THE COAL STRIKE AND VOLUNTARY ENLISTMENT.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOTC.1 SIR,—In your issue of October 10th last year you published a letter of mine entitled "The Biological Effects of Voluntary Enlistment." The recent coal strike in South Wales is, I believe, the first outward indication of a fact I then en- deavoured to draw attention to. In my letter I said that — " under a voluntary system it is only the men with the most grit in them who usually offer themselves for service. Those of less sterling quality, potential or actual, refrain. . . Under com- pulsory service the loss to the State is more evenly distributed between the best and the less estimable of its citizens."
A propos of this, Mr. Lloyd George, in his speech to the miners' delegates, stated that fifty-six thousand men had enlisted from Glamorganshire. These men, without doubt, were those amongst them who had the greatest degree of patriotism and the highest sense of responsibility. If, under a compulsory system of enlistment, a considerable proportion of these men had still been present to moderate counsels by their vote and influence, and a corresponding number of those who remain had been absent, the probability is that there would have been no strike, or, at least, that its course would have been other than it was. If our present methods of recruiting continue to prevail we may well anticipate further trouble on similar grounds in other directions. The effect on the community of the sudden withdrawal of all its best elements is not one calculated to preserve the moral of the nation at its highest possible efficiency. When it is realized that this factor is no less important in deciding the issue of a great war than the moral of the troops in the field, recent events give us reason to pause—especially when we recollect that any deficiency in this respect amongst the military is capable, to a certain extent, of being compensated for by " discipline " in a way that, is not possible amongst civilians: St. Peter's Vicarage, Loughborough.
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