MILITARY NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1114, 29 April 1911, Page 9

MILITARY NOTES.

[Edited Bt EcnELON.] SENIOR CADETS AND BOY SCOUTS. In order to clear up any misconception which may exist witli regard to the position of senior cadets and boy scouts in the new scheme oC defence, tho General Officer Commanding tho New Zealand Forces (Major-General A. J. Godley, C.8.) has issued the following statement for publication:— "There teems to bo an impression in some quarters that training in the boy scouts or boy scout cadets can take tho placo of training in the senior cadets. This impression is erroneous, and should bo removed Ijy all concerned with the boy scout organisation. The position is thaij in order to assist the boy scout movement, the Defence Act has sanctioned tho incorporation of boy scouts units in tlio organisation of the senior cadets, who may bo colled boy scout cadet.-, and iho military authorities are accordingly prepared lo accept in the senior cadets companies or smaller units of boy scouts. "By law, every youth between the ages of U and IS must bo a senior cadet. Having become a senior cadet, there is then no objection on the part of the military authorities to his also being a boy scout should he so desire. In fact, • General Godley and the military authorities are thoroughly in. sympathy with the .boy scout movement, and General Godley 18 vice-president of tho boy scouts in tho Dominion. But it is to be distinctly understood that every boy between U and IS.must bo a senior cadet, and ,that, in tho ease of those who are boy scouts, ho must be a senior cadet first nud a boy scout or boy scout cadet afterwards, "There also seems to be a further misapprehension that it is not necessary for boys now belonging to the hoy scouts or boy scout cadets to register themselves as senior cadets. This is wrong. Every boy between the ages of If and IS, whether a boy scout or not, has by law to till in a registration form and post it to the nearest area-sergeant-major, ill accordance, with the military training notico lately issued, from the conditions of which boy scouts arc no more exempt than any other class of the community. "As regards the training of boy scouts in the senior cadet organisation in which they will bo incorporated as boy scout cadets, (hey will, in tho first instance, have to perform the drills, etc., as laid dc.vii by law and regulation for all senior cadets (i.e., all youths in tho Dominion between H and IS), and, having dono that, they will then be free to do any special boy scout work that I hoy please. As a matter of fact, a good deal of the senior cadet training will be on the same lines

as that now done by the boy scouts, and as has before been explained, the boy scouts will ba Riven facilities for doing their senior cadet training in units composed entirely of boy toon's; and tho military authorities will be glad to receive from the head of the boy scout movement any proposals for the. formation of boy scout companies -'or smaller units, "It is hoped that, in order to help tho military authorities, and avoid a. great rush at the last moment, all youths between It and IS belonging to the boy scouts will procure registration forms from tho nearest and most convenient post office, fill them in, and send them to tho nearest arca-fcrgeant-major in their respective districts." "The special committee at.tho War Office formed to consider the adoption of an automatic rille has boon adjourned indefinitely (slates "Stars," of tho "Military Mail"). "Very little progress has beeu made since th« ollical invitation to gunmakers and others to produce some form of an automatic'' rille was sent out from tho War. Office last year. Nothing suitable to the peculiar conditions of service in the British Army abroad has been invented so far, and we must remain coiltent with the new pointed bullet and improved breech mechanism of the present" service rifle. Meanwhile the experts at Woolwich, Enfield, and Hythe are experimenting with a few samples' of automatic, rillcs in the hope of dropping across a useful pattern sumo day. As a result of applications from the Commandant of tho School of Musketry at llytho, the War Ollico has decided to appoint a cavalry' officer to serve upon the instructional stafl', in order that the special conditions of musketry training in the mounted branches of the service may be efficiently dealt with at llythe." „," A ' 1 instructive match between tho Daily Telegraph' Hillc Club and flio London ■ Cyclist Battalion was fired m London recently" (writes a correspondent; of the Aldershot "Military Mail";. "Tlio eight civilian shooters were selected from tho best of the 'Daily Telegraph' Kitlo Club, and tho Territorial team of eight was furnished by.a very good shooting ■ company, though not tho best in tho battalion. Minute targets representing guns and infantry (extended) were exposed on. tlio Solano range to each team six times, tor seven seconds on each occasion. Immediately before shooting each team doubled 100 yards to the firing point, when two minutes only were allowed before tho. first exposure, that tho team commander might indicate to his command tho various 'prominent objects.' livery hit on a target scored three points, and a shot ini tho beaten area comprised'within a circle of two inches radius drawn round tho target as a centra scored ono point. Tho rillo club made sixteen points against fitty-nino credited to the cyclists.

"During the contest it was evident that the commander of the former was at a, loss to indicate to his men the positions of the targets, in size no bigger than a postage stamp, and that his men vero unable to do any sort of justico to the snap shooting which the occasion required. Had bull's-cvo targets and unlimited time boon permitted the fiiflo Club men would certainly have had it all their own way. To the physique of tho rival teams ono need not refer, though (he superior staying powers of ono were evident alter the short preliminary, sprint, "To an unprejudiced onlooker it was clear as daylight that under the conditions of modern fighting, with targets almost invisible, and of short exposure, and with toilsome advances over broken ground, your rille club shot, however skilled, will be well-nigh useless by reason of physical unQtness and obsolete training. Is it not time to abandon our pleasant make-believes and to, tell our rillo clubmen that they are entirely valueless for fighting purposes? With tho enemy appicaching our gates, should not wo as a nation refuse to waste effort on pop-gun amusements? Your rifle clubs as now carried on are an evil rather than a blessing, inasmuch as they decoy into pleasant sidepaths many a likely young fellow who otherwise would have Joined tho 'Terriers.' "Those who advocate riflo clubs urge, as did a very skilful member of a civilian rifle chili, that with every hedgerow lined by dead shots, the enemy's advance would bo absolutely blocked. Such a fallacy needs no comment. Further, it has been thought that tho rifle clubs may prove portals to tho Territorials. I can only say that in an infantry battalion, to' which I have the honour to belong, we have not during tho last three years recruited a single man, so far an wo can trace, through tho agency of the riflo clubs. "Let us," says the writer, have our rifle clubs by all means to popularise- tho use of the rifle, but let their shooting bo modernised, and their membership bo barred to such as arc under forty years of age." ~. , , , . The above letter is published as being of topical intorcst-tho. members .of tho New Zealand ride team which left for Bisley on Thursday were invited by General Godley to visit Eyths, and I heir impressions of that famous Selioci of Musketry should bo rather interesting.