COMPULSORY TRAINING.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 185, 26 August 1909, Page 5

COMPULSORY TRAINING.

Tli« National Service training awl Home Defence BiU. introduce*! to the Home of Lords by Lord Hubert.*, and rejected on its sreoroi reading l>y 123 votes tu 103. toimop-ie ©n aH mate subjects the obligation of serving in the Territorial force bptween the ages of 18 and 30. There were excluded from the operation of the Bitt att officers of the regular and reserve forces, naval and military, and some others, but. subject to this and other modifications, every person who came under the Bill would be in th#> same position as a person who voluntarily joins the existing Territorial force. Th*» liability to training, as proposed, was not to extend over the whole trrm of service, but would be limited to four years. The Bill provided for an absolute equality of treatment of all classes, no purchase of discharge or of exemption from serivce. but in the matter ot training various exemptions were provided for. Care was taken as regards officers that first appointments should only be given to those persons who bad either been through recruit training or held commissions in the regular army. Finally. the Bill proivded that voluntary enlistment for the Territorial force should cease, but men would complete their current term of service. Lord Milner was the strongest supporter of the Bill, and said he regarded Lord Roberts' plan as having great social moral, physical, and educational value. Indeed, if we never had another war, the improvements in the morale of the nation that would follow from compulsory military training and service would repay any expenditure