COMPULSORY SERVICE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1723, 14 April 1913, Page 5

COMPULSORY SERVICE.

BILL TALKED OUT.

WAR SECRETARY SAYS ARMY IS STRONG ENOUGH. . ' l. Telegraph—Presa Association—Copyright I (Rec.( April 13, 5.5. p.m.') ! London, April 12., , The Bill introduced in the House of Commons by Mr. G. T. Sandys, Unionist jnember.for the Wells Division of Somereet, to provide for compulsory service in .the Territorials of.all. youths:on attaining ,th 6 . age of eighteen , has been'talked out. Colonel. Seely, Secretary ;of : State for .iWar, during the debate, said that if the expeditionary iotco - was. abroad there ; ivould still remain sufficient, troops in (England to meet a. raid by an invading army of 70,000 men. Though the Territorials were 60,000 below full strength, the General Staff considered ths Home force Eufficient under, tho Balfour standard of ' 3005 to resist invasion. .The people would jnot have compulsion, and the Government ..would not adopt'it. '' ■, , ' - 1 ; Mr. Bonar Law, Leader of the Opposi- . tion, insisted that there had been many phanges since 1005, and new needs required .new measures. "Admiral Lord Charles Beresford declared that the,real danger;from aircraft in war time was not bombs, but the dropping. of petrol cylinders, firing arsenals, dockyards, and 'barracks.; Even tto steel . decks of battleships could .be covered with ' fire.'