On the same day in the Lords Lord Midleton and
Lord Selborne declared that the Army Act Amendment Bill, which enables the War Office to transfer a man from one branch of the Service to another—say, to make a Medical Corps man a gunner—proved that the voluntary principle had already broken down. The soldier's contract was being torn up. These arguments were the occasion for Lord Haldane to make an important announcement as to the possibility of general com- pulsory service. He has made a similar announcement before, bat the repetition of his words of course increases their importance
" We are fighting for our lives. Even though we may think that under ordinary conditions the voluntary system is a system from which it would be most difficult to depart, yet we may find that we have to reconsider the situation in the light of the tremendous necessity. We are fighting fora cause which it becomes more and more clear is a came for which we ought to lay down everything we possess in the world. That being so, there can be no objection in principle raised against the larger con- siderations of which the noble Viscount [Lord Midleton] spoke; but we are not face to face with that problem at present. It may come, but at present we have our hands full with the material we possess."
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