Nor was there any hint that our men might prove unequal to our needs. Whatever opinions Lord Kitchener may hold upon that question, this was obviously not the time to express them. There is, however, undoubtedly & growing body of opinion that this war, whether the victory of the Allies come soon or be long deferred, will prove the necessity of universal military training in this country. The advocates of conscription—notable among them Mr. J. L. Garvin—are constantly pointing the moral that our task would be far easier to-day had we the large army which universal training might have given us. of the whole.
On the other hand, the response to Lord Kitchener's appeal has not been quite all that was hoped for. His army of a hundred thousand in, I believe, complete; but this was to be but the beginning. Within a short time we shall want at least half a million. Two or three days after our declaration of war they came in with a rush. They rose to about ten thousand a day; bat naturally this was not kept up.
It is pointed out with truth that the masses of the people of this country do not even yet know what it is that we are really fighting for, and the Government is urged from many quarters to issue a clear statement of our ground of quarrel, 60 worded that oven the least educated can understand it.
Business and Pleasure, Meanwhile the nation is giving more heed to the advice that we who do not go to the front should go about our business and our pleasures with confidence in the ability of our Army and Navy to defend us, and that while exercising " reasonable' thrift we should not allow fears for the future to bring ruin on those whose business in life it is to minister to our pleasures, The railway companies have restored nearly all their tourist and excursion facilities, so far as home holiday resorts are concerned, and although there is exaggeration in the suggestions of some of their Rosters that the watering-places have sumed their wonted summer pect, it is true that many mothers are taking their broods off to the sea, even where the fathers cannot accompany
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.