RECRUITING.
[To THE EDITOR 07 THE "SPECTATOR."] Sra,—While we all hope that the brisk recruiting which has distinguished the first days of this week will be maintained, it would be unwise to relax effort in other direc- tions. We have, if we care to employ them, organizations which comprise all the needful machinery and possess all the necessary influence for successful recruiting agencies : successful not only as regards assemblage of numbers, but of men possessing the qualities which make the backbone of an army. Is it extravagant to suggest that the M.C.C., the Rugby and Association Football Unions, the Amateur Athletic Association—in a. word, the governing bodies of organized games—should at this juncture resolve themselves into recruiting agencies, and appeal to the clubs which acknowledge the rule of each to call members to the colours P Is a cricketers' battalion an impossible dream ? Nay, are ten battalions of cricketers impossible P Are ten battalions of football players beyond the realm of the practicable P What regiments they would make ! Men in the prime of youth and activity, trained, and fit to endure the strains of a campaign ! And what an answer such battalions would make to those who cry out upon our over-devotion to sport and games ! The movement is already begun; the Blackheath Football Club—all honour to them—have cancelled their engagements for the approaching season because so many of their members have anticipated Lord Roberts's warning that this is no time for games. It seems a great opportunity to show, not only our own country, but our allies across the Channel—and the common enemy—that there is in our games what we have always claimed for them—the making of man-
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