MR. EDWARD CLARKE ON VOLUNTEERS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2470, 17 February 1881, Page 4

MR. EDWARD CLARKE ON VOLUNTEERS.

In distributing the prizes to the 6th Surrej' Rifle Corps, at the headquarters llotherhithe, on December 21, Mr Edward Clarke, P,C., M.P., said the volunteer movement in this county had not onty been of considerable service to young men —and he spoke as a volunteer himself —but had strengthened the nation. It was important that we, as a nation, should be stronger than we could afford to be in the matter of our professional army. This was made clear at the time of the Crimean War. The volunteer movement had to a great extent remedied the weakness which then afflicted this country; and it had done more. In the course of time England must have suffered from the great curse which afflicted the nations on the Continent at this moment —namely, a a strong military class which made the most of pretexts for war. By the establishment of volunteer corps we had solved the difficulty which beset us of an insufficient force without incurring the danger of a military and warlike class, because, while our volunteers gave us 200,000 men—9o per cent of whom were efficient —who could in the course of two or three weeks be able to take their place in line of battle, there was in that body no separate interest, no military, no warlike instinct. They were soldiers, and at the same time citizens, and while as soldiers they would be able to defend the interests of the country in war, as citizens their greatest interest was that of peace. It was a great misfortune that in Continental countries enormous numbers of armed men were supported by the industry of the people, for their very existence rendered them a constant element of danger to all the nations of Europe.