From ‘The Windfalls of Soldiering’, The Spectator, 16 January 1915:
This war is unlike all our previous wars, in that it was known from the very beginning that a vast number of men would be required. Thus it was plain at once that the only speedy way of reaching the front for the civilian of military age was by enlistment. But for the man over military age who has never had any military training, yet burns to do something active, the windfalls of soldiering still seem to be just possible. No doubt the vast majority of the older men would find it impossible to leave the country, or give their services for the whole war, even if they had the opportunity, but they can be drilled in Volunteer Training Corps. No man can yet foresee the end of the war, and no man can say with certainty that there will not be fighting on English soil. If windfalls come, they will unquestionably come to the men above military age who have been trained, and not to those who have not thought it worth while to submit themselves to any drilling. Meanwhile, the spectacle of men, of whom no one would think badly if they said that they had no time for drilling. deliberately making time to be drilled on the off-chance that a brief military employment may offer itself, will be an incentive to the younger men. The latter will be shamed—those who are capable of shame. A few days ago a friend of the writer’s was walking in a London street when a soldier in the Regulars asked him the way to another street. They walked together talking for a time, and then our friend announced that he most go to his drill. The soldier seemed surprised at these words coming from a comparatively elderly civilian. When, however, the nature of the drilling, for a few hours every week in a Home Guards Corps, had been explained to him, he said: “Well, Sir, you are doing all you can, and you ought to be proud of it.” And they shook hands upon it.
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