recollection. I don't think that even in the French Revolution they had anything like the numbers we are getting by voluntary offers of service.
In the Boer War, during the first three months I think the increase in the number of recruits was 10,000 or 15,000, and during the whole of the war, from the beginning to the end, the increase in the number of recruits amounted to 20,000 or 30,000 a year to the Regular Army. You have never had anything like this, and, therefore, the ordinary machinery for the moment must be a little choked and paralysed. The recruiting sergeant is in the habit of getting his men with difficulty. He takes one man here and one man at a great distance away, and gradually he gets his 30,000 or 40,000 a year, I think. Mr. Llewelyn Williams, M.P.: "Thirty-five thousand."] I was very near it. [Laughter.] He gets his 35,000 a year. It is just like a man who quenches his thirst at a tap which trickles gently. But suddenly there is a great pressure—[laughter] — and the water fills his nostrils, his eyes, his ears, all over him. He is blinded, he is bewildered, he is smothered, and really the recruiting agency, accustomed to deal with a nice, gentle little trickle, finds itself suddenly overwhelmed with a deluge. I hope the recruits and committees will remember that. That is really why we are calling upon civil action to help and assist the committee and the War Department. [Cheers.]
They are just overwhelmed with the material which is placed at their disposal. And, after all, the best recruiting in the world has been done by civilians. [Applause.] I hope no soldier here will be offended. The great recruiting for the French revolutionary armies was done by a lawyer. [Laughter.] And it was such a successful experiment—[laughter]—that President Lincoln set another lawyer to recruit for the Civil War in America. There is some use for lawyers, after all, in a national emergency. [Laughter.] We are, therefore, calling these agencies into account in order to assist. But those agencies must represent the nation as a whole. We are one and indivisible for the purposes of this war. [Loud applause.] What better proof could you have of it than this platform? [Applause.] I have addressed many meetings in this hall. I doubt very much whether at those meetings I have had the privilege of addressing some of those whom I have the honour to address at the present moment. ["Hear, hear," and laughter.] It is the best possible proof that we are prepared to sink all
