VOLUNTARY TRAINING

Hokitika Guardian, 5 July 1930, Page 6

VOLUNTARY TRAINING

LESSONS OF THIIE PAST

SOME FACTS AND FIGURES

(By the National Defence League.)

One of the most remarkable features of present day discussions regarding national defence is that Pacifists anti others, not less qualified to speak, have no liestiation in assuming the role of military experts, and “in the interests of efficiency and economy ’ ’ they urge (1) that our present system should be scrapped; (2) that this ishould be done as a “moral demonstration ” .to the whole world of New Zealand’s pacifist intentions,, and (3) on the ground that it is more efficient that the voluntary system of military training should be reverted to. How they reconcile such representations, the one with the other, is difficult for the ordinary man to understand, and he is compelled to ask the following questions :—How such critics came to be recognised as such high military experts as to be able to prononce with authority on such a highly technical matter as military efficiency? How, as opponents of “militarism,” they reconcile their complaint that our .present system of - training .:is ; ' y hot' 1 ’; “efficient;, enough?' And liowy inTheir view, "New Zealand can make “a moral demonstration”. ,to -.the world by scrapping the present system in favour of what they urge is a more efficient one,, vie;.,, thevoluntary system? - . ..

“PROVED TO BE A FARCE.” In view of the general sense of uneasiness that has been tefeated by further threatened cuts in land defence vote and the advocacy of a reversion to the voluntary system, it is proposed in the present article to refresh the public memory with a few salient facts which in the interests of the safety of the State and of New Zealand being able to bear her fair share in the Empire’s defence, should never be forgotten.

The voluntary system o,f ./military training in Now Zealand, was dispensed with a generation ago because it iyas proved to' be! a! farce. How farcical it was the foTlowingfacts will show : (1) In 1909 infantry .volunteers who formed the bulk of the Field Force were classified as “efficient’ without being required to spend one single whole day ( in the field and without even going into camp at all. (2) Not one single class or course of instruction for officers was held by the Headquarters Instructional Staff as it was impossible to get sufficient numbers to attend.

(lj) Only 57 officers out of a total of. 1,347 attended any classes at all and then only at night.

(c) Not a single officer attended a class of instruction the field.

(3) The annua Icamp held at Easter consisted of four days including day of arrival and ’of departure. The programme of work consisted of the following: Good Friday, arrive in camp. Easter Saturday, Field Work. Easter Sunday. Church Parade and Visitors’ Day. Easter Monday, leave camp. Only forty to fortyyfive per cent of the strength attended even these ly inadequate camps.

(4) . The Inspector-General, of the Forces in- -his ' annual report in 1909 stated that the more pay and other privileges were given to "the volunteers the less work they did in return.

GOT “ VOLUNTARY” RESULTS The voluntary system ,of coursegot “voluntary” results. Because it was universal and did not have the com*, try behind it, it was starved and shock ingly ill-equipped. As evidences of this it has only to be pointed out that in 1909 there were only eight field guns in the whole of the North Island and ten in" the South Islftnd; that these.* field guns were only fifteen-pounders which were then obsolete ; that there were then only twelve Maxim guns in New Zealand;' or forty-eight short of the number required to complete the then war establishment; that the \olunteer Force then was wholly innocent of such a thing' hs* an Army Service Corps, the life-line of any army in the field; and that was also without an adequate medical Corps. Indeed so poor were the commissariat arrangements that at the Otago Easter Camp of 1909 the supplies ordered from Dunedin did not arrive in time and officers in some instances were obliged to purchase rations for their own use from farmers, one squad having to travel eight miles in order to get a meal.

Yet in the name of “efficiency and economy” and in the face of pronouncements by the highest military expeits in the land that the present system is efficient there are those who propose that New Zaland should revert to a system which hopelessly failed, and which was discarded for that reason. HOW THE FIGURES WORK OUT. Now it is freely reported that it is proposed to cut the Defence vote down to £250,000 including £60,000 for the Air Service, or to £190,000 for land defence alone. In "1909 for the farcical voluntary system the amount expended was £190,347. This, on the present-day value of the pound sterling, was equivalent to £297,500, or £107,000 more than is now threatened to he provided for the present system. The reader, therefore, is invited to ask himself this questionTf the eqi-

nection with the alleged method of the commission of the crime. His Honour valent of £279,500 produced a force which was a notorious farce m 1909 and was scrapped for that reason, thefi what sort of a force do they expect to 'r«t from only £190,000 in 1930-31 ? They may get economy, it is true, hut will they get efficiency? ' . These are facts and figures which speak for themselves of what it is proposed to achieve in the ..name of “efficiency and economy,” and should com pel even those who are so loud in acclaiming the “inefficiency” of the present system to send in their protest to members of Parliament.