NATIONAL SERVICE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XVIII, Issue XVIII, 24 October 1912, Page 5

NATIONAL SERVICE.

A TONIC TO THE NATION

BY CABLE—PEESS ASSOCIATION—COPYBIGHI,

LONDON, Oct. 23. General Roberts presided at a National Service demonstration at Manchester. He said that as in 1866 and io/0, war would occur the instant the forces of Germany could claim a superiority at every point. Britain had lost command of every sea except the North Sea, where her supremacy was disputed. Germany always advanced. Lord Curzon said that the national service would be a tonic to the nation. He did not fear the alleged unpopularity of the scheme. The people were not so sunk in selfishness . and indulgence as to be deaf to the call of duty. The crisis in the Balkans showed the suddenness of the war outbreak. The nation would be trebly fools to hug the notion that the country could never be invaded when it had the sinister figure of the greatest land Power on the Continent converting itself into a great naval Power.