NATIONAL SERVICE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1649, 16 January 1913, Page 8

NATIONAL SERVICE.

LORD ROBERTS REPLIES TO LORD HALDANE. THE COMMAND OF THE SEAS, The following letter by Lord Robert; appears in the London "Morning Post" — .Sir,—You havo recently given" so zener S S? s - a W'l 0 tho subject ,of Nationa 0. ix?.rnco that I am relucUnt to tre^pas l oujour coluinns by a single other Tinb but the speech of tho Lord Cliancellor ; as reported 111 your issuo of Saturday last m contains assumptions so misleadinß nnc is assertions so wide of the fact that I air w un ablo to permit them to pass unchal n longed. .Incidentally, Viscount Haldane'i if r^f O,ICO to "ia ignoranco oi strategy oil the part of the promoters oi ig Aafconal Service, must provoke a smilt .0 from, every experienced soldier, and force him to recollect that "this'.'js the y same man who, a few'years ago, spoko Oi 10 a whole nation springing, to; arms on, wai i hoing declared, and nobly preparing to 0 submit itself to six training in n order to meet the invading foe! Within n half-even within a third, of that ■ period, (1 that fee might have, done; his destructive 1 work, broken an Empiro to pieces, imn posed a huge indemnity, and returned- in , triumph to his own shores. Aad amongst u the many ihare's nests"which Lord Haldane in his\ career as War Minister has ■- discovered, surely this, "discovery" of the e intimate connection betwceii finance and 'I nav al and military strategy,- which he ■ gravely announced on Friday evening, is the quaintest and.most original! At what ° period -in human history has that eone. nection not been only too obvious? ' r( ' Haldane talks loosely of > the commaud of the sea as a profound v strategical principle, but it 13 obvious, from the context of his speecli and from 3 the interpretations put upon it in tho • press, that 110 is thinking only of tlici : and Knglish . Channel. But tho command of the seas" would, be a much less misleading term; both to the amateur strategist a'nd-to tho general reader, and it is just. this principle of ; our strategy, .namely, the command of the seas, that the National Service League :' has firmly' grasped and repeatedly in'cul- > -cated. For the ocean is -not only, the i highway to our scattered-Empire,' but, as ' a distinguished, German admiral frankly ; pointed out a couple of months ago, the' 1 seizure of Egypt or the command of'the Mediterranean by an alien Power could at any moment-force England 'to .her ■ knees, by, starvation. •To Great/Britain's. • maintenance of this command a supremo navv is certainly tho first essential. This we have never denied. Our contention is. that such supremacy cannot be secured by ' a slight superiority in the number of our Dreadnoughts merely, but by the complete mobility of that navy itself. To xermit that mobility an efheient army .for Homo defence is, wo contend, indispensable. There is; tho ! crri.x of tliQ'. whole' ; matter; - It.is; an error to lay-excessive stress on tho, fact-that'England is an "island Power." As a factor in military . defence tile phrase "island Power" varies 'with, times and ' circumstance?; .Nearly every day l that passes brings, some new. invention', which-'decreases, the force, of the w-o'rds and narrows the already narrow seas environing us. What are we to think of the,"profundity" of tlio strategy which ignores both these principles, and at tho.samo time'ignores the mutual' in£erdependoncy qf ; the ..Navy, the 'Expedition•ary. Army, and the Homo Defence. Army for their perfcct efficiency,, whether 'in diplomacy 'or war? ■ Again! I am'at a loss to understand by what right Lord Haldane acciiscs tie National Service League ,of insincerity and of .'n'ot meaning what it says. ...The League lias repeatedly demonstrated*-that at an additional expense of less than four milli6ns an army adequate .to undertake .the homo dcfenco of these islands could easily bo provided. It would Ijo an army which at the same time woul 1 givo perfect freedom of action to tho Navy.and-to the Overseas Expeditionary Force. And tile four millions ;they spent upon that arriiy would be woll spent, whereas the thrca and a' half millions annually spent upon the Tcrritorkl Force, ;which, as/I pointed'out tho other, day, in spito of, tho utmost backing up bv a partial, Govern, ment,-is a complete failure in discipline, numbers, equipment,' and energy,' theso three and a half millions as three and a half fliillions completely thrown away. By what right does Lord Haldane go behind tho repeated statements, ot .tho League and assort, Or insinuate, that tho adoption, of our, scheme of National Ser-. vice would really. involve .on- outlay of from ten to;fifteen millions per annum? Even allowing for the exigencies of political oratory, sudh distortions of fact seem excessive. ' ; ' Nor can I too 6t'rongly deprecate Lord Haldano's identification of compulsory training with the Unionist'party. The National Service League has throughout tho ten years of. its history*striven to keep this question outside the heat and confusion of party politics,' bolicviiig- as we do that every man born within-these islands—the inheritor of thoir freedom and the justice of their laws—has but to iealiso tho gravity of tho present situation to bo willing to face his responsibilities and', to 'bo prepared to. defend' that freedom and that justice in arAis against any enemy. And wo further helicvo that if'the inhabitants: of these islands once, fully .realised the tremendous task which .invasion would impose upon the Terri- , tonal'Force, and the sacrifices which, by the , insufficiency of their training,' these gallant 'fellows would' be compelled. Ito make—we are convinced that our country- ' .men—thus instructed in the truth 'at last by tho mero exerciso of English ■ common sonse' end this unhappy playing , at war within twenty-foiir -hours. In this new strategy of his, Lord Hal- ' dane appears to regard our second line as ' negligible or irrelevant, and I further, ob- ■ servo that in all the mass of diseussion- ' ■which has followed my Manchester speech •' —whether on public platform or; in the 1 daily press—not a single attempt has been .made to meet tho fever,^l,points of my indictment or tho' statistics set forth in' 1 the speech I. made at. the Mansion' House ' in July, last, upon which that' indictment ..-was' based.' ■ v In this'letter, I cannot • even recapitu- ' lato those statistics; but in a matte;- of ' so rrfuchi urgency and national importance, ■ I may bo permitted to refer jour readers - to a small book which Mr. John Murray. is publishing this week, where they will > find ii. full statement of those statistics as well as of my whole position in this crisis ' of our. history .—Yours, etc., - ' * .1 ■ ■ ROBERTS, F.M. t - • ' - ■. .- 'r .—' " (