UNIVERSAL SERVICE

Northern Advocate, 17 March 1913, Page 5

UNIVERSAL SERVICE

LORD ROBERTS'S CAMPAIGNS

EFFECTIVENESS OF TERRITORIALS.

(By Telegraph-Press Assn.-Copyrlght)

LONDON, March 15. --; Lord Roberts, speaking at a Stirling \ reception, moved that the Government ~-\ should be asked to complete the terri- ' torial scheme by adopting personal service. He said that unpreparedness .> to adjust the European balance oft power in Napoleonic times cost six hundred millions. To-day the navy could protect the trade routes, but apart from the army's garrison units only territorials were left to guard the shores. No general, except in the: direst extremity, would lead territorials against European troops, for they would merely become food for shrapnel. When 140,000 ill-trained French levies met 35,000 disciplined Germans, 60,000 were killed and wounded or taken prisoners in three days. The Balkan war gave another lesson of the consequences of insuffi-j cient training. Lord Haldane had suggested that the territorials would grow more effective every day they were facing an enemy, but how many days did Lord Haldane imagine the force would exist while decimated at long range by the fire of practiced marksmen, which daunts the heart of even the most experienced! soldier. Contemplate th. fate of such an army with a citizen army in which merit and character would decide who were to be the officers! Working men must not fear discipline.