The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-05-19 00:00:00

ENGLAND IN DANGER.

The importance of the subject of our national
defences engaged the attention of the Commander-in-
Chief and the Headquarters Staff of the Army at Os
War Office the other afternoon, Lord Wolseley, Sir
Redvers Buller, and other distinguished officers being
present. The proceedings were private, but it is under-
stood that immediate proposals are to be submitted to
Parliament for placing the First and Second Army
Corps at once on a war footing, and that the new
magazine rifle is to be issued to all the regular troops.
It was decided to appoint a committee, presided over
by an experienced officer of high rank in the Royal
Engineers, to consider anew the subject of the stores
absolutely necessary for an army corps on mobili-
sation, to what extent they are ready for use at the
briefest notice, and to settle the exact quantities
required.
It is idle to deny (remarks the Daily Chronicle) that
there exists a feeling, widespread if not universal, that
the closing years of the century will be a period of
general disquietude. In whatever form the expected
disturbance may manifest itself, and in whatever
country it may first break out, the possibility that it
may ultimately affect the course of our national his-
tory is a contingency to which it would be an act
of folly to wilfully close our eyes. Alike in Parlia-
ment and on other occasions men, speaking with more
or less of authority and responsibility, have arisen
to solemnly warn us of our unpreparedness
to meet the advent of a combination of hostile
force directed against us. While some are foolishly
wrangling over miserable items of expem e,
others come forward prepared to prove that
neither the navy nor the army, upon which we are
accustomed to look as our first and invincible lines oi
defence are equal to the strain to which it is conceiv-
able they may be subjected. The complaints raised
resp'ecting the defects of the naval preparations,
whether as regards the number and quality of the
ship i afloat and their defensive equipments, ought not
Zo be recklessly dismissed as the wanton creations of
alarmist brains. With respect to the army, the Com-
mander-in-Chief, supported by generals of experience
and ability, has been active in pointing out the nu-
merical ii aiequacy of the military force at his dis-
posal for purposes of defence. Under these circum-
stances, the recollection of the fact that Friday was,
as a Quartermaster-Sergeant of a volunteer regiment
rernitids us, the twenty-ninth anniversary of the
formation of the volunteer movement is a reassuring
contemplation. The growth and consolidation of the
volunteer force during that period has been one of
the most remarkable incidents of the history of the
time, In spite of the contempt and discouragement
at one time vainly manifested by the military autho-
rities, the volunteers have made themselves a recog-
nised power in the nation and won the recognition to
which they are entitled. For purposes of home de-
fence they have proved their readiness and ability,
and in the event of a hostile descent upon these
shores they may be reckoned upon to stand by their
colonrs as devotedly as did the gallant sailors who
three centuries ago resisted the approach of the boast-
ful Armada of Spain.