in committee which was assented to in committee and by the House on report, for the addition of 500,000 men to the regular forces.  These 500,000 men, assuming them all to have been raised, would, in addition to the 400,000 I have just mentioned, amount to a total of 900,000 men.  I think it will be interesting to the committee before I state the reasons for which I am going to ask them to make this further vote to know what has actually happened in consequence of the vote of Aug. 6.

Enlistments Since the War.

The number of recruits who have enlisted in the army since the declaration of war—­that is, exclusive of those who have joined the territorial force—­is 438,000, [cheers,] practically 439,000.  That is up to the evening of Sept. 9.  The committee will therefore see that, having sanctioned, as it did, very little more than a month ago, the addition to the regular forces of the Crown of half a million of men, we are now within some 60,000 of having attained that total.  The numbers enlisted in London since Sunday, Aug. 30, have exceeded 30,000 men, and the stamp and character of the recruits has been in every way satisfactory and gratifying. [Cheers.] The high-water mark was reached on Sept. 3, when the total recruits enlisted in the United Kingdom on one day was 33,204. [Cheers.] I may mention—­I am sure it will be gratifying to honorable members on both sides who represent Lancashire constituencies—­that on that day 2,151 men were enlisted in Manchester alone.  That is a very satisfactory result, but it by no means exhausts the requirements of the case.  The response to the call for recruits has been in every way gratifying.  But I am aware, not only from a discussion that took place in the House yesterday, but from communications which reached us from various parts of the country, that there are complaints of grievances, causing legitimate or otherwise deeply felt dissatisfaction at the manner in which some parts—­I say advisedly only some parts—­of this operation of recruiting have been conducted.  I should like the committee to realize what were the conditions of the case. ["Hear, hear!”]

A Year’s Recruits in a Day.

We have been recruiting during the last ten days every day substantially the same number of recruits that in past years we have recruited in every year. [Cheers.] I suppose our annual recruiting amounts to about 35,000 men for the regular army.  As I pointed out a moment ago, on Sept. 3 we recruited 33,200 men.  No machinery in the world which man has ever contrived or conceived could suddenly meet in an emergency and under great pressure the difficulty of bringing in to the colors and making adequate provision in a day for that in which past experience we only had to provide for in the course of a year, and that, be it observed, by a department which during the whole of this time has been engaged in superintending and executing an operation I believe unexampled in the history of war—­the dispatch to a foreign country of an expeditionary force—­I will not give the exact number, but roughly 150,000 men, which has had to be, as the committee I am sure is well aware, in consequence of the necessary and regrettable losses caused by the operations of war, constantly repaired by reinforcements of men, guns, supplies, transport, and every other form of warlike material. [Cheers.]