A GLOOMY PROPHET.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1324, 3 July 1883, Page 4

A GLOOMY PROPHET.

We extract the following from an English volunteer newspaper Things are looking black ahead, and the general disturbance, long prophesied, appears to be coining daily nearer. France, tired of her republic, and smarting under loss of territory through her German enterprise, and prestige through her duplicity in the Egyptian affair, is fast offering herself as a sacrifice to red riot, civil war in the first instance and Continental war, with carnage and utter ruin, in the next. She and Russia, sisters in search of what they believe to be freedom, are marching hand-in-hand through a sea of misery and bloodshed to seek for liberty and dominion. Turkey claims her right to insist on haring a chief voice in the future of Kgypt, and finds allies in Russia and France to support such claims. Germany supports Great Britain, and Austria does the same, leaving Italy to act as is her custom —that is, to join such part’ as may best serve her purpose f-noo not this all mean warp Can burrnavies be kept up, can millions oi soldiers be constantly drilling and learning, can the beat ingenuities of men be exerted for little other pur. pose than to invent machines, more or less valuable as men killers, a* useful for war purposes, and there be no war? Rest assured there is a terrible time coming, when nation shall rise against nation, and then war, aye such a war as has never yet been seen, shall tax the energies of this our country to the utmost. We did well in landing 40,000 in Egypt, but the landing was unopposed and the way of the sea open. Will it be always so ? Will a combined French, Italian, Russian, and Tnrkish fleet allow of Indian con« tingents, Australian and hew Zealand contingents, or Canadian regiments, assisting the mother country without an effort to stay progress ? Will our fleet be sufficient to protect the traders of the world, to guard our colonies, to blockade adjacent porta, and to defend our own coasts ? Will our little army, supplemented by militia and other auxiliaries, be able to cope with more than rebellion in Ireland, evil influences and sedition nearer home, and a war extending from Europe to India and the colonies ? Can we be sure that an invasion is not attempted, and not quite unsuccessful ?

These are not impossibilities—nay, they arc probabilities—and it behoves us to be up and doing. Our Regulars are very perfect, our Militia improving—but what of the Volunteers? Are they as good as supposed? Are they as efficient as reported, or as they could be ? Blink the fact as we may, the answer is “ No." They are, as a whole, very far from efficient; and if called upon suddenly —and, if called upon at all, it will be suddenly —it will be found that the efficients are few. It is not so much the fault of the men as of the system, the regulations almost encouraging men to scamp their work. Drills few in number (nine in a year), done anyhow and at any time, is an encouragement to bad work and to inefficiency. No regiment can be efficient where the men are almost unequal in the knowledge of their duties ; and it is unfair to call upon such regiment to perform active service where threeparts of it, by simply fulfilling the demands made by the Regulations, are as raw recruits, and the remainder, through constant attendance at parades, valuable soldiers. No adjutant, no sergeant-instructor, no commanding officer can demand a greater attendance than the Regulation amount, and there are only too many men in our Volunteer Force o hthia and carry it out. If drli os necessary at all for a would-be soldier, it must be frequent, regularly attended, and thoroughly acquired. This is not to be done by a few dozen recruit drills in the first instance and nine drills yearly afterwards. If camps are to be a means of instruc tion, they must teach all in the ba.tallion, not, as now, only a few. All must attend the whole time, or be tier have no camp at all Marching, inspection parade, and marc.ting out may count for three battalion drills, but they do not constitute real efficiency.