LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 121, 15 February 1919, Page 10

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

THE NEW SCHEME FOR SENIOR CADET TRAINING ' Sir,—Permit me through the medium of your correspondence column to express a few opinions regarding Colonel Slecman's much-trumpeted "new schemo" for training Senior Cadets. The "new scheme," which is a sort of rehash of Boy Scout work-cum Junior Cadet training of a, bygone day, amounts virtually to a demilitarisation of the Senior Cadets. This is as it should be. Nevertheless, the administration of the "new scheme" is to be 011 military lines and to be carried out by military officers. l''or the reason that a military establishment exists and masses of lads and men can best be handled if treated as military units.

With regard to this "new scheme": Tlie Director of .Military Training hna been in New Zealand somo years now, mid yet it lias taken all this time to evolve a syllabus. In other words it ha 3 taken this imported expert about three years to bring forward a practical s&henib of training.for Cadets in Now Zealand; just- as it has taken Mr. Hiley, the General Manager of Railways, years to-—■. But, as Kipling says, "that is another story." Personally, I have tried to carry out a previous syllabus produced by the Director' of Military Training in a country district. I have been trying to do it for years, and found it perfectly futile. Every syllabus is designed to suit ideal conditions such as pertain in a good college or high school. Little village units—and in the aggregate they are numerically the strongest—seem to bo ignored. For instance, a hardworking staff instructor finds himself directed by training regulations to split up his little village squad of ten to fifteen men and boys in threo or four categories, viz., "trained," "partially trained," "untrained," etc., and put them at one and the same time through specially-graded work to suit each category. This may be ideal, read and look well in print, and be logically sound, and earn for its brainy creator high encomiums from experts, but to the harassed instructor or his keen group commander or area officer it appears as merely ridiculous—and is certainly quite unpractical. I have nothing to say against Colonel Sleeman as military educational expert. Ha has tlio highest credentials; but, I ask, How often has he left the bigger centres and visited country towns where these Cadet units are often up to company strength, and Riven them encouragement or seen for himself by personal visits to any of the scores and scores of small country drill centres the absolute impossibility of carrying out the elaborate syllabuses that have from time to lime appeared? I have, in season and out of season, pleaded for the more rational and human training of boys. I opposed tooth and nail the abolition of the Junior Cadets, and still will at every opportunity, certain of the fact that there is a I(irge body of public opinion in' New Zealand behind me. And now when 'I see the •flourish with which the "new scheme" for Senior Cadets is introduced I ask the reading public in New Zealand, and all who take either a practical'or theoretical interest in the training of youth, to watch developments closely, and to examine and analyse all that has led up to tlio production of.this new syllabus nt this juncture. Wp are on the evo of complete demobilisation of our Expeditionary Force. The authorities realise there will be a complete revulsion of feeling with regard to military matters. The Defence Department is non-productive; therefore, say the taxpayers, it must 50 or be greatly reduced. On the other hand, the Defence Department says to itself: "This will liover do! Wo have a '.arse, wcll-naid staff of officers and n.c.o.'s, whoso welfare we must consider. Let us take time by the forelock and forestall public opinion and introduce a 'new scheme;' Let us train boys, and young men, not to .bo 'soldiers,' but. to be 'citizens,' No one can cavil nt that; and whilst we are nt it let us put a few more attractive goods in the shop window, such as 'sex hygiene,' 'games,' and what not." And so the new scheme is launched, and the onus for successful carrying out is thrown artfully 011 to the general public, without whoso co-operation, we are told, it must be a failure. And then, lest parents should say it Is not necessary, or lie personally affronted, we aro told Hint the standard of New Zealand youth, morally and physically, is meritoriously high, and tlio Cadet system the finest in the world. Could artfulness go much farther? Tt is simply a ease of "you scratch my back and Til scratch yours" put into practice.

That the "new scheme" is sound, that the principles involved are good, cannot be gainsud. 1 Will it be carried out, and how? Those are different points altogether to answer. Physical education should be in the hands of experts. The Defcnco Department have not a sufficiency of these,, and T suggest, that physical culture experts should be subsidised and moro Defence instructors trained in up-to-date Swedish work before they are allowed to try their prentice hands on the youth of the Dominion.

Another point: AVhilst the. Cadet uniform may be hygienic and utilitarian, it is not such that the average bov can or "'ill tako the least interest in or in his personal appearance. Experts designed it and approved it; but I should like to see some of our experts wear it. Ask one of our experts, for instance, to ride in to drill at a country drill centre 011 horseback, in a cold, wot rain shower, with bare knees against n. wet saddle, and I think our "expert" would feel inclined to revise his opinion as to the absolute perfection of the Cadet "shorts"!. And that brings mo (0 the end of my letter, which I cannot close without once more asking tli» Director of Military Training to pro into the country districts more and to well-appointed colleges less, and see if he cyin apply his "new scheme" to them and do it. bit more for the rather neglected country lad who attends drills at such a disadvantage, and yet forms, numerically, the strongest portion of the Cadet Force, and is. physically, probably the'most promising material, too', to work on.—l am, etc., S. MIT.IIS.