The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 1913. MILITARY TRAINING WITHOUT CONSCRIPTION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 2, 7 May 1913, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 1913. MILITARY TRAINING WITHOUT CONSCRIPTION.

A novel scheme described by those instituting it as “ a. middle way between advocacy of universal military service and reluctant acquiescence in

the present inadequate number of efficients in the Territorial force” lias recently been drawn up at the Cambridge University and presented to the Senate for consideration. A memorial in advocacy of the scheme has been signed by the masters of several colleges. Following are extracts from the memorial which is headed. “Military Training Without Conscription.” “We advocate a novel principle, and by way of illustration would apply the principle to our own University. If no undergraduate were permitted to take tbo B.A. or similar| degree until ho has at least attained! the standard of efficiency as a mem-! her of the officers’ training corps or of the Territorial Force, it is estimat-' ed that at. least 2000 efficients would ho available in three years from Cambridge alone. Fxceptions should hoi confined to foreigners and to men pliy-j sicidly incapable or over thirty years] of age. Those who might view such j a proposal as imposing a new burden! upon literary or scientific merit may be reminded that some of the universities of England are not only examining bodies, but that their degrees imply residence under further conditions, social and disciplinary. These are subject to revision as expediency may warrant, in the interest not only of national defence but of education itself. . . Further, we urge that this selfsame principle of indirect pressure should he extended far beyond the universities. All candidates for fho Civil Service, and possibly for the police force, might he similarly made subject to a military qualification. Again, there is the vast army of applicants for municipal and railway employment, though in their case we suggest that the qualification should ho exacted, net at their

original entry into tlio employment, but only on their becoming candidates for promotion. Employees of private linns have not the same continuity and permanence of employment, and could not so easily lie made legally liable to this obligation. But in the case of Government servants, and of the employees of public bodies which enjoy privileges under Acts of Parlia-1 incut, a statutory obligation of this kind would bo justified in itself, and could bo enforced without serious difficulty. The example set by public bodies would very probaoly ue followed by private employers. Thus, apart from private employments, without any application of universal conscription, but merely by the operation of ordinary motives, a sufficient number of trained men might bo added to tlio Territorial Force.’