ON THEIR MERITS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2674, 21 January 1916, Page 8

ON THEIR MERITS

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—ln to-day's issue of your papM there appears_ a paragraph headed; "About Commissions." It does, notstate who is responsible for its utterance, but as one having many relations, not of the army profession, and who have gained commissions in the' British Army and posts of trust by sheer ability and loyalty ; and without that "intangible somethmg- called influence" (which could have been sought and granted from the highest military authorities) I resent the. insinuation that our army is deplete of the propef qualifications for officers. It is, a slut that Lord Kitchener himself would resent most emphatically. From mj personal knowledge of that great man and the system of knowing the indmd. ual qualities of each officer put througl the ranks as many thousands < f then: have been, in order to render, bettei service in training men in their turn, I consider the remarks that inefficiency and "to be had for the asking" an i expression in tlie very worst possible taste., It is not. surprising that tha New- Zealand men are offered commissions in the British Army. Men who, in\ spite of the lectures given them A? the "Imperial officer'-' at-Trentham o? lack of discipline, hare fought at least as well as any soldiers in the battlefield. Our English boys may well envy • them -the gifts this oount-ry has _ endowed them with—for courage and resourcefulness, together with that splendid spirit of independence, is the birth, right of this country, a birthright denied to .hundreds of thousands of om young men whose lives are spent in crowded cities; but there is not a-. sol- ; diet" amongst them who would not welcome a New Zs&lander as his com* rade and friend, though not if that comrade lacked the essentials of loy-v alty and efficiency. Perhaps the number of New Zealand men applying for commissions in jshe British Army and finding it so easy to get thorn, nay be explained by tho methods which exist bre, and wiich enable persons of German descent, and even the son of. J German Consul, to secure commiss'ons, -I am, ENGLISH.