to be found among the regular force now serving at home. The elimination of this number of youths will at once give the saving required.
It is obviously impracticable within the scope of this paper to deal in complete detail and in exact figures with the plan thus outlined; it has been sufficiently described to show the facility with which a defined military system, based on the cooperation of Great Britain and her Colonies, could be adopted. The time has not yet arrived for riveting closer the bonds of union and for accepting upon hard-and-fast lines a too sharply defined system of Imperial defence. 'There is noticing more dangerous,' said Lord Salisbury in alluding to Imperial Federation on May 7, 1902, 'than to force a decision before a decision is ready, and therefore to produce feelings of discontent, feelings of difficulty, which, if we will only avoid, if we will only wait, will of themselves bring about the results that we desire. There is no danger that appears to me more serious for the time that lies before us than to attempt to force the various parts of the Empire into a mutual arrangement and subordination for which they are not ready, and which may only produce a reaction in favour of the old state of things.'
The leading statesmen of Canada and of Australia similarly deprecate the forging of 'indissoluble ties,' but would assuredly cooperate in a system of joint defence upon which to organize and maintain their military forces. There would thus be instituted a bond of Military Unity, elastic it may be, and suited to political freedom of action, which, founded upon sound strategical lines of mutual defence, would grow with the growth of the Empire, and form a solid asset for the security of our joint commercial and national interests. It is our duty as a practical people to organize now in time of peace those mighty forces of the Empire which tend to the maintenance and solidity of the British race. It will be too late when the moment of national danger arrives. It would be
