Slowness to realize how grave our position may become or may already be is a naionel failing which has been sufficiently advertised. It these spare-time volunteers d^ not offer from it. it is because they have realized that if the Home Guard comes into action, wherever it may be, it will have to take the first shock of the attack by self. Regular mobile units may be on the scent quickly, but perhaps not so quickly. particularly if they are wanted in several pieces ət Once. and larger formations must inevitably be delayed. so that it may no* be lhe first shock only but the second or third which the Home Guard has to withstand.
The zl' ack, too—and this is the crux of the matter to the volum'eer who takes his training seriovslv.—will come from the picked men of P lhoreuehlv trained army. Ili will be futile to meet them with amateur deferres. wih holfarmed men. and with arms "hey have not learnt to use. That is the motive of the best of the volunteers who Pre no' only working as they, probably never worked in their lives Wefore to save their country but who realize that without unremitting work they will not be able to save it.
Not all volunteers are of this calibre: some others are a problem. The question is whether chev are a problem which we can afford any Tonger fo neglect. An orr*nizaMon ow of which a man can walk when he likes is the leesest lyne of voluntary service. Inevitably i contains every type of man and every attitude. Leaving aside wha" ies probably " small ver-centage of men who are in the Home Guard because it frees them from other obliessons, there is a great variety (and too great a number) of there who for one Teeson or another give for less than the time and attention to their training which they may be taken ta have promised when they enrolled. There is the man who knows it all and is going Xo be there "when the balloon goes up".—when he will be rather more of a than a: nuisance. Théra is the mah. Who put autumn end thinks that that will do. thous in a good deal of raining last summer the truth is that progressive training of every Kind has gone months ahead of him.
Such men m be soared and good company commanders have let them go, Perhaps the number may still be enough when hey iu> all gone, but the question arises and ie wem incrossingly asked. Should this hemis! fonts ing power be allowed to go? Equipment has been found and used. devoted instructors have given their best fo rain men who have volunteered to b. trained. Is "fourteen days' notice he the only ^nswer and the comple" get-out of the man who is shirking hie tack. Ow is some measure of compulsion. in the Home Guard as elsewhere, our proper answer to the problem of organizing man-power
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.