The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-08-08
ENGLAND MUST CONTROL SEA Lord Robsrts' :lt Scheme $
 Criticised. GREAT NAVY IS NECESSARY England as an Island Needs No
 Other Defense. Ierd Roberts scheme Was to Casse Compulsory serviee-rrse Ideal is . Supreme Navy to Pre-
 tect England from
GREAT NAVY IS NECESSARY
BY W. HAMILTON RHODES.

BY w. HAMILTON RHODES.
 London. Aug. 7.-The EngltShman mortally dreads military conscription. s..which he fears is near at hand. and Lord Roberts scheme. which was con- demned recently by the House of Lords, is denounced and criticized ev- erywhere. writer in The Daily Chronicle. for instance. says:
 "This country is an island; therefore it can only be attacked by the sea, and must be defended on the sea. Also this country is fed from across the seas, and lives by means of It's over seas commerce: therefore command of the sea Is the essential of it's existence. Furthermore the British Empire Is scattered over the world; therefore 1t requires an army ready to go across the seas. These are the three funda- mental propositions which underlie all questions of national defense. It Is necessary always to remember them. and by them to test any such argu- ment as that which Lord Roberts ad- dressed to the House of Lords in favor of conscription. The Duke of North umberiand met Lord Roberts bill by an amendment which, though partly sym pathetic, declined 'toN proceed further with a measure which. while involving unknown demands upon the national resources, would supersede the system accepted as sufficient by the military advisers of his majesty's government" The ground taken by this amendment is strong, so far as it goes; but there Is a wider and 8 more comprehensive case against Lord Roberts scheme. He argues as if the only obstacles to It's acceptance were the selfshness of fn- dividual citizens, and the cowardice of party leaders. These are not the real obstacles. The reason why his scheme e- AAnk fo .nf raA An6- ed in order to give England the kind of force that she does want, and that It would seriously endanger the effect- I've provision of other things that are wanted far more imperatively.
 Would England really be any strong CT if Lord Roberts scheme of cornpul- Bory service were adopted? Lord Lu- cas. analyzing the scheme at close quarters, doubted whether 1t would give anything substantially better than MT. Haldane's, even if all other fac- tors remained the same. But these other factors would not remain the same. Who can say what effect the introduction of compulsory service would have upon voluntary recruiting for the regular army and for the navy? Military opinion is by no means. all with Lord Roberts on the former point. and there is much naval opinion which views with alarm the effect of his scheme on the latter point.
 Where does Lord Roberts propose to find the supply of duly qualified ofi- cers which his conacript army of home defence would requiref Would they not have to be drawn or from the Pegus lar army. which already is not too we'll supplied? The argument from expeDse is yet more cogent. Lord Roberts puts the additional cost of his scheme at S20,000,00 a year. The War once puts it at the minimum figure of sa0.- 900. 900, and in such e case the ofacial estimate must be preferred. The coun- try is faced already with the necessity of greatly increased naval expenditure. If $40,000.000 more were demanded for a h ome defence army. is 1t not certain that some of them would now or in the future be drawn off from the service of the Navy? Such diversion would be a national danger of the gravest kind.
 1t would be a shameful and humil- iating necessity. Lord Roberts argues to have to keep the regular army at home in order to stiffen the Territorial Force. But what he forgets is that the necessity would on his hypothesis exist In any case. If the navy was poweriesF to stop the invaders. 1t would also be powerless to give a safe conduct to the expeditionary force. The true tdeals the writer holds, is to look to a sup reme navy to protect England from in vasion, and to organize Territorial force (for which voluntary system Is sufficient) to check raids and prevent panic.
 This argument Ignores some histori- cal facts. When Lord Roberts was called upon to save the British cause in South Africa he found the British army demoralized and almost useless. He never wants to face such a condi- tion again. N
 vice-Admiral Sir c. Campbell. who iectured on the strategical and com mercial advantages of battleship and ocean-going steamer canal between the Forth and Clyde, at the Royal United Service Institution. the other day said he was convinced that the route via Loch Lomond and Loch Long was the only possible one. The cost had been roughly estimated at $100.000.000 for thirty y-six feet depth. including the pas sage from Loch Lomond to Loch Long, and has only one twenty-one feet lock at the exit and one at the entrance. Such A canal would be an all-important fac tor in the maintainance of peace. and 1t would soon become the key to the stra- tegfc position fin the North Sea, the danger zone for many years to come. The strategic value of that national waterway could not be exaggerated as @ means to move force of battleships. cruisers, or torpedo craft from one sea to the other for the purpose of concen- tration and attack. They might req sonably expect that the earnings, after paying three per cent, would pay the cost of construction long before the end of this century
 A number of English ladies are about to establish a school for Chi nese girl students. To further this purpose, a meeting took place the oth- CT afternoon in the parish room of St. Martins -in- Fields. In the chair was Lady Florence Cecil. wife of Lord Will liam Cecil, who said she had made two voyages to China. Of the last the entirely educational mission of her husbands had given her special facil- ities for seeing what was being done on behalf of feminine instruction. and she had visited schools of all grades.