NATIONAL MILITARY SERVICE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 17 October 1913, Page 4

NATIONAL MILITARY SERVICE.

Lord Roberts holds first place in the "Nineteenth Century and After," with a reply on behalf of the National Service, League to the Duke , of Bedford's article advocating a large increase of the regular army, in preference to the institution of a system of compulsory military service. The first and most cogent argument against the Duke of Bedford's scheme is that 'it is, apparently, impossible to carry it into effect. Lord Roberts quotes figures showing that the recruiting for the regular army follows the ourse of unemployment. Sir lan Hamilton says that 75 per cent of the regulars are men who enlisted beoause they were out of,work. The "Report on the Health of the Army for 1909" places the figure at 90 pea?, cent. It would seem, according to this statement, that the more prosperous Great Britain becomes, the more her prosperity is diffused through\ the nation, the smaller will bo thfe, number of regulars available for the .regular army. Lord Roberta affirms that the regular army cannot be .increased to the size recommended by'the Duke of Bedford. It is further put forward by Lord Roberts that a Home Defence force (of the nature«defined by\the National Service League, and not by the {Territorial voluntary organisation at present in existence), is absolutely necessary to protect the United Kingdom against the threats of invasion, which might otherwise be used by the enemy tcf keep Britain's expeditionary force on British soil, and her ships concentrated in her own waters, contrary to the true interests of the nation and the strategical requirements of the war. Lord Roberts considers' that a delflfr of a few days or even of 24 hours in despatching the expeditionary force to fight outride England might be fatal to th& success of the operations. Sueli ia delay might be effected if a home defence force were available. Lord Roberts declares that the opposition of ''apathy, prejudice, and ignorance" to compulsory service in the United Kingdom is being steadily undermined, he calls upon his followers to concentrate their efforts, in order to secure the, victory of that cause.