DEFENCE OF BRITAIN.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 21 April 1913, Page 5

DEFENCE OF BRITAIN.

CABLE NEWS

(United . reu A* elation — By Xlec iric Telegraph—Copyright)

LORD ROBERTS AT LEEDS. AN EXTRAORDINARY RECEPTION A CITIZEN ARMY WANTED. (Received Last Night, 5.5 o'clock.) LONDON, April 20. Lord Roberts met with an extraordinary reception at Leeds l . Tlu-ee thousand pei\s*ons welcomed him in the Town Hall, and thirty thousand in Victoria Square, where his speech was thrown on to a huge screen by means of a cinematograph. A SIGN OF REVOLUTION. Lord Roberts said his reception wjis a sign of the great revolution in public opinion. Seven months earlier, it had seemed beyond human power to arouse the country to realise the torpor the youth of the nation were wading through. The politicians forming the Cabinet were mostly blind. In Roman history, he said, the- word "conscription" was a badge of honour. He compared the proposed citizen army with the Continental system, and declared that it was unfair and unpatriotic to describe national service as slavery, or as a blood-tax. It would be exclusively used for home defence, and would never be required to deal with strikers. AN ENTHUSIASTIC .RESOLUTION. The Hon. Sir Arthur Lawley, formerly Governor of Western Australia, the Transvaal, and Madras, seconded the resolution in favour of improving the home defence, which was carried with enthusiasm. Sir Arthur Lawley said that wlu-n Canada, New Zealand, and Australia sought to strengthen her naval and military forces, it was not from a spirit of military aggrandisement, but in order that, when England's voice wa*> raised in the councils of the na tions, she might be enabled to insist upon the preservation of peace. • LONDON TERRITORIALS. Viscount Reginald' Esher has resigned the Chairmanship of the Loudon branch of the Territorial Association, and -has been succeeded h\ Field-Marshall Nicholson. The branch has carried a -resolution in favour of th© adoption of some system for an increase & sie number of Territorials. COMPULSO£ Y SERVICE. OPPOSED. The Right Hon. Charles Hobhouse-, formerly Financial . Secretary to the Treasury, speaking at Bristol, denied the necessity for compulsory service. He isaid there was no commitment of any sort with the Continental nations. The action of the overseas dominions had enormously reduced the possibility of a call upon the Motherland.