THE NEW ARMY ACT.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13005, 6 January 1908, Page 7

THE NEW ARMY ACT.

LABOUR'S ATTITUDE

United Press Association—By Electrio Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, January 3. Mx Will Thome M.P. declined aa invitation to join the Earl of Warwick, Lord lieutenant, in forming an Airmv Committee for Ewex, on tho ground tliat he considered that the new Army Act. was a disguised form of compulsory service.

Mr Thorncr's attitude is not surprising, for the Labour Party is strongly opposed to Mr Haldane's scheme, and to anything that savours of compulsion. The Labour members of tho Committee of Members of Parliament, which visited Switzerland the other day to investigate the Swiss militia system, did not sign the favourable report which was issued. In tho debate on tho second reading of the Army Bill Mr Ramsay Macdonald declared that the Party was not in favour of a nation in arms. That- phrase looked patriotic. One had to disclaim it almost with an apology. But those who declined to echo it did so because they were convinced by the study of contemporary politics that this nation-in-armscry was not going to settle any of the problems facing England as a Power in the world whose ambition it waa to keep its flag high and to keep it clean. The Labour Party objected to the Bill because it completely destroyed the civil character of the volunteer force. If the soheme broke down and the volunteers did not enlist in the requisite numbers thore was nothing to stand between the country and conscription. They strongly objected, too, to the proposed county associations—a union or influences mainly political and social. Tho War Minister was facing this modern problem with a mediaeval idea in his mind. His provision for officers for the territorial force was typical of this. He was looking chiefly to the public schools, forgetting that a young man's possossion of a publio school education proved nothing beyond the fact that Lis father had: plenty of money.