LORD ROBERTS’ COUNSEL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 285, 30 November 1914, Page 4

LORD ROBERTS’ COUNSEL.

A little over two years ago the veteran Field Marshal. Lord Roberts gave a stirring address in Manchester ir the subject of Home Defence, and h the course of his remarks said : “Wind then, is ray plan, and what is nr ultimate counsel to the nation and the message to my countrymen that, a* tin’s'.solemn hour, 1 would jitter? ft i the message burnt into mv mind

twelve years ago during the crisis of the South African war : it is the message which every hour ol that protracted and not too glorioufc struggle made me feel to be more and more necessary; and 1 am compelled to say frankly it is the message which events, ( some quite recent and some remoter j have compelled me to regard as more ; pressing in 1912 than in 1900-1901. Gentlemen, that message as: —‘Arm; and prepare to quit yourselves like, men, for the time of your ordeal is at hand.’ A long interval has been allowed ns for preparation, for in this era of rapid evolution twelve years is a big space in human affairs. Twelve years has been given to us, and in chose years what have we done? We have modified and re-modified the effete voluntary system; we have invented several new names and a new costume. But as regards efficiency, and as regards preparedness for war, we are practically where we were in 1900.” This was the warning and the counsel of one who has been well styled Britain’s greatest soldier, and though he has passed over the great divide, his words will surely live in the minds of all Britons,and the lesson now being learned in the hitter school of experience will not he forgotten.