We cannot help regretting the effect of Lord Kitchener's speech
in regard to the Volunteers. We venture with all respect to say that, owing no doubt to the tremendous pressure upon his time, he has not fully realized the nature of the Volunteer Corps. Nobody proposes that the Volunteers should become whole-time soldiers. The essential fact in regard to them is that they are part-timers, and that the training they have obtained and the military work they are doing are so arranged as not to interfere with their civil vocation& They draw upon their leisure time, their rest time, and the time devoted ordinarily to exercise and pleasure in order to gain the soldier's status. They substitute military training and work for golf, shooting, hunting, cricket, and social idling. Therefore it is a fallacy to talk as if to raise more Volunteers might impede the industrial or business work of the country. It would do and could do nothing of the kind. It would merely fill the off-business hours of certain men more fully than they are filled already.
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