A NATIONAL ARMY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue LXXXVIII, 11 September 1914, Page 2

A NATIONAL ARMY

(From Our Own Correspondent. ) LONDON, 31st July. Field-Marshal Earl Roberts spoke at a large meeting at Bedford in support of the National Service League. He pointed out that no great political movement had ever succeeded without years of patient work and generous persistence in financial support, and he quoted an interesting illustration of the slow progress of great causes. He said f— "1 have just been reading a 'Life of Sir Frederick Weld.' In presenting a cup which he had 'given for the encouragement of rifle shooting to a successful competitor, Sir Frederick Weld made one of the best speeches I have ever read on the duty of every citizen >of a free country to do work of some kind in the defence of the State. He said : 'It is the duty bf the mighty Empire _ to which we belong to uphold her position among the nations of the earthj not from the mere lust of glory or of power, but because a great nation in the full strength and vigour of life cannot stand still; it must either advance or decay. This great Empire, whose offshoots gird the world, has a mission and a destiny to which she must be faithful, or she will fall like Rome or Carthage ; and her ruin would be one such as hitherto the world has had no example of, for even the Roman power was chiefly military, not essentially, as Great Britain is, a commercial, naval, and manufacturing Power.' Sir Frederick Weld repudiated the idea that British colonists were willing to be members of petty States, without a past, instead _ot citizens oi a mighty Empire ; he pointed out that, however small the community was, ifc could do something towards its own defence. He warned the people of Tasmania of the danger of putting off war training and repeating the parrot-cry that 'in the event of war we should turn out to a man.' 'You may be sure,' he said, 'that there is no man who does not better himself by gaining that selfcontrol which is necessary for discipline in a soldier,' and he added, 'if this is a lesson to men, morally as well as physically,, it is still more a valuable training for boys, and I think all our schools i would have cadet corps.' Sir Frederick Weld had beon twenty years in his grave before the first contingent of Tasmanian cadets began its training under a universal system. But the good seed had been sown ; it had taken root in the hearts of his hearers, and now it has borne fruit."