The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1907. COMPULSORY MILITARY TRAINING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2053, 3 December 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1907. COMPULSORY MILITARY TRAINING.

The recent visit to Switzerland of a Committee organised by the National Service League of England to study the Swiss Army lias caused tiie appearance of several papers Oil the subject in British journals and reviews. The Committee, which appears to have been fairly representative, consisted of thirty members, of whom five were La bar members of Parliament, live were otherwise associated with Labor, and four were Liberal members of Parliament. Tbe Socialist paper, the Clarion, was also represented. Other members were Lord Newton, Lord Aniptiliill, Lord Tumour, and Mr. Slice, the secretary of the National Service League. The purpose of the League was, ill particular, to give the leaders of Labor an opportunity to see how l.iglitlv the Swiss system of military service (it has been paradoxically, but intelligibly and justly, called ■ “Compulsory Volunteering”) be us oil the nation, and to ask them to judge whether a similar

system, such as is advocated by the National Service League, would not lie a benefit to Britain from many points of view. 'l’o state very briefly the mature of .the*service req-uireil' in the iSwiss Auny: Every man is culled -nil) lor service a.t the age of twenty. If lie is rejected for physical reasons, he must pay a special tax according to his income. If accepted, lie lias to serve in Iris first year two or -iiree months, according to the hraiidh of the Army which he chooses. He is then in the Elite, and remains in it till he is thirty-two, having to come up every other year for about three weeks’ training. After' leaving the Elite lie passes through the Ijandwelir and the Landsturm, which are the Reserve, and the training becomes so light that in the Landsturin i.t is a mere occasional inspection. All the officers pass through the ranks, and there is a General Staff of permanent- officers. The whole Army, excluding the Laiulsturin, numbers two hundred and thirty-five thousand, and the annual cost is only a million and a quarter. This is a marvellous result, and Bidtons in Switzerland have often remarked that the training is regarded by the Swiss as a kind of annual “outings” It is thought of as a | short and jovial camp life aiid an opportunity of making friends. Older men in the Landsturm have been known to look forward all tlie year to their one day of inspection, (when they will meet their friends once .more, and break in upon the monotony of their ordinary occupation. Colonels and captains arc hotelkeepers and lawyers who have made soldiering and rifle shooting (heir hobby. By common consent the whole system is as far removed from the oppressive system of conscription in th c great Continental Armies as the North Bole from the South. 'The visit and the discussion thereon has evidently created a good deal of attention in England, where the public is gradually being awakened to the lolly of perpetually living in a ‘.fool's Paradise” so far as its home defences are concerned. 'Readying to the contention of a writer in the “Nineteenth Century” that the system of compulsory training was useless unless it was considered as the preliminary to compulsory service, the- London “Spectator”

Preliminary compulsion does not imply a filial compulsion. No one has deeper-routed objections to conscription* than we have. If ever it were introduced in the Continental manner, we should regard it as the beginning of the end of thc Empire. All that we ask, and all that we understand the National Service League to ask, is that every lad should be compelled to undergo a brief military training which would make him more valuable material if ever his services were wanted for home defence or for voluntary service abroad. AYe must make it'clear that he would never be compelled to serve abroad; we should not dream of sanctioning a" compulsory military exile which lias not been attempted even liv modern Continental States. The State should say to the citizen: “You mav some day desire to volunteer when vour country is in danger. AA'e take care that you shall

not .sulfur the humiliation of offering a service which is of no value,”

—that, and no more. This is, after all, the keynote to m proper system of military training, and one that might well he a denied by our legislators in their efforts to provide for the sal city of our own Dominion in the event of invasion by a foreign foe. uur present 1 lisscz fuiro policy will surely land us in trouble, eventually ri persisted in. Fortur itely, the Council of Defence hr recognised t lie position, and li'av.i given the old and faulty volunti system another year’s trial is p a red to adopt a school,, somewhat oil the lines of that which is proving so satisfactory in Switzerland.