The Dominion. SATURDAY, MARCH 27, 1909. NATIONAL DEFENCE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 467, 27 March 1909, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, MARCH 27, 1909. NATIONAL DEFENCE.

We should have imagined that the advocates of ■ universal military training would have displayed some energy and promptitude in seizing the splendid opportunity afforded them this week to bring the necessities of a sound system of national defence prominently before the country. Their task of converting a gluggish public opinion is such a hard one that all possible use should be made of any general enthusiasm such as has swept through the peoplo in the last few days. The duty of New Zealand to itself and to the Erapiro is not discharged by the presentation of a battleship to the British Government;. it will not bo fully discharged even if what we have been advocating is carried out, namely, the adoption of such a sober and economical method of life as a national community as will enable us to take a useful part in maintaining the supremacy of the Navy in future. It will not be discharged until the country has trained its citizone to defend their shores. The arguments in

favour of a system of compulsory training have been put forward in these columns often enough to require no labouring just now, and they have not been put forward as mere abstract truths: they have been accompanied by concrete particulars of various methods of giving practical effect to them. All the essentials of a system of universal training arc ready. Public opinion is quite prepared to approve of any sound schemo; sound schemes have boon put on paper. What is chiefly wanting is encouragement from the Prime Minister. He was afforded an opportunity this week of saying whether he has any intention of doing something in the matter, and it is to be regretted that he declined to express any opinion. It can only be supposed that he is still fearful lest tho bogy cry "conscription," as ho calls universal training, will bring him into trouble. There is no'excuse at all for representing as "conscription" a system that compels no more, in times of peace, than that men of fighting age shall learn how to handle arms—that willing hearts shall be assisted by trained hands. The story is told of a Wiltshire labourer that, after listening to a patriotic lecture, ho was asked by the lecturer, "What would you do if tho enemy had landed and wero entering your village?" "What would I do, zur? Why, go for un with a pitchfork!" He would obviously do much better if he used a gun as a trained man. Sir Joseph Ward's policy of relying on the patriotic fervour of New Zcalanders, and at the same time refusing to countenance any schemo for making that fervour effective, may fairly bo called the "pitchfork" policy.

If the public fully grasped what a system of universal training could achieve, it would quickly see to it that the Defence Minister made a move in the matter. If the British Navy were to fall to-day or to-morrow, wo could do very little. But even from the lowest depths of panic there cannot come any suggestion that such a disaster is a possibility of the immediate future. Five or ten years of compulsory training would make it possible to regard the fall of the Navy, not as any the less a fearful calamity for the human race, but as a tragedy not utterly ruinous to, Australasia. The Boars' long resistance to Great Britain is an imperishable proof of tho power of grit and skill in enabling even a small people to resist the largest forces of invasion. There is another powerful argument in favour of compulsory training, being made . general throughout the Empire- It makes for peace, and not for war, to make men realiso the seriousness of > war and the meaning of having to fight for one's .country. As an English writer has it: "As long as war is a kind of terrible and exciting, but perfectly safe, luxury for the great bulk of tho population—it is apt to he considered such a luxury when men hire others to fight for them, and when they feel that there is not the slightest risk of their ever having to fight'themselves—waves of jingoism Buch as have occasionally swept • over this country are a real danger and a real source of demoralisation. When, however, men have brought homo to them, as they have brought home to them by military training, the possibility of .having to expose their own lives to the risk of war, the result is sobering in a high degree." Tho only considerable objection to military training that we ever hear is its "interference with the liberty of the subject." The Radicals who raise this cry are not very numerous, but they are very noisy, and they have impressed Sir Joseph Ward. This cry was heard locally tho other day in protest against the commendable decision of a British Assurance Company. to insist that any new employee ' of theirs shall undergo a fortnight's military training, receiving full pay during his fortnight's absence from work. The people who so stoutly defend "the liberty not to fight for one's country" overlook the fact that tho State, in case of invasion, can call upon every able-bodied citizen to take up arms. There are certain duties which everybody must perform for the State. Who stands up to defond the liberty not to pay taxes, or the liberty not to serve on a jury?

The London Spectator recently mentioned that this very point was dealt with very effectively by a Whig pamphleteer, one Captain St. Loe, in 1688. We may quote some trenchant passages from this old writer's pamphlet entitled "A Discourse on Raising Men," in which universal service is advocated, because thero are indications that his biting irony may do some good just now. He states the position as follows:

All Englishmen then have, as you say, Gentlemen, a Liberty not to fright for their Country, and no Body can make 'em do it, unless thoy, Kind Hearts, should happen to be in a good humour, and offer their Services themselves; tho' the English Fleet should bo sunk, and tho Army destroy'd, yet Englishmen may stand still with their Hands in their Pockets and look on, and no Body can make 'cm striko a Stroke. This is their Liberty, and no Body has a Word to say to it; nay, tho' the Kingdom itself were suro to be lost, our Laws, Liberties/ Religion, Government, and all with it, yet neither the King nor the Parliament,- nor both of them together with all their. Laws and all their Authority, can make a Man of 'cm Fight to provent it.

The CapUia goes on to discuss Loud TorrincOu's withdrawal from the action off Beachy Head—"he bore away from 'cm [tho French] as fast as Wind and Tide would carry him, bravely maintaining the Liberties of England— and the action of a successor who forgot the liberty of tho subject in this matter very completely:

"But his successor, Gentlemen, one may Bay it among Friends, has not behav'd himself so well in this Point as he did, for happening to moot with, tho French Fleet some years after, much about' tho same Place, what does he do but fall on them without any Regard to our Liberties, and there bo was at it for above an Hour. Fist to Fist with Admiral Tourville, and all tho while tbo poor Seamen's Brains and their Liberties (lew about together in the saddest manner. I protest to you, Gentlemen, 'twas a shame to seo it. Between you and mo, Gentlemen, ho may bo an honest. Man, but really he does not understand tho Business of Liberty. I beliovo ho means well, but ho lias not scon so far into' that Matter as you have dono."

We noted some months ago that the general election in November last has resulted in a large increase in the number of. members of Parliament who are in favour of a definite and effective programme of national defence. It is to be hoped thnt when the Government's proposals respecting the gift to the Navy are under discussion, vigorous representations will be made to Ministers upon the necessity for doing at least as much for our home defence as. for the maritime defence of tho Empire (is a, whole,