BRITISH DEFENCE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 17 March 1913, Page 5

BRITISH DEFENCE.

A GREAT MEETING OF WORKING MEN.

SPEECH BY LORD ROBERTS

II CABLE—PEES 9 ASSOCIATION—fiOPYBIGHT. LONDON, March 15. Six thousand working men attended a meeting at the Drill Hall in Wolverhampton, and 5000 attended an overj now meeting at the Agricultural Hall. Lord Roberts had a sterling reception. He moved that the Government should complete the Territorial scheme by the adoption of personal service. He said that the unpreparedness to adjust the European balance of power in Napoleonic times had cost £600,000,000. Today the navy could protect trade routes, but apart from the army's garrison duties only the Territorials were left to guard England's shores. No general, except in the direst extremity, would lead the Territorials against European forces, merely to become food for shrapnel. W rhen 140,000 French ill-trained levies met 5000 disciplined Germans, 60,000 were killed, wounded or prisoners in three days, and the remainder were panic-stricken. The Balkan war was another lesson of insufficient training. Lord Haldane had suggested that the Territorials would grow more effective every day when facing the enemy, but how many days did Lord Haldane imagine the force would exist? It would 'be decimated by long-range fire from practised marksmen. It daunted the heart of any experienced soldier to contemplate the fate of such an army. In a citizen army, merit and character should decide who were to be ofhcers. Working men must not fear discipline. "To true manhood," he said, "'I must' were higher words than 'I will' to the King/