QUICK MARCH!

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1463, 11 June 1912, Page 6

QUICK MARCH!

THE NEW DEFENCE SCHEME. FIRST YEAR'S WORK. A TALK WITH GENERAL GODLEY" Having heard that General Godley, Commanding the Forces, had mado some rather interesting remarks on the progress of tho Defence scheme nt tho Wellington ,Savage Club's "korero" ou Saturday evening, a Dominion - representative tailed oil Him yesterday, with a reqiie.-t fo repeat what had been said for general information. The General was rather ditlident, indeed, inclined to lx> reticent, ou the point as to whether his remarks phould be published, but eventually conicnted to give a sketch of what, was done .niul doing. This he did in a conversational "off dntv" style, which added rather to the interest of the matter. "The year has been one of distinct importance and great moment to tho Dominion," said , tho General, ''niul much has becu accomplished towards the 1 furtherance of the scheme which l havo so much at heart. Among the changes, Colonel Bobin, Adjutant-General, had pone Home to the lVar OHicc. A\ o' had, Unfortunately, lost two good men in },■ iM:leiiaii'-Coloni'l Abbott aud Hawkins, who were in charge of districts. Their loss is to bo deplored. Wo lmve nth'er officers undergoing n course of , higher training at the Staff College, and, J from reports which I have had, they aro 1 holding their own with tho Imperial men. Then we have fifteen cadet officers at the Military College at Duntroou, Australia. Tlie.y are doing jolly good work, I am assured, aud will come back well-trained men to start at the bottom, and work their way up to Hio higher positions. "Then, of course, wo have'held the camps from one end of the Dominion to the other, and, believe me, they have .without exception been a great success. ( hit of about t .18,000 , posted, wo have had Id.OOO men' liiuler 'canvas for a week, and fully half that number now know much more about drill and the handling of a rille tliiin.they knew before. "What I believe to;be quite -true is that 0!) per/tent.,.of the 'then who have ■been, into camp thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and will await the next one with no little eagerness. Tliev foi ml that the camps were not nearly the awful places that so.iio.ot tho fejlows imagined them to be." "Anti" Troubles. "Of course there have been little initial difficulties, these being caused mostly by ' the anti-militarists or anti-couscrip-tionists, but these were not really so bad •as they were made - out to he. Somevery' amusing stories were told of the experiences of some of this small 'anti' section of the community. At one camp in the north there were a- few 'antis' who attempted-to spread a propaganda of 'kick* amongst the men, but so tired did tho-men become of them, that, without any'"appeal, to. the officers, a sergeant and ,a squad of.men collected the 'nntis' cliiriiig the second night "in ."camp, and, marching them along 'as prisoners in military style to the/entrance, gate, dismissed them .in ',a .ljihnncr. more forcible than p01ite.,,..: ..v. , "Don't' think vfor, one -rii'omeht,"' >aid General Godley, smiling,'Tth'at r condone' that.'sort'of• . tftiiig;"il'only.' relate it as i an instance 'o;f ,the strong-national and', patriotic", feblihg which the' tantis' are-uji.-against. , , "In another case, two antis boarded the train on which, men were proceeding to camp at Hamilton. They told them 'what idiots they were to tako. up this soldiorin'g nonsense,' and distributed a lot of inflammatory literature. _ At last the men became rattier bored with 'anti' cant, and, though the train was going rather fast, they emptied one iran out of it. The other had intended to leave the train early in the journey. The men thought that he would be able under the seat, and so they put hiirf there, and ktspt him there until Hamilton -was reached. "Down soutli some 'antis became very busy in a camp whilst the men were on parade, l'hey put a circular in every tent, and stuck others up all over the shop. When the rneii got back from parade they rather resented' that sort of thing, ami as the 'antis' had not made good their retreat they were captined, niado to collect every circular, made to collect wood and builtl a fire, and there in the middle of the camp were obliged to burn the documents. "Follow Me." "Away down south an Irish instructor, an Imperial sergeant, had a tough time with a lot of miners—good material and a fine lot of men, but about drill they did not Ifnow the difference between a bee and a bull's foot. Tho Irishman tried to make them Jorm fours, and do the simplest evolutions, but with next to no success. At last he said in desperation': "Holy, Moses! Follow me," and. he went through it. Would j;ou believe me, thoso miners would now tollow him anywhere, . even in a forlorn, hope, I believe.- - „ ~ "Some of those hardy men from the hackblocks—the sound material which did eo well in South Africa—had really been intimidated and frightened as to what they might expect in camp. Thanks to the 'antis' some of these young fellows in the far noTth were known to have confessed that they thought they might be beaten by the sergeant for any shortcomings. They actually thought that we had returned'to the days of the "cat." They are now looking forward, however, to next year's camp. "One man at the Oringi camp came straight at the officer in chargo .as soon as ho arrived, aud said that he was not going to do any soldiering, and they need not imagine for one moment that he. was. The, officer did not take much notice of his protests just' treating it as an affair of little moment whether he served or not. Next day he made 'the round of the tents to appoint men "to take charge of Each. At last lie found the 'anti' hero, but, assuming not to have met before, he appointed him '-tent-commander. I tell you that man had his fellow:s jumping at his word in a,couple of days, and wa.s i>oon made a corporal or sergeant. In fact, he may bo a sergeant-major by this time, for all T know. The Employers' Help. "The parades have been very successful throughout, and wo havo much to thank i the employers for, both in this regard and in respect to allowing' the men the time and opportunity to attend the camps. I hope that they will continue to recognise that this movement is for the pood of everyone in the community, tho country, and tho Empire, and that they will place 110 obstacles in the way of attendances at camp or on parade. So fur, I must say, wo have had the kindliest support, and tho result is wo have been able to do good work. I appeal to all employers to continue to lmvo confidence in tho scheme, and continue in giving us all the help they can. Honorary Territorials, "We are going to havo Honorary Territorials. It is a new idea, and I think a very excellent one. It will broaden the movement and give it the support of that Holid class of tho community who ore loyal to the scheme but are beyond the ago of service. The annual subscription will be 55., and with this money it is proposed to purchase many thing's that wo cannot very well ask tho Government to foot tho bill for—washing utdnsils, hire of pianos and grama phones, footballs, cricket material, etc., for tho camp. All work and no play makes Jack dull. We haven't got much time for leisure in camp, but wo intend to make that, time as jolly as possiblo for the men, and the Honorary Territorials lire to assist in the good work. Lieutenant-Colonel Turner .will lmve most to d(i with tho new establishment in Wellington. That Blouse. "Tho cadets havo been a bit of a handful, but we are getting on famously with them now, nnd, judging by the form on parades, they are beginning to take u keen interest in their work. There have been difficulties—vre are all human. Una has been the uniform. Some of tljs cadets do not like it. They object to the. jumper or blouse,. and some of them call it a woman's blouse/ Call it what vou like, but it is the blouse which Garibaldi s men wore vtUmTthey fought itnd obtained Ih* freedom of ItuJy, and \rliat w:\-s-tfood *?aough tor them oujjht to be good onouKh iov lis.

