NATIONAL SERVICE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1075, 14 March 1911, Page 2

NATIONAL SERVICE.

SPEECH BY SIR WILLIAM RUSSELL, NECESSARY FOR UNIVERSAL MILITARY TRAINING. Sir William Russell, who takes a great interest in the national service movement, delivered a fine speecli on January 27 at a meeting at Lowes, England, in support of the National Service League, which is reported in the "East Sussex News." The Mayor (Alderman Holmau) presided. The Mayor said he was very pleased to preside, because he was a great believer in a strong national defensive movement, lo his mind, Mr. llaldane's scheme did not go far enough. They must have suliicient men to carry out that scheme, but at present there were not sufficient. Inner those circumstances he ielt quite sure it was evident to every thinking man and woman that to protect, not only this country, but their colonies and dependencies, they must have a very much larger force at their command than thi present scheme permitted of. Ho did not see why the Army should be called, upou to defend the able-bodied men. : (HeaT, hear.) In other countries '. the "■ only people to defend were tho women anil children. ~' . Sir William Russell said a sermon was generally preceded by a text, and he had thought of tho following text on which to hang his discourse: "When a strong man armed keepeth his palace his goods are in peace, but when a stronger than mi shall come upon him, and overcome mm, he takcth ironi him'all his armour wherein ho trusteth and divideth his spoils.' That text covered the position excellently. No man, however .capable ot epigram, could put the position • more concisely. What better thing could there be for any man or nation that they were so strong that nobody should come upon t ieni. In case of a successful invasion, tiieir Dreadnoughts," battleships, cruisers, and submarines would all be. confiscated, and then the partition'of the spoils would immediately commence A huge indemnity would bo demanded. India would pass to one, Australia to another, New Zealand to a third, and so on until all the possessions overseas were divided amongst England's conquerors Canada would no longer bo talking of reciprocity treaties, but would be compelled to throw in her lot with the great Republic alongside of which she was located. The overseas Dominions were already taking time by tho forelock. (Hear hear.) They had'decided that there should be universal military training throughout the whole of Australasia. ; (Applause.) 1 icy were determined to meet the enemy whenever he came, and not to be the spoils of the victor so long as sacrifice could prevent them being dominated bv a foreign Power. The National Service ■League did not demand any form of conscription or tho rigid discipline of Continental armies. They advocated a few months' training for nil the able-bodied young men, so that when the day of trial came they would be able to take their place in the forces of the United Kingdom, borne believed that the inherent courage of the Englishman would stand by them again, and that ultimately they would ■pull through whatever happened. The SO o n cr they put that illusion on ono side the better. Steam and telegraphy had changed the conditions of modern warfare, and when tho time came the country which was unprepared would go down. They had heard that in case of invasion every hedgerow throughout 'England would be lined with riflemen. That was another popular delusion. Ho could remember the days of the Franco-Prussian War, when young Frenchmen endeavoured to take un that position, but tho Germans refused to recognise as belligerents anybody who was not in uniform.- Nothing but trained, organised and hiVMv-" disciplined soldiers ■would be of material" use against ?.ny force which miiiht be landed on these shores. He could not understand how any reasonable being could bohevo that half-trained, half-or-gamsed and half-disciplined men could compete against highly trained, organised forces. It was difficult to realise the horrors of an invasion—tho sufferin"S and deaths of soldiers were appalling. Ihfiy suffered that contingency not only unflinchingly, but. also.cheerfully. The invaders would live upon the produce of the country, and the impotent inhabitants would be obliged to live or starve upon .that which was not consumed by thn invading nrmv. They must do everything to avoid the possibility of an invasion. He by no means underrated the quality of the material out of which their present Territorial Forces were built. He did not .under.-estimato>. the patriotism of -the men, but ,he, maintained that their ■-.training, was-, absolutely insufficient to make them into efficient troops, and if it their numbers were so small that they ontild not take the part they should in the defence of their country. It was said that six months after war Tvns'declared they would bo very fine soldiers. Were they to believe that a war of invasion- could last anything ike'six. months, and that ■victory was .likely, to rest with the troops of 'a nation whom it f/mk <ix months to pet ready for the field! There was the assumption that the silver streak vas better than many armies. He admitted the great usefulness of the English Channel, ami he delated to think'of the power ot the Navy and the heroic spirit which had always characterised the British sailor. Accidents would happen, and if by any chance it was possible for England to loeo the command of the seas for a week it would be possible to land in this country so many troops that six months would not be required (o bring tne war to a conclusion. There would be no- formal declaration of war-no more warning than the flash which came from a summer cloud-before the first shot was fired. He would ask them to consider whether it was'not extremely difficult for England to continue maintaining her fleet at what was called the two-Power standard. I hey might -make, very great sacrinces to do so, but they were' 43 millions of people against a possible combination of over 100 million people. >The building of fleets- was a question of time and incney. and they must recognise the difficulty it would be for them to maintain competition against such a large number of people. They must have a strong Territorial Army, so that in case of an accident to the fleet they would not be left entirely destitute. He might be told that England would never be without allies. He hoped that would be 'so, but treaties without power at the back of them were worth very .'little more than the parchment they were' written on. (Hear, hear.) The necessity for universal military training must be brought home to the people of England, and the league was doing good.work in calling meetings to listen to speakers who advocated that. The impelling force could only, be generated by themselves, and unless they moved they would never get the ordinary politician to mako a step of any kind. ■ It appeared to him that the.days.of individual statesmanship had practically, gone by. Public men kept their eye on the cat to fee which side of the fence it wa9 going to jump down, and then they followed on. (Laughter.) It. behoved them when they saw the British lion basking in the sun of prosperity,to .wake him up, and sec that he jumped down on the proper side of the fence which led to universal military training. ' If the rulofs of the Continent, saw that. England was in the position of the strong man armed they would let him live in peace. (Applause.) Mr. A. Parker proposed a resolution emphasising that it was the duty of every able-bodied man of suitable age to undergo training for home defence. 'Mr. A. H. Kent seconded, and the motion, which w;>..s supported by Captain Solby Ash. R.N., was unanimously agreed to. : A vote of thanks wss p.is?ed to the Mayor for presiding, and to Sir Win. Russell for his address, and both of the.-o gentlemen acknowledged the compliment.