up " argument is sound it must have affected the Spectator Company. Yet half its members were so little
"fed up" that they at once joined the forces of the Crown. Besides, what are the Government doing with the Special
Reserve if the " fed-up " argument really applies P "Ruin- ing the Army" would necessarily be the answer.—ED. Spec- tater.]
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