We trust that the retired officers will at once act
on Lord Kitchener's hint. It includes, of course, all persons who served as officers in various temporary corps in the South African War. As to the shortage of material, we have a personal word to say. Again and again during the past twelve years we have pointed out that, even if we could not bare universal training, and consequently plenty of men, we could at least have plenty of equipment ready for the men whom we were sure to improvise in a hurry if war came. The official answer, given with some acrimony, was that the SpectalOr'S armed mobs would be perfectly useless and would never be raised by a sane Government, and that therefore it was not necessary to make any provision for them. Yet here we are doing the very thing which was declared to be impossible, or, at any rate, useless I
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