THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1907. LORD ROBERTS' WARNING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8459, 8 June 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1907. LORD ROBERTS' WARNING.

Lord Roberts' latest pronouncement on the subject of national service is made by way of introduction to a collection of his speeches and letters on the subject just issued. "In publishing in book form," says the field-marshal, "the several speeches and addresses I have been impelled to make during the past eighteen months on the unpreparedness of the country for war, it seems desirable to endeavour to clear up the doubts thut have beet) expressed as to the objects of the Nationl Service League, and to the precise interpretation of the words 'National Service' and 'Conscription.' " Then comes this solemn warning: "In the face of the great competition for world power we should indeed be improvident to rely solely for national security on the traditions of our naval superiority, and to defer all attempt to perfect our fighting machine until the finger of fate points irrevocably to the penalty of disaster that awaits a people who, in time of ease and prosperity, refuse to be warned or to take the most ordinary precautions." If his warning is disregarded, Lord Roberts promises us no uncertain doom. "If we persist in taking no count of our wider responsibilities," he says, "and in ignoring the growing naval and military development of nations which lie strategically across our line of communication, or whose borders are practically conterminous with our own; and if we hold on to the fallacy that any attempt to reorganise our military system is to encourage 'militarism,' I think we could hardly be surprised if we were brought not]j only to the verge of war itself, but to war, and war with disastrous results." In conclusion, Lord Roberts explains what he means by an army "raised by the free and uncontrolled act" of the entire nation. "It is the army," he says, "not of the despot, but of the nation ; and, as the nation's army, or,

rather, as a nation in arms, its very nature is a warranty of peace whenever peace is consistent with national honour and the sacred duty of protecting the Fatherland."