NATIONAL TRAINING.—A MAGNA (MARTA FOR BRITISH SCHOOLBOYS.
f TO TEN EDITOR Or TUB .85110TLT0R."3
Sra,—There seems to be a blindness in this vital matter of national training on the part of those who discuss it. They do not realise that the Old Country is lagging far behind our Colonies, where universal training of the rising generation from the age of eleven years is a striking success. It leads to keenness and efficiency, not to apathy and slackness. Lieutenant-Colonel Colley in your last issue says "No good can come of it, and much harm may be done." Where is the evidence ? The statement is contrary to all experience. Since my last letter to you, a team of primary-school boys from the " City Schoolboys' Shooting Club" has taken part in the County of London Astor Cup Competition at Risley. Space does not permit sue to give the details of the practices on the full range leading up to the match ; but here I can state that the averages per boy were :—First practice, 479; second practice, 483; third practice, 53; fourth practice, 531; fifth practice, 491 (raining during this practice). Distance, two hundred and five hundred yards. Highest possible, 70. At the match on Tune 22nd the average per boy was 501 points. (" Shooting was extremely difficult, the high variable wind being sufficient to puzzle the most experienced shots." 5) The boys are all in Standard VII. or and are aged, four of them thirteen years, two fourteen, and two fifteen. Many school- boys in St. Marylebone and Paddington are doing equally well under Sergeant Martin, of the Spectator Experimental Company. Will your generous and patriotic readers help in this experi- ment, and, if sufficient funds be forthcoming, aid us to send two hundred boy marksmen to our camp at Boys' Sisley in August next ? The boys contribute some 30 per cent, of the cost of the training. We use ten large canopied tents, each holding twenty boys. Each boy costs for transport, instruc- tion, ammunition, and liberal dietary 16s. A tent therefore cysts 216. Would your readers provide a Spectator tent or so? The Earl of Meath is providing us with a team from Ottershaw schools, Colonel Blair a team from Paddington, and Sir Spencer Maryon-Wilson a team from Charlton, so our guest tent will be complete when the Canadian schoolboys invited by Lord Stratheona arrive in camp. We need speedy and generous help if our camp is to be as successful as at /Maley in 1906.-1 am, Sir, &c.,
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