could never have “imposed herself” on Europe without it.  And yet her soldiers, brave as they naturally are, and skilfully as they have fought, have not done themselves justice.  How could they under such conditions—­forced into battle by their officers, flung in heaps on the enemy’s guns?  The voluntary response in Britain to the call to arms has been inspiriting; and if voluntaryism means momentary delay in a crisis, still it means success in the end.  No troops have fought more finely than the British.  Said Surgeon-General Evatt, speaking in London in October—­and General Evatt’s word in such a matter ought to carry weight:  “After long experience in studying Russian, German, Bavarian, Saxon, French, Spanish, and American fighting units, my verdict is unhesitatingly in favour of the British....  What has occurred lately has been a splendid triumph of citizenship, because people were allowed their proper liberty and the consciousness of freely, sharing in a great Empire.”

Besides it must always be remembered that conscription gives a Government power to initiate an iniquitous war, whereas voluntaryism keeps the national life clean and healthy.  A free people will not fight for the trumped-up schemes and selfish machinations of a class—­not, indeed, unless they are grossly deceived by, Press and Class plots.  Anyhow, to force men to fight in causes which they do not approve, to compel them to adopt a military career when their temperaments are utterly unsuited to such a thing, or when their consciences or their religion forbid them—­these things are both foolish and wicked.

If the nation wants soldiers it must pay for them.  England, for example, is rolling in wealth; and it is simply a scandal that the wealthy classes should sit at home in comfort and security and pay to the man in the trenches—­who is risking his life at every moment, and often living in such exhaustion and misery as actually to wish for the bullet which will end his life—­no more than the minimum wage of an ordinary day-labourer; and that they should begrudge every penny paid to his dependents—­whether he be living or dead—­or to himself when he returns, a lifelong cripple, to his home.  To starve and stint your own soldiers, to discourage recruiting, and then to make the consequent failure of men to come forward into an excuse for conscription is the meanest of policies.  As a matter of fact, the circumstances of the present war show that with anything like decent reward for their services there is an abundant, an almost over-abundant, supply of men ready to flock to the standard of their country in a time of necessity.  Nor must it be forgotten, in this matter of pay, that the general type and average of our forces to-day, whether naval or military, is far higher than it was fifty, years ago.  The men are just as plucky, and more educated, more alert, more competent in every way.  To keep them up to this high standard of efficiency they need a high standard of care and consideration.