The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. " We nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice." TUESDAY. APRIL 15. 1919. THE FUTURE OF THE TERRITORIALS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 8, Issue 466, 15 April 1919, Page 2

The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. " We nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice." TUESDAY. APRIL 15. 1919. THE FUTURE OF THE TERRITORIALS.

The somewhat tentative proposals to alter and expand the existing Territorial scheme have provoked a regular howl of dissatisfaction from a certain section of the community. Fortunately this section is a far smaller one than might be imagined from the noise ii has made; for a minority comrosed of people of this kind will always howl louder and more discordantly than the saner and more moderate majority. They create a diversion more disconcerting than dangerous. While viewing with no little satisfaction the firm stand made by the Hon. G. \V. Russell, and the severe rebuff administered by him to the deputation that recently waited upon him in Christchurch, we cannot but be surprised that, at this juncture, when the war is scarcely over, and the glorious deeds and splendid sacrifice of our soldiers on the bloodsoaked plains of Flanders and the stm-scorclied cliffs of Gallipoli, should stand uppermost in all our wiuda, a party of self-re-specting citizens should come forward with the startling demand that all territorial training should be abolished. Still we can dismiss their action as that of a band of foolish and mischievous irresponsibles. But the action of a County Council, that deems it part of its official duty to interfere with the defence of the country in the same fashion, and makes use of its position and influence to do so, we cannot dismjss summarily in the same light fashion. Such an action could be dictated only by crass stupidity, or by positive disloyalty. The most charitable thing we can say of it is that we hope it is the former.

A number of arguments have hfc-1 put forward to support the

contentions of those who would abolish the Territorial system. We will discuss these briefly, RirsMv, the training is obnoxious to them, and Interferes with tneir civil life. Just so. Then these people, to whom discipline is obnoxious. arc th 11 v°rv r>ennlc who most i' PfY-orrVv, ";nps promo'e and gambling, unci other unmentionable iliiugs. Certainly they do—if tliey are run loosely ; but if the administration is competent ari firm, none of tlu.-e evil.-, will appear. Again, it is Pui.s-.iaii militarism, thev cry. It is not militarism ; it is mere national training, Carrie! out on sound democrat:'; line-, w'.iere the factory-ownei v.ill lu'j jhoiiiders with his hands, and share the same tent and mess with them. It is totally unlike the German system of conscription. Again, camps will interfere with the health of the men. No. on the contrary, they will build it up. A man comes out ot a factory, where he spends eight hours a day, making boots, setting type, j bagging up' superphosphate; a

clerk comes off bis stool, where he sits all day making out invoices or adding up columns of figures ; and these men go out into the open air; to good clean manual work, drill, physical exercise, with good (if plain) meals, regular hours, mental and moral instruction. Will this undermine their health, or make depraved citizens ; out of them ? No! There is a different reason why such people look with disfavour on Territorial training—and it is this. There is a certain section of the community which, while they look upon drill and discipline, annual camps with their attendant elements of authority and compulsion, as an unbounded ruisance, regard with positive fear the presence of an armed and trained force in the country. Fear ! For what ? For the power placed in our hands to deal effectively with them should they endeavour to put into violent practice their cherished socialistic and anarchic doctrines. While we possess, ready to be called upon at a moment's notice, a welltrained body of troops, composed largely of men who are expert in the use of the machine-gun, whom years spent in gunning the gentle Hun have robbed of their squeamishness in the presence of blood and slaughter, and whom they know have little more love for the followers of the labour agitators than they have for the followers of Ludendorf and Hindenburg. while there is such a force in the country, they know that any attempt by them to force their Socialistic—if you will, Bolshevik —•views upon us, would be doomed from the outset to the most disastrous and humiliating failure And so they fear the Territoria scheme, and hate it in alt its aspects.

With regard to the proposed changes in the Territorial system, the Government has, so far, made no definite announcement of its future policy ; but the main features of the proposal, as outlined recently by Colonel Chaffey seem, firstly, a thorough training' of the senior cadets; and, secondly, a period of four months in camp, undergone immediately a cadet becomes eighteen, and is drafted into the Territorials proper. After this he would be placed on the reserve. Such lengthy training in camp may seem somewhat drastic, until we consider that it Is, in effect, substituting four months' continuous training for seven years of weekly drills, with ten days' camp-training each year. Viewing it in this light, we can* not see that it would cause more inconvenience than the present system.

The main objection to Colonej Chaffey's system—and it is serious one—is its probable effect upon our existing New Zealand Territorial regiments. It is doubtful whether the scheme could be framed in such a way as not to operate to disorganise and virtually disband these regimentsNew Zealand has taken for her model the English Army system, wherein each regiment is a separate organisation, possessing its own permanent quarters, its own colours, its history, its longcherished ideals and traditions; and these all combine to plant in the breasts of its soldiers such love and veneration for it that when an old Crimean veteran of the ninety-seconds, on seeing at Huston station a locomotive come in bearing in front of it the number 92, gravely stood up and saluted it, his companions saw nothing strained or ludicrous in his action. Before the war, New Zealand had the organisation ; she had the material ; but she was in want ol the fine traditions that foster this esprit-de-corps. She has them now. They have been won with the bloody sacrifice of the past four years ; and traditions such as these, once won, will scarcely be dimmed by four centuries. The Territorial soldier formerly marched behind virgin oolours with feelings how different from what those men will have, who, by themselves or their fathers, helped to place on them the campaigns of Flanders and the Rhine, of Gallipoli, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. For this reason our regiments must not lose their identity, and any scheme interfering with them in this respect would be unacceptable—unthinkable. Still, providing Colonel Chaffey's proposal will not do this, we see a good deal in its favour.

Of course it would be useless to pretend that the Territorial system is flawless. It has, and has had, many disadvantages; but most of these are attributable to slackness and maladministration* The cure for these defects is no

to abolish the system for ever, but to improve it; to have as its heads only entirely competent and trustworthy men; to make our system of defence our first consideration.

Four years ago the men who had to train and despatch our original Expdditionary Force coftld have told you what the Territorial training did for us, even in its incomplete and defective state. And who shall say that we will not be required, at some future time, to send out at a moment's notice another such force; and upon what can we then rely, if not on our Territorials ? We cannot rely upon international guarantees; the League of Nations is still a nebulous thing, hanging, as it were, in mid-air, and we cannot yet say what protection it will affoid us But we can say that we will, so far as we have the power, create s strong, ready arm, both for defence and offence ; create our own protection ; and this can be done only by developing and perfecting the Territorial system, and training ourselves to fight for ourselves, if necessary.