Review of Eeviews, 1/9/13. 



721 



AN EPISODE IN A CONSCRIPT'S LIFE. 



TO LOSE ONE'S LIFE FOR A PIG! 



How little we realise here what con- 

 scription really involves. At Home 

 Lord Roberts and others of the 

 National Service League are doing their 

 best — fortunately quite unsuccessfully 

 — to induce Great Britain to adopt com- 

 pulsory service. England is too close 

 to the continental nations ever to fol- 

 low their example, and allow the in- 

 sidious foot of conscription to en- 

 ter her borders, no matter in how 

 mild a form. The)' know at Home the 

 \\"ay in which the individual must lose 

 his independence as a result, and how 

 the military are bound in the long run 

 to dominate the country where compul- 

 sory service is in force. 



The following little experience gave 

 me, at any rate, a clearer appreciation 

 of the actual working of conscription 

 than I had ever obtained during many 

 visits to France, Germany and Russia. 



A friend of mine, a Dr. , was 



residing in London for a year or two 

 to complete his law studies. He was 

 clever, spoke several languages, was, 

 in fact, t\pical of the Germans, who 

 in fort}' \'ears have built up a great 

 empire. 



During a whole week, last November, 

 I found him getting more and more 

 depressed, nothing like his usual 

 cheery self. 1 rallied him about it, 

 and 'hnall}' he retorted, "You would 

 not be very cheerful either if you were 

 waiting for your death warrant!" 



" Whatever do you mean," I ex- 

 claimed. " Have you Ijeen seeing a 

 doctor?" 



" Oh no ! But 1 am hourly expect- 

 ing a telegram to report m^'self at home 

 in Germany." 



" Whv have you to do that?" 



"H Germany mobilises, I have to 

 return at once. I have been notified to 

 hold myself in readiness." 



This was at the time of the severe 

 tension in Europe over the Servian de- 

 mand for a port in the Adriatic. 



" Well," I said, " I sympathise with 

 you ; it must be very inconvenient to 

 have to rush away at a moment's 

 notice ; but to be ordered home seems 

 to me to be a long way from being 

 sentenced to death." 



" It is the same thing in my case," he 

 answered despondently. " I would not 

 be called back unless war is seen to be 

 inevitable, because I am in the second 

 reserve now." 



" But even if you have to return to 

 fight, you have as good a chance as 

 anyone else to win safely through. It 

 is probably a hundred to one you will 

 return without a scratch." 



"It is a hundred to one — no, a mil- 

 lion lo one— I am dead a week after 

 war is declared," he replied earnestly. 

 It's like this. I am an officer in the 

 artillery. All our stations are accur- 

 ately known, and when war breaks out, 

 I have command of a batter}' on the 

 French frontier. All reserve officers go 

 into the front line with highly trained 

 men under them, the active officers take 

 charge of the first reser\'e men in the 

 second line. The first duty of an army 

 on the French frontier is to break 

 through the powerful forts which the 

 Rei)ublic has built within the last two 

 }'ears all along her border. We would 

 do it, of course, but we reckon at the 

 \ery least it would cost us 50,000 men. 

 I would be in the front rank with the 

 artiller}' ; what possible chance have I 

 to get through alive? No, I tell you 

 I am waiting ni}' death warrant, and I 

 and thousands of others are waiting it 

 in susi^ense and dread, just because 

 some fellows in Austria object to Servia 

 having a free port lo ship pigs from !" 



" Don't think 1 should appear when 

 I was summoned," said I. " The case 



