During the past week the Secretary of State for War
has made several important speeches on national defence. Speaking at Haddington on Friday week, he urged that economy and efficiency, so far from being antagonistic, went hand-in-hand, and that Army reform, so . far from promoting militarism, was the only safeguard against it. Last Saturday at Prestonpans he enlarged on the nature of the reform, pleading for a "national Army," in which the basis of our national defence would be shifted to our Volunteer organisation, and Volunteers and Regulars would accept each other and co-operate as part of one organisa- tion. Speaking at East Linton on Monday at the pre- sentation of prizes to a Volunteer company, he declared that the Government policy was to prepare the nation for the response which it would inevitably make if appealed to in a crisis. For this a new system of Volunteer training must be devised. "If we only had our Volunteer Force organised into a shape which made it capable of being rapidly put through yet further training on the outbreak of war, we should be able to pour forth, not merely to the support, but to the expansion of our RegulaL troops, a body of men who would not be easy to beat."
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