Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1901 — British Conscription. [ARTICLE]

British Conscription.

Kitchener’s demand for 25,000 more men ready for immediate service in South Africa is interpreted by semiofficial army and navy journals as equivalent to resort to conscription. The decline of volunteering, the worthlessness of city riffraff for military duty, point- to the more respectable manhood as the only available contingent whence the new and urgent call for fighting men can be satisfied. A year and a half ago motion was made in parliament that the ancient constitutional law of compulsory military service be put in force in such modified form as would not make it unduly burdensome upon the people. The ministry objected on the score

that the volunteer system had not shown itself inadequate and that "balloting for service” under the ancient law would "inevitably lead to conscription, which if put in force would provoke a reactionary feeling against the War in South Africa.

A few months later, however, an act was passed "to increase the usefulness of the volunteers” in “great emergencj. rhe militia, the yeomanry and the volunteers have hitherto been free from compulsory service abroad. According to tradition that was the duty of the regulars exclusively. The reserve and the auxiliary have been maintained as home defense, with no exception of being called into action. The yeomanry are an ancient corps of mounted men with an organization of their own.