THE VOLUNTEERS IN ENGLAND.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2644, 22 June 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE VOLUNTEERS IN ENGLAND.

A London journal points out the increasing- importance of the volunteer force at Home. There never was a time, it eays, when the necessity for making the volunteer force an efficient fighting power was so apparent as it is at the present time. Iu the early clays of its existence people smiled at what they regarded as the absurdity of the notion that the citizen army would ever be engaged in anything but a tearless battle, to use the phrase that was applied to a well-known encounter which took place loug before the Christian era. Our insular position it was argued would always render the services of volunteers in case of a great war bloodless. They would maintain order as a sort of military police in the absence of the Line or at worst of the Militia, it was said, but they would never bo called upon to take the field, for the simple reason that no enemy could ever land on our shores. We have changed all that, and it has been made abundantly obvious that the changed conditions of warfare, the enormous maritime commerce requiring protection in the event of an outbreak of hostilities, and the strength of foreign navies, have combined to render the possibility of invasion a subject for serious consideration. Our first lino of defence, it is admitted by the most competent judges, should be the Navy; but they have mad 6it clear of late that we cannot afford to regard the efficiency of volunteers merely from the point of view presented by the targets at Wimbledon or elsewhere. The relations with their employers nf the members who are employees is becoming an important clement in the constitution of that force which in an emergency would stand between, the general public and conscription. It is of vital importance that employers of labour, especially to any large extent, should realise the value of the military force which has survived much neglect, and to-day is a great factor in our calculations for national defence. It is declared that tlmre are many firms who, while not daring openly to prohibit those persons in their employment from becoming Volunteers, yet secretly oppose the movement in their mode of treating those engaged with them who wish to attend drills. If this is the ease it is a pity that the names of such firms are not generally known in that connection, in order that public: opinion mi;:ht effect that which patriotism seems unable to do. We hope soon to hoar that the fund of a hundred thousand pounds proposed to be raised by the Lord Mayor for the benefit of VfflluntoerH has been obtained.