ABSTRACT
Our army for home defence ought to be sufficient in numbers and organization not only to repel small raids, but to compel an enemy who contemplated invasion to come with so substantial a force as would make it impossible for him to evade our fleets. The Territorial Army was fully mobilized, though not yet fully trained, and a central force of some 120,000 men under Ian Hamilton's command was in being ready to go to any threatened point. Nevertheless Ian Hamilton believed that the Home Defence Army would give a good account of itself against a raiding force. Asquith mentions in his diary for October 21st that the Cabinet had rather an interesting discussion on home defence and the possibility of invasion, which preoccupies the mind of Kitchener. Several problems of home defence were entrusted by the Committee of Imperial Defence and later on by the War Council to me, working sometimes in conjunction with departmental officers.
