25 YEARS AGO

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 85, 4 January 1940, Page 6

25 YEARS AGO

4 Problem Of Conscription (From "Tiie Dominion,’’ Jan. 6, 1915.) A solemn note of warning is sounded by “The Times,’’ Loudon, on the subject of recruiting, and, taking a serious view of the problem of raising a second army of a. million men, it invites consideration of “the possibly necessary alternative ot conscription.” It goes without saying that conscription, whether it is necessary or not, would be a very unpalatable alternative to the British nation. Conscription in Great Britain might commend itself to a very large proportion of the population in the present dangerous emergency, but its adoption would none the less introduce a note of discord which has been happily absent from the conduct of the war up to the present date. Even the spirit of loyalty which is general throughout the nation might not altogether prevent an agitation against the innovation, and every possible effort should be made to avoid such a state nt affairs.

Some unhappy comparisons would no doubt be drawn,'if conscription had to be resorted to in (he Mother Country, while the Dominions were able to raise their quota of men for the front without compulsion. It has to be remembered also that conscription would necessarily to some extent reduce the ipiality of the Army. At the present, every man who is fighting lor the British Empire, on land or on sea, is a volunteer, and the positive advantages' incidental to dispensing with pressetl men are too great ami valuable to be lightly relinquished.