The Dominion WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 1915. COMPULSORY SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2525, 28 July 1915, Page 6

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 1915. COMPULSORY SERVICE

« ' The question of compulsory service is coming to bo regarded now in England from a very different standpoint to that adopted by the people of Britain before the war. 'It is probable that a vote taken on . the question would now result in it being generally approved where in former days it would have been bitterly _ opposed. - The revolution in opinion is strictly reasonable and warranted by the- changed circumstances from which it. has taken its rise. The case for compulsory service is not weakened by many of its present advocates seeking Westablish more than is necessary to justify their agitation. To say that compulsion is necessary now is not to say that it would nave been wise to adopt it under any loss necessity than that of a great war. Some public men and writers have fastened upon Britain's failure to prepare for the emergency by which she is now faced, and seek to bolster up the demand for compulsory eel-vice by often savage criticism of the omissions and defects of British military administration during the pre-war period. Utterances of this character open up all sorts of contentious questions, and are best set aside for the time being as irrelevant. The demand for-compulsion in Britain to-day has very little reference to questions of past policy or of future policy after the war is over. It has to do solely, with the present emergency, and if it is to be justified it must be justified on the ground, that the substitution of compulsion for the voluntary, system would enable the nation to make more' effective use' of its resources in the war., Any departure from this narrow ground can only confuse the issue and distract attention from the practical question at stake. In a nation at peace the proposed adoption of compulsory service would raise all sorts of complex questions connected with the balance of industrialism and militarism.' A nation fighting for its life is, or should be, freed from all such perplexities. It has only to consider whether a given change will augment or impair its fighting power. In Great Britain many obstacles to a definite decision in regard to the principle of compulsion have been swept awa-y as .they must be .in any country engaged in a war of existence. The application of the principle has been both complicated and governed by the very important part that industrialism plays in modern war. While the British Government is still raising soldiers by voluntary enlistment it has taken powers—somewhat inadequate ' powers to judge by the successful strike of miners in South Wales—to exercise a compulsory control of industries producing necessary military supplies or connected with tho production of war material. Unless the war soon takes a more fortunate turn than now seems immediately likely it is quite possible that the principle of compulsion may be ultimately extended in Britain to the enlistment of soldiers. The war industries to which it has been in the first place tentatively applied represent that department of the country's military organisation which was first found to be (chiefly as regards effective organisation) below the standards of efficiency demanded by the war. Assuming a normal development tho extent to which compulsion is exertcd_ in the control of these industries will no doubt be regulated and limited by the facility with which tho necessary pitch of co-ordinated efficiency is attained, and, though the position as a whole is complex, the same consideration must ultimately govern a decision as to whether or n'ot compulsion shall be applied to the enlistment of soldiers. , • •