ARE WE READY?

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1766, 14 February 1888, Page 2

ARE WE READY?

Contradictory as the telegrams are from day to day, the European outlook is sufficiently grave to render it quite worth whilethat New Zealanders should ask themselves " Are we ready for eventualities ?" Whether it come this spring, or whether it be deferred for another year or two, it is certain that there must and will be a great Euro pean war before there will be anything like an assured peace, and the conflict may at any moment be precipitated. Who will be the belligerents or how they will range themselves no man can with safety predict but that one of them will be Russia is a certainty, and that another may be England is by no means an improbability. In that case our Australian squadron will have some sharp work cut out for it, and it may be that, the squadion notwithstanding, we may have to prove what our coast defences are worth, and to test ihe prowess of our citizen soldiery. We do not fear the latter, though we have our doubts a6 to the tfticiency or rather sufficiency of the f<<irmer, ; but it would be well that befote the storm comes we should have done all that \ 3 necessary to enable us tv mret.it. In th.se circumstance s the opinions of professional military men are worth taking into account, and for that reason we reprint from an article contributed to the " Wanganui Herald " some pertinent remarks by I.ieut.-Col. Cecil Rooke, who has himself served with distinction m this colony and elsewhere. This then is what he says referring to the j possibility of England being drawn into hostilities with Russia : — " I fear that our only dependence jrnuht be on the , British fl et. As far as we, the colonists Of New Zealand, are concerned, we are worse than helpless, because of the 1 fool's paradise ' m which we have been long living, created by the immature pre para' ions for defence against attack as.s timed to bf going oris and after the things of our national force, the volun ie*rs, have been despoiled of their plnmage, and tjip lamentable fact lately made patent, that none of the forces have ever been thoroughly drilled either to bi£ gun or field gun drill, the 1 colonists must bestir themselves and see if they "*nnol among themselves get a body of men who *Hl g<?jn either for offence or defence on a better *VBtenr» than that of having our forts right m the middle of a thick population, inviting the enemy's fire po our towns, j

and then inevitable destruction. Had) we sent, say, a hundred men of all j branches of the service — Cavalry, Ar- J lillery, Engineers, lnf.tn.ry, Cummis-1 sanat, Transport, etc. — and through' the Government at Home, got theni attached for pay and rations, m the Reguiar army, to the Artillery at Woolwich, the Cavalry at Canterbury, and I the Infantry with tbe Guards Brigade, ! we should by this time have had a competent lot of men to have, as it were, interlined our forces, and been capable of giving and imparling the necessary drill and instruction. It is not yet too late, I hope, to do this, and face onr shortcomings."