Lord Haldane devoted the greater part of his speech to
a criticism of the scheme for the reorganising of the Regular Army put forward in Lord Roberts' book. Lord Roberts, he contended, was insisting on preparing for the logically possible instead of for the reasonably probable. The Navy was our first line of defence; all the changes of recent times were in favour of the defending nation, and he was not convinced that the Territorial Army was not a good deal better than any four months' trained compulsory force was likely to be. He quoted the testimony of Colonel Repington as to the immense improvement of the Territorials on the old Volunteers, and reiterated the view, supported by conti- nental evidence, that we could not rely on volunteers for keeping up our Army overseas if we had a compulsory service. In conclusion, he could not accept Lord Roberts's statement that the expeditionary force was in a, bad condition, for he believed it to be in a good condition. He believed also that the Territorials had justified themselves, while the Special Reserve was better than the Militia, and he was con- vinced that the existing system was the only one that would suit us, the only one possible for the island empire that we were.
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