Speaking at a meeting of the National Rifle Association on
Wednesday, the Duke of Cambridge said some very wise, as well as friendly, things about the Volunteers :—" I cannot say too much with regard to my own appreciation of the splendid manner in which the Volunteers have come forward to assist the Government in South Africa." "We must be prepared," he went on, " for anything and everything. We must remember that the world is very jealous of us ; in some respects, more so now than ever, because we have come out as a great Empire. Our Colonies have behaved splendidly. We must acknowledge and show our indebtedness to them by doing everything that we can do to be agreeable to them, and by assisting them in carrying out their ideas and feelings in the maintenance of the Empire." We are sure that the Duke of Cambridge spoke with all sincerity, and meant what he said. That being so, he will, we are sure, desire to act as well as speak. There is a way in which he can help the Volunteers, whom ho so rightly admires, and the Empire, which he thinks should be prepared in every way possible for defence, and at the same time please the Colonies. That is by giving the Volunteers the splendid facilities for learning their work which be has it in his power to give them by opening Richmond Park freely and unreservedly as a training ground. Nothing is more calculated to make a Colonist feel hopeless about the Empire and to despair of our serious- ness of intention than bearing such a fact as that a splendid open space under the control of an ex-Commander-in-Chief is closed to our Volunteers. The Duke of Cambridge must not let himself be persuaded into believing that the Volunteers do not want to use Richmond Park because they have of late so seldom asked to be allowed to use it. They have not asked simply because they were well aware that they would be re- fused, and Englishmen of no class or kind are fond of blunt refusals. The essential point is not whether they asked, but whether they would have been refused if they had asked.
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