NATIONAL DEFENCE

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 405, 14 January 1909, Page 4

NATIONAL DEFENCE

Commenting on our recent discussion of. the necessity for establishing'a system, of compulsory military training in New" Zealand, a correspondent in an interesting letter which wo published yesterday referred us to the'scheme suggested by the' Wellington' Artillery Officers' Institution, and printed in the October number of Defence: We are glad to take the opportunity to recur, to-, this, most important question, -not only because public opinion is ready to consider any reasonable proposals for securing that the land defences of New Zealand shall be efficient, but also because the prospects of a sound defence : policy have almost • completely disappeared now. that Sir Joseph Ward, following'Me.. Seddon's- example, has taken over" the control of the' Defonce Department. • This is not said in any harsh spirit Of; criticism; it is put forward as a simple statement of fact. Not only, is it impossible that tho. defences of the country can make healthy progress when they are placed under the charge of a Minister who has so .many other . im-; portant cares of State tha't tho Defence Department can only receive attention from him in his spare moments; Sir, Joseph's o.wn public utterances revealhini. as,tho- possessor of the most wrongheaded ideas upon the duty of thfc citizen to his country.' "Compulsory training" means "conscription" to him; he has a violent horror of "forcing every dne to ,bepomo; militarists," . So have most people, but the proposal now made does not go length feared by Sir Joseph. The failure of the Council of Defence to make something out of the volunteer system must be taken as evidence' that nothing can be done with that system, and this fact makes absurd the conjunction of the Prime Minister's hostility to - compulsory training with his declaration (we quote from a speech delivered at Feilding) that "we ought to ensure that every young man in the country should be a fully-equipped volunteer soldier at the age of twenty.-ono'years." The . schome which our correspondent commended to our- notice as preferable to the Swiss system on grounds of exponse and present convenience, is a very modest one. Its- authors propose that for the first line of defence threw years' service should be required from all mon between the ages of 18 and 24. It. should be compulsory to report at the age of 18, and special inducements, in the shape of reduced service in the second line, should be. offered to men to continue in tho first line after tho compulsory period of service is completed. Service in the second lino should last for six years, and there should be a "special reserve," or third line, to include men resident in remote' parts from which they cannot readily mobilise on a military centre foi training. The period of scrvico in this line Bhould be for nine yoa-rs. A man in the first line would be required to give only 30 days of 5 hours each - to drill, fieldwork, and -'lectures; in the second line three days, and in the third line five days. The authors of the scheme, estimate that ; 'at -tho ; end ,qf. six years .there would be .a total of 48,000 soldiorii in tho first line;

15,000 ill the second line, and 6000 in the third line; while the cost of the system would be little greater than the cost, of the present inadequate system which Sir Joseph Ward relies upon to meet' the crisis when it comes. New Zealand's situation in tho military map, while it makes the establishment of a real defence organisation vitally necessary, makes it unnecessary that there should be anything like a standing army, We are in the happy position of being free from any necessity even to think of conscription. Our choice is not between being a pack of wolvbs or.a flock of sheep. All that is necessary—but it is indeed necessary— is'that the country shall be ready to offer proper resistance to any foreign intruder upon its peace. It is impossible for. a community which devotes an extraordinarily large part of its time to sport to refuse to devote at least as much time to the perfection of, its readiness -to resist invasion- The feeling in favour of compulsory military training is growing, as we showed in our article of Saturday. That Sir Joseph Ward is opposed • to what ho miscalls "militarism" is regrettable, but his temperament must-not prevent Parliament from giving attention to the most important of our national concerns. ■ :