Rangitikei Advocate. WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 1908 EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9138, 6 May 1908, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 1908 EDITORIAL NOTES.

MR Haldane’s army scheme does not at present appear to have met with the success it deserved, as it has failed as yet to attract many of the volunteer force to enlist under the new conditions. It may be that the county committees will he able to arouse greater enthusiasm on behalf of the force, but they will have to meet with opposition both from the anti-militarists and from those who being anxious to bring about universal military service, are foolishly of opinion that the failure of Mr Haldane’s proposals would help them to attain their object. The state of opinon in Britian is certainly far less favourable to universal service than it is in this country or in Australia, and even here it is very doubtful whether any Government would venture to introduce compulsory service. One of the most telling attacks on the new British territtorial scheme has been made by Lord Roberts and others : on the ground that volunteer artillery is of no value, and that the partially trained men of which it must consist will bo rather ji danger than a cause of safety. - It is pleasing to find General Hutton, lately'commanding the forces of Canada and Australia, entering the lists in favour of the capacity of a citizen He says: “It has bean my fortunate lot to be concerned and to take the leading part in the organisation, reconstruction and. reform of the national military services of Australia and Canada 'during the last 15 years under precisely the same conditions that now prevail in the case of Great Britain under the territorial system.

It has further been my good fortune to lead these troops in war. I affirm that not only ea’u w field artillery of a"very higu degree of excellence be createu, bat that in some important respects a field ar alary based upon a ciluKrtu and territorial' system of voluntary service has merits of a special kind which, in some degree at least, give them a special advantage. ” It is to be hoped that these word« will do something torc-c the eir&gy of tiio ccanty m-

ations in Britain ,o renewed efforts to provide the men without whom the territorial army can never proceed beyond the stage of a paper scheme.

BY order of the Emperor William, says tiie Berlin correspondent of the Times, the trousers of seameu of the German navy are in future to be made about two centimetres wider. This startling innovation has we may well imagine caused considerable discussion in naval circles. Fourfifths of an inch added to the seamen’s trousers shows that the Emperor is determined to spare no expense in making the German navy equal to any in the world. It is supposed that the question was discussed in the recent letters which passed between the Emperor and Lord Tweedmouth, and that the latter begged the impulsive Kaiser not further to widen the existing breach. The Kaiser who had fully considered the matter was, however, not to be moved and it will therefore be necessary for Britain in order to maintain the two power standard to add four centimetres to the width of her sailors’ nether garments. It is annoying that Germany should provide this further complication in addition to the present competition in armament, and it would perhaps be wise for the Admiralty to go as far as divided skirts at once, in order to prove that it is useless for Germany to continue the struggle.

THE proposal made by Mr Webster in the Federal House of Representatives that a State newspaper should be published in order to give unbiased reports of Parliamentary proceedings, was not well received by Mr Deakin, who as an old newspaper man has some knowledge of the practical difficulties in the way t f such an enterprise. He firmly said that the Government had already plenty £to do without undertaking liabilities of the sort. No doubt Mr Webster was suffering from the criticism of newspapers, which did not agree with his views, and being too thin skinned to bear such severity was anxious to'strike a blow at sucli hostile critics at the expense of the public. In the far off days when all will be State-trained, State-fed, State-paid and £State-buried, there will he a State newspaper, but thank goodness that will not be in our time. Even Sir Joseph Ward’s experiment in the provision of carefully edited New Zealand news for the Home papers, is not likely Jo_ prove a lasting success, and he would have been wise to have taken up the same attitude as Mr Deakin, and refused to meddle with matters which are much better left to private enterprise.