Other notable speeches in the debate were those by Lord
Sydenham, Lord Roberts, and Lord Midleton. Lord Sydenhaan, though opposed to the policy of the National Service League, advocated compulsory universal training for boys. Lord Roberta could not support the Bill, because, instead of appealing to the working classes to accept a system of universal military training, it would accentuate the division between the different classes, and would render the working people suspicious of what might appear to them an attempt on the part of the wealthier classes to get full control of the military power. Our system must be truly democratic. We agree; but we are bound to say we are attracted by Lord Willoughby de Broke's plan for shaming the working classes into taking their proper share of the duty of national defence by imposing it in the first place on the well-to-do. Lord Roberta ended by a declaration that as long as national defence was a party question there was not the slightest chance of universal military service being accepted.
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