UNIVERSAL TRAINING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3163, 8 March 1911, Page 8

UNIVERSAL TRAINING.

LORD ROBERTS’S APPEAL FOR NATIONAL SAFETY

Field Marshal Earl Roberts contributes a new and forcible introduction to the fifth edition of “The Briton’s First Duty: The Case for Universal Military Training” by Mr. G-. F. Shoe, which is being published by the National Service League. He points out that universal military training does not involve sending a single compulsory trained citizen soldier out of the country for sendee abroad unless lie actually volunteers, but that such training would be sufficient to enable the citizen to render useful service if he did' volunteer. He then states that arbitration is no panacea for all disputes ; If we are strong the other party -will be ready to agree to arbitration ; but if we are weak the other party will certainly prefer to fight. He concludes by showing that the military problem in its urgency comes before social reform. “We must have our roof water-tight before we make our house comfortable. We cannot postpone the question or national safety; we must secure a sound and truly national system of home defence, founded on the bed rock principle that- it is the duty of every citizen to be trained for the defence of his home. The universal military training thus involved will of itself largely help to solve many of our social problems, by improving the character, the. moral and trie physique of the race. “I earnetlv invite my countrymen . . to do all in their power to urge forward this most important movement in favour of the greatest national reform ever yet placed before the British race.