Thursday's newspapers report a speech made by Major Seely at
a meeting of civilian rifle clubs in the Isle of Wight, in the course of which reference was made to a letter from the Secretary of State for War in regard to the contribution to rifle clubs which was part of his original scheme. Mr. Arnold-Forster now states that the £50,000 then promised will only be available out of money saved by cutting down expenditure on the Volunteers. Major Seely in commenting on this letter most properly declared "that if rifle clubs could not receive a grant without a reduction of the Volunteer Force, they would be a great deal better without it." With this view we entirely concur, as we feel sure will the vast majority of civilian riflemen. The notion of inducing civilian riflemen to join in the attack on the Volunteers by dangling a 250,000 grant before their eyes is utterly ridiculous, and shows what desperate expedients have to be resorted to by the defenders of the new Army scheme.
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