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-EUROPEAN -POLITICS. I

I Local Chemist Rebuked. I

-I EX-MONEYLENDER. !

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A DIVORCE ACTION.i

I Estates Committee.iI

!BURSAR SCHEME.1

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I National Peace Congress.…

Military Training on Sunday.…

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Military Training on Sunday. I To the Editor of the "Llanelly Mercury." Sir,—The following letter has been forwar- ded to the Prime Minister by the Committee of the Lord's Has Observance Society:— The Lord's Day Observance Society, 18 Buckingham St., Strand, W.C.. June 14th, 1909. To the Right. Hon. 11. H. Asquith, K.C., First Lord of the Treasury. Sir,—I am instructed by my committee to call your attention to the persistent efforts now being made to utilize Sunday as a day for military exercises: at. present for the training of the Territorial Army; which, if permitted, will soon give rise to demands for the co-operation of the Regular forces. I am to urge that the ministry of which )-oi i are the head should use its authority to dis- courage so mischievous a movement, and should recognise that the day is already ear- marked by its Maker for higher and better purposes. It is not the first time in English history t.hat similar attempts have been made. In- deed, the fact that Royal and Ecclesiastical authorities favoured such misuse of the day three centuries ago is put forward as a sum- cient justification for modern proposals of the kind. But this shallow plea wilfully ignores the determined opposition which was aroused throughout the country, .and the disastrous results' to Church and State of disregard of such remonstrances. The responsible leaders in both departments of national life were swept away, by the storm which they had wantonly provoked, and their Sunday-trained warriors could not save them. I The Puritan spirit which recoiled from Sun- day drill, and favoured worthier methods of I employing the Lord's Day, secured better dis- cipline, and a more effective discharge of military duty than the irreligious spirit which scoffed at such scruples. History does not necessarily repeat. itself on precisely the same lines. Foreign invasion may conceivably replace civil war as a test oi national character and military prepared ness. But, assuredly, the experience of three hundred years since does not favour a return to methods which then failed so conspicu- I ous) y. My committee trust, therefore, ihut such I ret urn will be authoritatively cheeked. am, Sir., v-em obedient servant, ¡ FREDERIC PEAl, F. LA." LIJ.D.. I 8een.-iary.

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