Conscription In England.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 21, 1912:
    Lord Roberts's recent emphatic statement as to the absolute need of general military service in the United Kingdom has raised the usual cry against "conscription"; but it has produced a strong impression on the public mind. The situation, as military men see it, for the most part is simple. Great Britain has definitively abandoned the position of "splendid isolation" which Lord Salisbury, with his cynical candor, proclaimed. Not to put too fine a point on it, her position is no longer either isolated or splendid. She is the chief party of the Triple Entente, which is more, rather than less, hampering than an alliance would be. All the members of this group are united one with another, on what, in diplomatic language, is called a "defensive" basis. In simpler form it may be said that each one of them distrusts and fears the development of German policy, and all three have taken out insurance against the possibly fatal consequences of that policy to each of them.
    Now, an understanding of this sort involves the maintenance by each nation of its quota of force, and England is becoming aware that her quota is regarded, especially in France, as hardly adequate. Her navy, in spite of strenuous provision for strengthening it, is year by year losing in relative importance, while her army is, save for immediate home service, comparatively insignificant. Lord Roberts thinks that even for home service it is dangerously insufficient, and he strongly urges the Continental principle of universal service.
    Earl Crewe, the Government leader in the House of Lords, probably expressed fairly the general feeling when he said that general service could not be adopted until after the next war. That is equivalent to saying that only defeat will bring the English to the use of all their resources. But surely a government that foresees defeat unless general service is resorted to faces a terrible responsibility if it does not insist on such service in time. Defeat may well, for England, be disaster, and the disaster may be irreparable.
    There are various degrees and modes of applying general service. The tendency is strong, even in Germany, to shorten the term actually spent "with the colors." The aim is universal instruction rather than universal service, and this appeals most strongly to the British mind. A movement of considerable importance is being made in this direction, the system of Switzerland being taken as a model. This seeks quite thorough training of all sound adult male citizens in the elements of a soldier's life, and keeping them in fair training by a certain amount of practice each year. It develops excellent soldiers, but not necessarily an efficient army, which can be had only by frequent combined movements on a large scale. The chief argument for the Swiss system in England is that it would make a better one easier to adopt.