England Training 1,250,000 Soldiers.
All England is talking of the stirring address which Lord Kitchener, the war secretary, made at the Lord Mayor’s banquet, in which he combined high praise for the army now in the field and appearing for war, with an appeal for further recruits to carry the arms of Britain to success.
Lord Kitchener said:
“The British empire is now fighting for its very existence. I want every citizen to understand this cardinal fact, for only from a clear conception of the vast importance of the issue at stake can there come that great national and moral impulse without which governments and war ministries and even armies and navies can do but little.
“We have numerous advantages of resources, men, and material, and that wonderful spirit of ours which has never understood the meaning of defeat. All these are great assets, but must be used judiciously and effectively.
“I have no complaint whatever to make about the response to my appeals for men. The progress of the military training of those already enlisted is remarkable, but I shall want more men and still more until the enemy is crushed. Armies cannot be called together as if with a magician’s wand. In the process of their formation there may have been discomforts and inconveniences in some cases—even downright suffering. I cannot promise that these conditions will wholly cease, but I can give you every assurance that they have already greatly diminished, and everything that administrative energy can do to bring them to an end assuredly will be done.
“The men who have come forward must remember that they are enduring for their country’s sake just as their comrades are in the shell-torn trenches. The introduction of elaborate destructive machinery with which our enemies had so amply and carefully supplied themselves has been[Pg 63] the subject of much eulogy on the part of military critics, but it must be remembered that in the matter of preparation those who fix beforehand the date of war have a considerable advantage over their neighbors.
“So far as we are concerned, we are clearly open to no similar suspicion.
“Our losses in the trenches have been severe, but such casualties are far from deterring the British nation from seeing the matter through. They will act rather as an incentive to British manhood to prepare themselves to take the places of those who have fallen.”
In paying tribute to the leadership of Sir John French, commander of the British expeditionary force, and his generals, and to the high efficiency and courage of the army, the war minister said:
“I think that it has now been conceded that the British army has proved itself to be not so contemptible an engine of war as some were disposed to consider it.” He concluded:
“Although our thoughts are constantly directed toward the troops at the front and the great tasks they have in hand, it is well to remember that the enemy will have to reckon with the forces of the great Dominion, the vanguard of which we already have welcomed in this country, in the very fine body of men forming the contingents from Canada and Newfoundland, while from Australia, New Zealand, and other parts are coming in quick succession soldiers to fight for the imperial cause. And, besides all these, there are training in this country more than one and a quarter million of men eagerly waiting for a call to bear their part in the great struggle.”