March 29, Despite reports to the contrary, there is Plenty of evidence to show that the question Of conscription for Great Britain has not yet me a dead Issue, and that in the course fla few days Mr, Neville Chamberlain may five to take decisions which may necessitate his asking to be relieved of his pledge not 2 introduce compulsion during peace time. compulsory military training has never been poked upon with any great favour by the [rise Tt seems in their eyes to carry with jy thst negation of individual freedom which dear to the British heart, and to put 3 Place a form of submission wholly alien Uethe genius of the nation, Thus it was with that tates, and only when it was shown at the voluntary system was not supplying bein the Great War, that conscription was seyheeessary forces for the successful con Srenlually Introduced, and then under the tecifle undertaking that it would be only a "porary measure to last as long as the business of power politics, it is more, and more clearly demonstrated that might is a far more impressive argument than all the right In the world, From that point of view alone it is difeult to avoid the conclusion that in the interests of self-defence it 1s 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 might be made 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 polities, but, taken by and large, there are substantial indications which suggest that, reluctant as the country may be to adopt a system of compulsion, the realities of the international 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 book 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 Jauthority Colonel F. N. Maude has written interestingly Briefly, however, it might be pointed out that under modern' conditions of Industry the createst "national wealth-producing power resides, not as formerly in the technical ski 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 mental concentration are the principal qualities re-Guired by the units of such bodies. Now these are the two essential factors" which modern methods of military training alm ut developing, and these methods in turn evolved naturally from the conditions of service whic compulsion Introduced. Men who have un-Gergone this training leave the ranks. with bodies steeled to resist disease and minds capable of prolonged. concentrated effort. 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 Rormal of his own class. Hence altogether about one million' men are stilt alive who without such training would be dead and Durled; similarly there are in all some seven millions more, all doing better work day for day than they otherwise would have done.
This was written before 1914, but, neverthe~ Tess 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 pressing heavily upon old beliefs and practices. The main consideration at the moment is a purely military and political one. A with a big navy and a large army is a 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 peace and her own self-defence.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.