Despite reports to the contrary, there is plenty of evidence to show that the question of conscription for Great Britain has not yet become a dead issue, and that in the course of a few days Mr, Neville Chamberlain ma: have to take decisions which may necessitate his asking to be relieved of his pledge not to introduce compulsion during peace time. Compulsory military training has never been looked upon with any great favour by the British. It seems in their eyes to carry with it that negation of individual freedom which is so dear to the British heart, and to put in its place a form of submission wholly alien to the genius of the nation. Thus it was with luctance, and only when it was show at the voluntary system was not supplying the necessary forces for the successful conduct of the Great War, that conscription was eventually introduced, and then under the specific undertaking that it would be only a temporary measure to last as long as the utilities. It was possible to introduce the system and train the men only because the war by that time had become almost com-alately static, thus allowing the time neces-ary to prepare raw recruits for their duties the various fronts. In the event of another war that not be possible, Freat Britain is being brought to full realiza-of the fact that, should hostilities again out, there will be little, or no time n which to fill in deficiencies in the nation's armed forces. When Mr. Chamberlain gave ris pledge not to introduce conscription in britain during peace, it was a very different ort of peace than that from which Europe s now suffering. During the past two years the world has seen the mobilization f enormous forces as a means of exerting diplomatic pressure, and, in this very tragic business of power politics, it is more, and more clearly demonstrated that might is a more impressive argument than all the t in the world.
From that point of view alone it is dificult id the conclusion that in the interest əf self-defence it is necessary that British military strength should be augmented to a degree which would enable its diplomacy to deal with the various crises which even now may be expected to arise with rather more authority than is at present the case. There must and can be no limit to the support which Great Britain should be able to extend to France in the event of hostilities. While the British army at present available is something over half a million strong, a substantially larger force than that of 1914, it is patently insufficient to meet all the demands which migi ade upon it. The tempo of the next war, if, and when it comes, will be several degrees faster than the last, and inadequate preparedness may be the main contributing factor to defeat. That is an argument which several of his Cabinet appear to have used with considerable effect in persuading Mr. Chamberlain to waiver with regard to his original intention,—that and the increasingly urgent French representations on the subject. Labour it is re ported is prepared to support the move provided that it is paralleled by a general conscription of all the nation's resources, which, of course, includes capital. Amongst Mr. Chamberlain's own supporters there is influential opposition to conscription, some of which arises from considerations of party politics, but, taken by and large, there are substantial indications which suggest that, æluctant as the country may be to adopt a system of compulsion, the realities of the emotional situation may oblige it to drink of this very bitter medicine. Conscription, introduced in peacetime is a different thing than in war. Its introduction in the near future would rob it of all the qualities of temporariness which marked the passage of the necessary legislation some twenty odd years ago, and it may safely be reckoned that once compulsion reaches the statute bock in such circumstances it will remain there permanently, or at any rate until some scheme of general disarmament is adopted by the world.
On the benefits to be derived from compulsory military training, the well known authority Colonel F. N. Maude has written interestingly Briefy, however, it might be pointed out that under modern conditions of industry the greatest national wealth-producing power Tesides, not as formerly in the technical skill of the individual, which machinery is gradually superseding, but in the power of continuous collective effort of organized bodies, and that physical health and power of mentd concentration are the principal qualities required by the units of such bodies. Now these are the two essential factors which modern methods of military training aim at developing, and these methods in turn evolved naturally from the conditions of service which compulsion introduced. Men who have un der gene this training leave the ranks with bodies steeled to resist disease and minds capable of prolonged concentrated offer: Hence they remain not only capable of work for a considerably longer period of time, but they also do better work throughout the whole time. It has been estimated that the average trained German soldier's expectation of life is about five years better than the normal of his own class. Hence altogether about one million men are still alive who without such training would be dead and buried; similarly there are in all some seven millions more, all doing better work day fi day than they otherwise would have done, This was written before 1914, but, nevertheless still applies. There are undoubtedly many who would welcome some such system if only for the purpose of giving occupation to those of the rising generation who seem condemned to permanent unemployment and deterioration, still others who see in conscription the removal of much surplus labour from the market, and the consequent improvement in the unemployment situation It is not suggested for one moment that conscription would be the penalty for unemployment, but rather a method for the removal of much of it, That, of course, is a sociological reason which has its merits, for the removal of a fairly large section of adults from the immediate labour market would be beneficial. That, however, is not the most urgent argument in support of conscription. International realities are pres ing heavily upon old beliefs and practices. The main consideration at the moment is a purely military and political one. A Britain with a big navy and a large army is a wholly different nation than a Britain with a big navy and a comparatively small army The former would have more authority in the world, an authority which would be all the more conducive to the continuance of pea and her own self-defence.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.