RECRUITING-. 
59 
Well, now with all these advantages in our possession I ask, are we 
taking advantage of them for the benefit of the army ? As far as I can 
see so far from taking advantage of them, there is much evidence that 
leads me to believe that we are neglecting them, that we are dis¬ 
couraging them, and that we are making believe that we can do with¬ 
out their assistance (applause). 
The Enlistment op the Recruit. 
I look, not at the recruiting placards, there is probably no one in this 
room who has less respect for a recruiting placard than I have, and I 
am sure that is not much, but I look at the real facts as they are 
widely known to our population. I go to St. George’s Barracks where 
two thirds of the men are enlisted for the British Army. What do I 
find ? I find a place of contemptible exterior and still more contemptible 
interior, a decayed tumble-down George the Third Barrack, and in the 
cellar of that barrack I find the great avenue to the career of the 
soldier which we offer. I say that that is not right; I say that that is 
not the way a young man, with his career before him, should be 
introduced to that career (applause) and I say that is not the way by 
which men are introduced to any other army, or to any other branch 
of the military services in this country with which I am acquainted. 
The ceremony of swearing in the recruits in the German Army may 
have, perhaps it lias, I do not think so, its grotesque side; I do not 
know, but I do know this, that anything which, to use a common phrase, 
“gives a man a good conceit of himself” when he puts on his uniform 
and takes his oath is all to the good. I say that in the Royal Navy, in 
the Royal Marines, there is no such distressing ordeal to be gone 
through as the entry of a soldier into our great recruiting centre in the 
St. George’s Barracks. I would like to see that barrack done away 
with; I should like to see proper and reasonable depots put up where 
a man could go in holding his head high ; you could if you like have a 
back door for those who wished to enter by it, but still let it be 
advertised to all the world that a man is not dropping his career but 
beginning his career when he enlists in Her Majesty’s Army (applause). 
“A Home por the Soldier; A Lesson prom the Royal Marines.” 
I suppose if there is any one thing more than another that comes 
home to a man who is going to be a soldier, and who knows or 
cares anything about soldiering, it is the choice of a regiment. 
In a feeble sort of way we know that officially, because we have heard 
a great deal that is true and a great deal more which, I think, it 
exaggerated, about the value of the territorial system, a system to 
establish which we have undone,I think a good many good traditions 
(hear, hear) in order to found a good many other traditions which may 
be good, but which, perhaps, are not all equally historical and not 
equally fruitful. Still in the territorial principle we have recognised 
the idea that it is of enormous importance to an individual that he 
should be allowed the choice of the regiment in which he serves. We 
have already had some experience of how that theory works out in 
