Britain’s Call For National Service

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 148, 18 March 1939, Page 1 (Supplement)

Britain’s Call For National Service

- -HFBF are two sides to this great test which is now to be applied 'I 1 to the voluntary system,” says “The Times,” in comment on the I National Service campaign. “The first is the readiness of the J public to volunteer, and the second is the capacity of the Government to use volunteers. Recruits are no use without equipment : equipment is no use without recruits. There should accordingly be a noble rivalry between the public and the Government, each keeping pace with the other in the jierfoimance of its duty

“Those who answer the call will have political opinions as various as ihose who make it, and will retain their right of unfettered criticism of their rulers. The retention of that right gives the assurance that their service is offered only to the patriotic ideals that unite them, and not to any one of the political doctrines that divide. Only free institutions can provide this means of distinguishing between disagreements which will be suspended in the time of danger, and the fiindn,mental community of motive, which persists and is enhanced.

“Liberty, therefore, is the guarantee that service shall be wholehearted and ungrudging, while an authority that identifies its party ereed with the whole content of patriotism will find itself in the ultimate emergency still battling with the dissent it has repressed. This is the truth that gives a volunteer army or a body of trained civilian volunteers an inner efficiency beyond the reach of those who ‘stand but in a forced obedience.'

“If national service has any meaning,” observes the "Si>ectator,” "it means the active co-operation of both the governors and the governed in the defence of their country; it means that both discharge their ret-qxmsibilities. and thereby create a basis for mutual trust and confidence If either party t<this compact fails, the work of the other is wasted

“It is useless for the Government to create weapons it there is no one to use them : it is equally useless for men and women to volunteer for service, if they are not given the weapons with which to defend themselves. Mr Chamberlain has described the plan of National Service as a test for the men and women of this country, and it Is a test; but uot for them alone, it is a test equally for their leaders.

“A nation called upon to serve will demand that its’efforts are uot wasted or thwarted, and expect of its leaders efforts and results that surpass any'hing that has so far been achieved.”

“When all is said." stresses the “Economist,” "it cannot be too strong!) emphasized that a chief remedy for past failures now lies in the bands of the l>eop!e of Britain themselves. If each and every citizen is fully resolved to find a pro|>er place in the roll of active service, to use every effort to dispel all uncertainty, to exploit to the full the advice and information offered by the National Service Committees and to resist every temptation to wait upon the course of events before acting, then, when Parliament conies to review the recruiting caminiign in March, it may be found that loyalty and determination have been triumphant ovei hesitation and doubt. “We must all hope aud pray so, for the sands are swiftly running out.

“It is no disadvantage.'' says the "Star." "that most of the jobs listed will involve some training. The man who cannot learn something new is less oi a man than a vegetable Training should be regarded as a privilege rather than a burden.

“Another reason why every available man and woman should enrol is that in time, only of uncertainty, the uncertain person is a danger and a nuisance. Nobody believes that war is inevitable. But it is possible, and if the dread occasion comes, the least unhappy people will be those who can go to their post of duty and think nut merely of themselves, but of others”