DEFENCE ORGANISATION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 39, 9 November 1918, Page 9

DEFENCE ORGANISATION

. THE COMMISSIONER'S REPORT REPLIES BY DEFENCE STAFF. ' When the report of the Defence' Expenditure Commission was laid upon the table in the House of Representatives on Thursday the Minister of Defence (Sir James Aller.) presented also a lengthy memorandum: containing "notes by a conference of officers of tho Defence Department on criticisms, suggestions, and recommendations as contained in the report of the Defence Expenditure Commission." The memorandum contains over 150 notes in-the form of replies to and comments upon the suggestions and recommendations of the Defence Commission. It follows the lines to some extend of evidence that was given before the Commission by officers of. the Defence Department. Some of the points made in the memorandum are 'as follow:—

"Administrative Appointments not to be Given to 'Combatant' Officers, but to Specially Selected and Trained Men."— The "combatant" officers available are almost entirely Territorial Force officers who havfi had civilian training. There were, and are, practically no professional administrative officers available , for employment To have specially selected anil trained administrative officers' before sending them out to districts would -have been most desirable, but the war was commenced without adequate notice to enable this to be done, and. nearly all the officers doing administrative work were in civilian occupations on one day and plunge'd into administrative duties the next day, learning as they progressed. To no\s carry out the above suggestion wonid entail the employment of a large number of understudies'at great expense. Tliis would immediately be condemned as unwarranted waste of money.

"Overrcntralisntion at General Headquarters."—With an ; untrained stall working on problems suddenly produced by tho war, there must of. necessity be inoro centralisation than would bs the caso in the routino of peace-time. More and more powers have been delegated ami more and more decentralisation is taking place as regulations securing uniformity of policy have been issued. Tlio success of tho Defence- Department's organisation is fully emphasised by the actual results attained, which have been summed up in the final conclusions (vide page (17) at tho end of tho report. After all, results constitute tho essential test.

"Suggestions Not Encouraged."—Suggestions from subordinates are not discouraged, but on the contrary aro encouraged. When important changes aro contemplated it is an almost invariable practice to call together subordinates and ask for suggestions. In other cases proposals are passed round for suggestions. There are occasions when suggestions made have beau found after careful consideration to be impracticable, and one is forced to the conclusion that more hus been heard of the impracticable suggestions not accepted than of tho practicable suggestions which have been adopted. "British Army Methods Should be Discarded ir. Favour of More Direct Methods."—The opinion of tho Defence Expenditure Commission . advocating practically a clean break from "English Army methods" would appear to be diametrically opposed to the principles worked out by tho Committee of Imperial Defence in conjunction with the. Imperial Conference held prior to the present war. Tho same principles of uniformity of organisation havo again been stressed at the Imperial Conference hold last year in wartime. We shall never attain a strong British Bmpire, in a. military sense, if each portion is to work on different lines. It is interesting to note that, where New Zealand has effected a great saving by the camp organisation which differors from that in force in (lie United Kingdom recruit camps, tho Defence Expenditure Commission have condemned it apparently without proper investigation of tho pros and cons. They advocate the battalion system, which would undoubtedly be costly to initiate and extravagant to work. King's Bogulations must necessarily bo adopted in ro■gard to the administration of discipline under tho Army Act. Adaptations' of the regulations to New Zealand conditions havo been made in the Now Zealand Defence Regulations and Camp Standing Orders A uniform military system of discipline unit principles of administration is essential for the Army of the Empire composed of units from all its peoples. "Officer of High Rank of Pay Doing Work that could bo Done by Subordinates."—Although in tlie early part of the war it was necessary to accept tho services of officers offering irrespective of rank for a considerable timo past no senior officers have been accepted -for work that could bo done by juniors. Occasion has also been taken to replaco senior officers as far as practicable by junior officers returned from tho front.