[To THE EDITOR OP SHE "SPECTATOR. " ] SIR,—In your stirring appeals
for more men there is one item of information lacking. We were told some weeks ago, and
still believe, that, as far as the British contingents are con- cerned, the most critical phase of the war would be the Belgian campaign, and that at no time would our troops be so severely tested as during the last month. But the men who join now will not help to ease this strain. So what we want is some plain teaching as to the difference that will be made in three or four months' time if enough men come forward now. Can it be foreseen, assuming that Russia keeps pressing on, what these men will be wanted for P It would not be difficult to forecast three possible situations: (1) Status quo ; (2) menacing the Rhine fortresses; (3) in the heart of Germany. The need for our full numbers might be shown with reference to all three; and I suggest that you would do the country a service if you stated the urgency of the crisis
[The only way to stop the war is to beat the enemy. The only way to beat the enemy is to obtain more soldiers. The need is rot a matter of dates, but a pressing, persistent, daily need which cannot stop till it stops altogether in the complete defeat of the Germans. But that is in any case a long way off, and if we do not get more men, and get them quickly, it will become more and more distant. We are fighting the men who made the Seven Years' War.—ED. Spectator.]
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