"As a matter of fnct the blouse is tho rcrj host sort of jacket for a growing boy. If you give him a tight-fitting tunic, ho would grow out of it in six months, and want, another, and, at tho samo time, ho would not bo nearly so easy in it as in a blouso. Besides, a blouse costs 10.0 m. ana a tunic 185. (Id., and wo must consider cxpoii*o. por military work you want looso clothing wear —tho old skin-tight idea has go no out of date, and troops all over the world are now wearing clotlnTig. J ho cadets iu Australia and other oversea Dominions wear tho Gnribahh bloupc, which is a loose, easy garment which a boy does not so readily grow out 01. Beside?, if he doesn't like it as a blouse he can luck it into his trousers and call it a shirt. About "Shorts." "We ijave him his choice between trousers and 'shorts.' In many eases ho chose tho tight trousers, which I do not cou-ider tho best notlier 1 1 much prefer tho loose 'shorts. Ihe wliolo oJ" the Indian Army now wear the ■"sliorK' and most, of the regiments in England havo adopted them. Tlu'V lonic well, and are smart, workmanlike: aud comfortnblc. 'Short?' are also being adopted by European armies as the best leg-wear. \ Mules! "There has been some talk about mules latolv. and some people havo got it into their heads that wo are spending oceans ol nionev oil mules. I got a bit ot a sniprise liivself the other day up at Mount Cook. when I saw or thought I saw a voting regiment of mules, and I wondered where they had all come from-got a bit frightened, as a matter of fact. ■ (letting out of their road I ascended the lull to get the mule herd in .bettor perspective, when I discovered that thero were only foui * but each nnimul was so lively that, he looked like ten. Wo have cot four mules, as a matter of strict fact. '1 hey are being trained to carry the new mountain guns which we now have. Some of the now field artillery guns to replace tho pre«ent obsolete-ones are now on the -water, and will be here in a few weeks. Honour, Indeed. "What I think New Zealand, and particularly the Territorials, should be proud of is the recent high honours which have come our wav, and which are, I believe, the first of their kind to be granted to the oversea Dominion?. I refer to the fact that his Majesty the King has signified his assent to become Colonel-in-Unei to the 3rd Auckland Mounted Rifles and .the Ist Canterbury Regiment of lntantrv. Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener, who visited New Zealand two years ago, lias consented to become Colonel-in-Ghief to tho New Zealand Engineers, and lieldJfarshal Lord Roberts is now Colonel-in-Cliief to the R.N.Z.A. and Territorial Artillery. These are marks of special distinction, .which are - things to bo very proud of, I assure yoii."