Page 269 - clra62_0019-(GIPE)

THE STANDARD OF STRENGTH FOR OUR ARMY 261
a year; and everything found, including clothing, would
add about £25 a year to the sum, thus bringing the
soldier up to the level of the average wage receiver
in the country, instead of leaving him far below it as
he now is. Other ranks would, of course, have to be
raised in proportion; and the officers also, especially
as more is to be exacted from them in future, must
have their pay increased. But whether the present
suggestion is sufficient 01' not, there must be no hesita-
tion in. the matter. The question is one of terms, and
we must bid as high as necessary for the article re-
quired if we adopt the alternative of paying for it
instead of obtaining it by force.
As to the alternative of conscription or force, I have
no objection to it in principle. We must have men for
the service of the country, and force may have to be
used in the last resort. What I doubt, however, is the
economy of the proceeding. If we force people into
the ranks of the Army who are able to earn outside
the equivalent of 2S. a day with everything found and
upwards, and we pay them substantially less, we may
be quite sure of a discontent so great as to be intract-
able. It is not in human nature for large masses of
people to submit to such odious exaction, and we can-
not have the instrument of maintaining social order,
on which the cohesion of society depends, in the hands
of the discontented and mutinous. We save all such
risks by having a volunteer army, and by raising the
terms to the necessary amount. If there are practically
no terms which will bring volunteers in the requisite
number, then conscription there must be; but equally
we must pay the conscript army the equivalent of the
average wages they would receive outside.
Of course, so great an addition as that of IS. a day
to the pay of men in the Army, with other equivalent
additions, would add greatly to the cost. On the pre-
sent establishment of 155,000 men at home, and 55,000 1
1 These include about 15,000 men of tropical races (see above);
but this is a minor detail and may be passed over. .