from 15 to 18 years of age, the boys
are removed from the schools, in natural compliance with the demands of
the economic conditions of citizenship in the nation, and that unless
some satisfactory means is devised to compulsorily compel those boys who
have left school to continue to be trained up to the age of at least 19
years, the earliest age at which young men may be considered capable of
undergoing the bodily fatigue necessary to give them sufficient knowledge
of such drill as will ensure that confidence in the field so essential to
success as a fighting unit, it would appear evident that the foundation
previously laid by the attainment of the first and second requirements as
a whole, and the third requirement in part, will remain a foundation
only, and the superstructure thereon will not be completed.

It is on the above grounds that it is contested that the cadet system, as
popularly understood, is not considered to be reliable as a solution to
the fulfilment of the requirements laid down for the training of a
citizen soldier.

It is now pointed out that it is reasonable to argue that:

1st. It may be considered equally undesirable to compel boys from
15 to 19 years of age as to compel young men from 18 to 23 years of
age to be partially trained.

2ndly. It will hardly be denied that the partial training of young
men from 18 to 25 years of age in the field will give better
results than the training of boys from 15 to 19 years of age, and
on these premises it is urged that, to attain the fourth
requirement, all young men from 18 to 25 should be partially
trained, and thereby build on the foundation laid down by the
attainment of the 1st and 2nd requirements and part of the third.

But, can some practical means be suggested which will maintain the boys'
interest in their work during the gap made by the period taken from the
time that a boy leaves school and that when he reaches the age of 18,
without interfering with the performance of those duties of his civil
life for which he may be preparing himself?

The following suggestion is submitted, namely, the establishment in all
centres of population of public gymnasia for the training in physical
culture, and that rifle shooting by means of miniature ranges, and,
further, the imposing upon those who employ lads up to 18 years of age,
the obligation of enabling such lads to attend a course of instruction
during each year at these gymnasia at