THE HUNTLY PRESS PUBLISHED WEEKLY AT 1 P.M. Friday, March 27, 1914. Notes and Comments.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 3, 27 March 1914, Page 2

THE HUNTLY PRESS PUBLISHED WEEKLY AT 1 P.M. Friday, March 27, 1914. Notes and Comments.

WHATEVER may be the feelings rp HE of parents on the CADETS, question of compelsory military training, the law, which has no respect either for persons or for opinions, is plain, and expects parents to see that their sons act up lo its letter, if not to its spirit. Still, as Mr Robertson, while acting as counsel for a defaulter, remarked to the Stipendiary Magistrate, Hiintly parents have two grievances to complain of, these being (1) the hours of parade for lads ranging from fourteen years to eighteen years of age; and (2) the drilling of the lads with the men. By assembling at eight o’clock, the lads are unable to reach home before ten at the earliest, an I thus are given an excuse to remain beyond parental control at a period in their lives when they ought to be kept from tin temptation to indulge in ! hours by being at homo with tuoir pa.routs whose duty, as it is their pleasure, is to see that their sons obtain the rest that growing hoys require, or that they indulge in such study or reading as will enable them to become worthy citizens. The most critical period of a

lad’s life occurs between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. Then habits are formed that have a tremendous bearing for good or for evil on their future lives. The late hour at winch these military parades finish, furnishes a ready excuse for loitering about, while it also exposes them to temptation to which lads, and especially lads in Uniform, succumb easily. Because others older than themselves practise certain habits, the lads by imitation begin to assert that manhood which they apparently assume when they don tho Khaki, just as did the Roman youths on assuming the toga which was the outward and visible symbol of manhood. From, a physical point of view tho training of boys with men is an error that may seriously affect the constitution of the former, while by mingling with their seniors lads gain of matters prurient a knowledge which will , come only too soon, and which, if never gained, they will be better without. The footing of equality is good neither for body nor for mind, and the sooner the wrongful practice is ended, the better will it be for the future of our lads. The training in itself is good and worthy of all encouragement, in that it develops the muscles, tends to an easy and graceful carriage, and by inculcating habits of ready and quick obedience leads to that willing toleration of discipline so necessary in all spheres of life. The same lessons could be learned more easily and the same tasks performed less perfunctorily between G. 30 and 8 p.m., and in the interests of the boys it is to bo hoped that proficiency in drill and military training will not be obtained by the sacrifice of the innocence and purity that are never so admirable as when witnessed in, and practised by, growing boys. Though the spirit of the Defence Act is not oppressive and Commanding Officers insist that the welfare of the lads should be the first consideration of instructors, yet the consideration so insisted upon is too often a n egligible quantity whose absence will in time tend to force upon parents the necessity of becoming passive registers in the interests of their children, and, by organising, as tlio suffragettes do, force the importance of the question upon the Defence Minister, the Officer Commanding tho Forces, . and upon Parliament, with a view to iinmodiote n.d iusi merit.