The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1914. UNIVERSAL MILITARY SERVICE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 9, 10 January 1914, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1914. UNIVERSAL MILITARY SERVICE.

Speaking recently in London Earl Percy dealt with universal military service and told his hearers that it would be well to remember the odds which existed against' France. Gor-i nany had half a million more men than France in the field. Also, the outflanking movement, so much favoured by German tacticians, had always men successful when it had been em- J •floyod, notably by Bulgaria against Turkey., Turkey took only 20 per cent of her eligible young men each year to serve in her army, and her population ,vas increasing at the rate of a million >er annum. France, on tire other j mud, took 80 per cent, of her young i nen. It must be remembered, too,; :hat the decisive moment in any. war ■ had never been reached on tiie sea. j die struggle with Napoleon went on I

ior ten years after we had won the battle of Trafalgar. It was necessary in the ■vent of war, that a decisive victory hoiilcl be achieved by Britain’s army :S well as by her navy ; that she should mve an army capable of. supporting ler allies. At the present moment Britain was supreme nowhere on the ea ; she kept a slight superiority only u the North Sea; Germany having alea'dv twentv-nine liattleships there *■. 1 . ! o England’s twenty-nine, while only; tight extra ships were at Gibraltar, our and a-half tints’ journey distant. S r hat would probably happen was that lermany would send 10,000 men to English shores at the very beginning»f a war, thus preventing sending a | orce to the aid of her allies at all. The i lecision would, be fought out on the i ’ontineiit, whi're England could take] io part in it. The real solution of the ! woblem lay in the formation of an 1

■fficient army for service on the Con- | incut. 'l’liis could be raised not by .•onscription, but by universal service m the Continental model. It might be omul difficult, even impossible, to do that, .but if Britain failed to do what was necessary it would be sinning against the light. Earl Percy evidently takes a pessimistic view of the pnsi■ion and desires to go even as far as Lord Roberts in providing national defence.