132 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



intervene in Europe in order to maintain, or restore, the balance 

 of power, because no nation had ever established its supremacy 

 on the Continent but it immediately sought to compass the 

 downfall of the British power. 



What size army was, then, required? And what plane of 

 efficiency ? It was evident to him that the highest efficiency 

 was necessary ; and that it was excessively foolish and ex- 

 travagant to maintain anything in the nature of an inefficient 

 armed force. But the size of the army proved to be a great 

 stumbling-block. Expert opinion seemed to differ in the most 

 remarkable fashion from an army numbering millions, obtained 

 by European compulsory methods, to a small voluntary army. 



The citizen has not yet made up his mind as to the strength 

 of the army he requires, or whether voluntarism is sufficient or 

 compulsion necessary. He is, however, inclined to think that 

 the voluntary system is incapable of producing an army of the 

 required numbers or efficiency, and that the men of the nation 

 must be prepared to pay a tax, not only of money, but of personal 

 service. One view he has heard, however, which has given him 

 food for thought. Can a nation, he was asked, which is content 

 to train but a very small portion of its men to arms, hope to 

 compete with success in preparation for, and in the conduct of, 

 war, whether on land, sea, or air, against one which trains every 

 able-bodied man ? In the one case you have a general ignorance 

 of military matters ; in the other a general knowledge. That, it 

 appeared to him, was the scientific problem of the future ; and it 

 also appeared to him that the British nation was determined to 

 try the experiment of her voluntary systems against the modern 

 system of the nation in arms. 



Another point impressed him greatly. He was assured that 

 it requires twelve years in which to convert a voluntary system 

 into an efficient modern system. 



