SPEECH BY LORD DERBY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144824, 30 October 1915, Page 8

SPEECH BY LORD DERBY.

THE REAL VALUE OF THE CONSCRIPT. LONDON,. Sept. 8. The Earl of Derby, addressing a crowded recruiting meeting in the Ashton Hall. Lancaster, on Friday, said it was necessary that we should have more men. There were two methods of getting them—by the voluntary system or cumpulsory. He was hound, to say he was in favour of compulsion. (Cheers.) His Lordship said the situation was of a character which made it necessary for us to have an accession to our forces. Wo had got two alternatives open to us, peace or war. If the war was to be brought to a .successful conclusion we roust.have more men, more munitions, and more money. (Cheers.) ; If peace were to bo concluded at the : present moment it would be an inconclusive peace and the result of that would be that in a short time that Germany would be waging war against us alone. I want to explain, he said, to the young man who does not come forward now that he is not going to escape service in the long run. (Hear, hear). If we have an inconclusive peace with the danger of another war with GeiMuany hanging over us. there is no doubt whatever that it won’t he a qasc of national service. We shall then have to have a real conscript army ready to defend this country, Tim man who is fighting now will have bought his experience. He won’t bo the conscript; the conscript will he the man who is staying at home now. He would also like to throw out another hint. If wc have a victorious peace it will mean an army of occupation; it will mean that men will hare to hold the foreign land. .Who are those men going to be? Thev will he the men who arc now holding the positions at home, which positions we want to see the fighting men take when thev come back. (Cheers.) I have said that I want everybody fetched, but I nm afraid at the present moment that there is a grave danger on this particular question of a split in our ranks, and yet I feel that there is no necessity for there to be so.

Even now. at the present moment, when you have got men divided as to whether there should he conscription, as it is called, as I think wrongly, or voluntary service, yet at the back of every- one of those men there is exactly the samo feeliug. They want to do their duty and their best to make their country victorious. If Uiat is so, and I believe it is so except in the case of a very insignificant- minority, surely we can find some way by which we can bring the whole of the powers, of the State into' play for tho good of the State as a whole. (Cheers.)

Conscription is not my idea of national service. People talk a good deal of nonsense about conscription. Conscripts. they say, do not fight. I wonder what our troops and the Russians on the Eastern front think of tho conscript Gormans who don’t fight? What you want to do is to get hold of every man in the State and put him iu a position where you can use nis skill to the best advantage of tho State. That is what is required. X believe the 'offcot of that would he to liberate from tics which now hold them thousands and thousands of men who would he ready to give their-services for their country?

A week ago he was in Prance, and it would have shamed any farmer in England to see what was going on in that country. The harvest was being carried by women; boys, and old men. Not a young man was there of any sort, and the women were doing their part and doing it well. He believed they were offered the assistance of our men who were billeted there, but they were too proud to accept because they wanted to do tho work for their men. Was not that a noble feeling, and a feeling which should bring shame to many in our own country?

Loid Richard Cavendish, who has just returned from serving .at the front, also addressed the meeting. "I do not," he remarked, "desire to refer to any controversy which may cause a break in that wonderful unanimity which the British Empire has shown during tho past year. As soldiers it is our duty in obey the instructions given us and not to question it. But one. perhaps, who has been in France is able to appreciate the wonderful qualities which the conscript Armies of France and Belgium possess. It is perfectly absurd for one moment to suggest that the conscript French privates are in the least degree inferior in any manner, sort, or kind the voluntary soldier of our own country. fie is prepared to undergo the same hardships and to lay down his life for what he believes to be his only duty as much as our volunteers." (Cheers.)