NATIONAL SERVICE.
[To ree EDITOR OF TILE SFECTATOR.'1
SIR,—Asa supporter of the National Service League, I very much regret to see that you say compulsion is not to apply to the shops. Whatever difference of opinion there may be as to whether it would be possible to recruit enough fighting men under the voluntary system, there can be none at all about the need for discipline in the workshops, mines, and railways. Mr. Lloyd George's speech alone is enough to prove it, but we have had overwhelming evidence of it for months past. All the best judges tell us, what indeed is plain enough to be seen, that this is a war of the workshops as much as of armies. In that case are we likely to win under the present state of things P Our opponents are loyal, thoroughly dis- ciplined, and working as one man for the triumph of their Fatherland. On our side we have slackness, refusals to do more than three-quarters or half what a man could easily do, refusal to allow willing workers to work, strikes and threats of strikes; in fact, a course of conduct that would, seem to be only possible to fools or traitors. Who are the more likely to win, the loyal, disciplined workers or the treacherous anarchists P Who, indeed, deserve to win P And apparently there is nothing for the Government and the nation to do but sit patiently and see themselves ruined by the basest of their own people I Is it impossible to do otherwise P To the weak and cowardly all things are impossible, and destruction is the doom they deserve.—I am, Sir, &c., Kincora, Lyme Regis, Dorset. J. S. N. ROCHE.
[Of course we believe that discipline must be maintained in the workshops. The Munitions Act and the Defence of the Realm Act provide for this. The National Service League has never advocated, and we hope never will advocate, forced labour, presumably for a soldier's pay, which our corre- spondent seems to confuse with discipline.—En. Spectator.]
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