NATIONAL SERVICE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1714, 3 April 1913, Page 7

NATIONAL SERVICE.

: LORD lIALDANE'S OBJECTIONS. ■ In a recont debate in the British House of Lords, Lord Chancellor Haldane, in discussing' the home-defence question, said:—"Of course, it is true that wo should from a military point of view be enormously better with 500,000 men trained for two or three years, but the consequenco would be that you would not be able to Maintain at the. same time an expeditionary force.or overseas garrison on. a professional voluntary basis. If you endeavour by compulsory service to raise any force of these dimensions, you could not get your drafts for India and distant overseas parts, and you would put the Empire ill peril. Earl Roberts has had experience' of this question. As Com-mander-in-Chief he substituted three yeans' service for two years'. What was the result? We were placed in the utmost difficulty, and hurriedly took ourselves away'from tlio three years. Five out of six soldiers agree that they want the principle of .compulsory service, but there agreement ends, anil there are discordant voices. I hardly know an officer who does not scout the noble Earl's plan, and I am not sure that the noble Karl himself is not coming to take their view. In the book 'Fallacies and Facts,' he says he is aware that distinguished regular officers take exception to the ■ term of service which tlio National Service League imposes, and that ho is r.ot prepared to controvert their criticism. In the second part of, the book, the responsibility for which I do, not put upon liim, somebody of authority says we want an army of 300,000 for home defence, trained much longer than the National Service League proposas, to sem on the Continent, and be used for the purpose of preserving the balance. Several consequences would follow that plan. We should create suspicion amongst other nations, we should speedily be bankrupt, and an indignant nation would cast out of power tho Government which made such a proposal. I do not think you can get 300,000 men for tlivt purpose, along with your oversea garrisons, ajid the expeditionary force which we possess at present. I do not think wo could get it without an addition of .£30,000,000 to the Army Estimates; therefore I dismiss the proposal."