A NATIONAL DELUSION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 163, 3 April 1908, Page 8

A NATIONAL DELUSION.

v \ LORD ROBERTS ON POSSIBILITY OF INVASION. • Lord Roberts presided at a meeting, held at the Grand Stand, Ascot,; on January 11, under , the auspices of the National Servico League,' for the purposo of considering tho subject .of universal military training. Ho was, he said, erltirely in accord with Mr. J. L. Maxse (who had, just spoken) as'to tho futile results o' fthe Hague Conference.'Any ono who read tho proceedings could riot help feeling that the delegates contemplated the rocurronce of a great war. The timo had not como for ' a general disarmament, and ,wo must, in the near future at any rate, bo propared to have international disputes settled much in the same way as in the past: In order to rbnder'theso shores absolutely safo from tho invader, said/Lord Roberts, and also to maintain the integrity of our Empire, wo must have, not only a strong and powerful. Navy, but also an efficient and .sufficient Army. Ho had no desire to see this country burdened with a large Regular Army. ' A large Regular Army, in. the first place, was expensive, as-'all armies based on a voluntary system must be;'and again, the size of the, Regular Army was measured by tho number of men of tho .proper .stamp who would voluntarily como forward to fill its ranks.' Notwithstanding all that had been dono for the soldier, the fact remained that the standard of height, chest, and weight, had to be reduced to 'such-an extent that we were now taking into the Army men who were utterly unfitted to undergo the hardship's of a campaign. He wanted to make it quite clear that tho Regular, Army was only just sufficient to provide for the garrisoning of India and tho colonies in peace time, and putting a, very small striking force into tho field. Many people entertained tho belief in which they were brought up, that an invasion of these shores was impossible, and in this thoy were oncouraged by those who might know better. It was in tho past immunity, from trouble and in tho astonishing apathy and ignorance of our people- that tho great danger to this country lay. They know nothing of tho horrors of war, arid thoy seemed quite willing to let matters slide so long as thoy imagined that no danger could como to themselves. (Cheers.) But we ought not to wait for some great national calamity beforo adapting ourselves to modern conditions.- If tho country would start by lotting all "boys have o oertain amount of training and rifle shooting, then, whei at the ago of 18 or 19, they, in camp, put in two, three, four, or five months' drill, they would tun out useful soldiers, and a fortnightly training in the three following years woull probably make them all that was required.