UNIVERSAL MILITARY TRAINING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 27 February 1913, Page 4

UNIVERSAL MILITARY TRAINING.

"It is often said," writes Lord Roberts in a letter to the >L~ndon Spectator, "that universal military training 'would fostdv what is called militarism—in other words, an aggressive

-.piri.t. I eajunot imagine anything further from the truth or further from experience. It is easy for those who have no personal responsibility to urge others into an tinnecessarv war, but. it. would be a. very different matter to cast a vote for war if'it were known that there was ..scarcely a family in the land which would not be liable'to send out a member to stand his chance in the wear and tear and risks of a campaign. Tn the present circumstances a- man who does his duty is at a disadvantage in the struggle for commercial success as against one

wiio does not, and an employer vrlio patriotically sets his employees freo to do their annual training in the Territorial Force is at a disadvantage as against liis less patriotic rival. Surely 1 a-m justified in saying that this is an undemocratic and unbusinesslike ■systiMH." Lord Roberts is confident that nationai military service as he so strongly advocates, is making progress, and that the lessons of the Balkan War have opened many people's eyos to Britain's need of a strong citizen army.