KECRUITITC. 
55 
The Quality of the Recruits. 
But wliat I am concerned with is the fact that these recruits are not 
of a satisfactory character, and that they are not sufficient in quality. 
Now with regard to the character of the recruits, I should like to put 
yon in possession of my reasons for stating that the character of the 
recruit is not satisfactory. In the first place, I will put the least 
significant and the least important reason, and that is my own know¬ 
ledge derived from a frequent series of visits to the places where 
recruits are passed for the army, and from very many visits to the 
depots and to the regiments into which those recruits are passed. 
Using my own intelligence as far as it is worth anything, I am not 
satisfied that the class of men whom I see at the St. George’s Barracks 
being examined and passed as recruits for the army are the class whom 
we could desire to see in the front rank of the defensive and offensive 
forces of this country (applause). Adding to that very unimportant 
source of information others, I am confirmed in the view I take. We 
have had reports, some of them private and some of them public, from 
officers concerned in the business of recruiting, and I am sorry to say 
there is, I will not say a uniform tendency, but there is a large prepon¬ 
derance of opinion in the direction I have suggested, namely, that the 
character and stamp of recruits is not what we might desire, if we had 
anything approaching the ideal of an army. 
The Terms we Offer. 
And lastly-—and I confess this is a matter which impresses me most 
of all—I am convinced that we are not getting the right sort of recruits 
for the simple reason that we are not going the right way to get them 
(applause). I do not know that I am a very profound believer in the 
application of strict logic to all that concerns human life, but I am a 
believer in logical processes to this extent, that I am convinced that 
unless you offer terms-which will attract the good men you will not get 
the good men, (applause) and I am convinced we are not offering terms 
which are such as to commend themselves to the class of men whom I 
desire to see in the army (hear, hear). Now, in this matter, I do speak 
with whatever authority attaches to an ordinary civilian, and I put my¬ 
self in the position of a person who is sometimes called upon to advise 
young fellows as to what their career should be, and I put myself in the 
position of one who has to think of the future of persons who are in his 
own family, and I say that from neither of these standpoints would it 
be possible for me to recommend a young man to undertake the career 
of military service under the conditions which are offered just now. 
My experience in that matter is not singular; we know perfectly well, 
that what is, I believe, a reasoned conviction with me is more in the 
nature of a fixed prejudice with thousands and tens of thousands of 
people, who are responsible for choosing a career for their sons or of 
those for whom they are responsible. I do not believe we are offering 
terms which ought to attract or which do attract the best class of our 
population, and for that reason I am convinced we shall not attract them. 
