Speaking at tadybank, East Fife, on Saturday last, Mr. Haldane
made a sympathetic reference to unemployment. Inflated prosperity inevitably gave way to tilanOrmal denrete sion, and the people of this country did not take to much advantage of a prosperous period to lay by for a rainy day. In the meantime they had to 'deal with the present. The distress was very great everywhere, and every Depaitmeut of the Government was trying to help. "Even in connexion with the Army they were able to do something. They would bi3 able to do with sixteen or seventeen thousand able-bodied ybung men during the winter six months. That Would take them over the bad time. If they liked to come, they would take a good few in addition for the purposes of the Regular Army." A meaning has been read into this statement indicating a new and important departure on the part of the Army Council. But the real explanation is much simpler. The Special Reserve is some sixteen thousand men short, and all that Mr. Haldane did was to advertise that fact for the benefit of any able-bodied young men out of a job. We sincerely hope that it may have the desired effect. Six months of first-rate physical training, with good food and clothing thrown in, may make all the difference to a man's general efficiency as a worker, to Say nothing of patriotic: motives. But Mr. Haldane would be the last to claim for his statement that it involved any modification or development of his scheme.
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