NEW ZEALAND’S FORCES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 53, 24 June 1914, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND’S FORCES.

GENERAL SIR lAN HAMILTON’S REPORT. “MATERIAL SECOND TO NONE IN THE WORLD.” [Pun PiiESfl Association.] Wellington, June 22. General Sir lan Hamilton has presented his report of his inspection of New Zealand forces. Summing up the position, lie said:—“The army ol today puts its best into its work. It is well equipped and well armed. The human material is second to none in the world, and it suffers as a fighting machine only from want of field work and want of an ingrained habit of discipline. The first of these can nevci under the conditions of a citizen army lie quite made good, except by dint of war. or by a period of embodiment made' under stress of imminent peril. The second can and will be made good. Well-trained recruits will come on, especially" when captains are made entirely responsible for the instruction of their own trained men.” The report deals with different matte.rs under the heads ol the military institution of New Zealand, the main features of the existing scheme, headquarters organisation, district and area ; organisation, training of a citizen army, and the army of to-day, and goes on to deal with the different methods of training the individual unit, the training of the recruit, then squadron and company training. He points out the differences and the value of one to another. ’

MORE FIELD WORK. On the subject of war training he says; “The more training of tin higher formations that can he conducted under service conditions the more effective will they become. Practice >n moving large juxmbers and handling them across country and oyer every variety of ground is the chief essential. Hence in countries where soldiering is taken seriously, annual man- | become the climax of each year’s training. The troops usually bivouac or are billeted on inhabitants, and the scene of operations, as in war, shifts from day to day over ground unknown to the troops. Hence, too, manoeuvre acts have come to be universal, the areas over which operations are to take place each year being proclaimed beforehand for military use. The old practice which obtained in England prior to the houtb Aiiican War, of begging user rights over the land from landowners has been abandoned.”

PRINCIPLES OF TRAINING. General Hamilton gives his principles of training as follows: (a) Elementary individual training of both officers and men can he—and, on war analogy, should be—effected hy exports apart from units. ' jb) A standard of efficiency is essential for the recruit. He should under no circumstances be allowed to take his place as a 7 “trained soldier” in theranks of his unit until in'the opinion of some high military authority ho reaches this standard. (c) Unit training should he carried out in all its branches by unit commanders without the intervention oi specialist instructors. More advanced instruction of the trained soldier should be regarded as forming part of the unit training. (d) Training of units, and of the higher formations, should be progressive, leading by stages from company or squadron through the battalion, regiment, and brigade, up to the division of all arms. 1 , (e) Institution of the higher formations should be confined almost wholly to field operations carried out over unknown country, and nearly as possible under service conditions.

LOCAL CAMPS SUGGESTED. “On the subject ■of unit concentration in the country, after carefully inspecting the many country corps, I am quite certain that one thing the men require above all others is to bo brought into closer touch with their own officers and non-commissioned officers. Casual drilling by a peripatetic instructor can never compensate for this personal touch between officers and men which in the citizen force can only be established during the period of company and squadron j training. ’ Here again, a clear line of demarcation can be drawn. “Wherever a squadron or company can without undue hardship he collected to drill and exercise as a unit under its own officers, there the existing system of home training is perfectly sound. Otherwise it would unquestionable be a preferable substitute for home training, concentrated squadron or company training, of at least a | week’s duration, to be held at some convenient place and time prior to the assembly of the battalion or regiment for the statutory annual training. Squadron or company concentration .should lie arranged locally by the squadron and company commander. The less the higher authorities interfere the better. They should not cost much. Rations and forage only would , have to he, provided by the Govern- | moot. Pay would lie unnecessary, in i that the men would not bo carrying out the obligation which their comrades in town fulfil without payment in many instances. Camp equipment would ho unnecessary; as accommodation in barns, shearing sheds, or even billets, i could doubtless he arranged for locally.”

General Hamilton declares that bo is advocating nothing startling or miraculous. Now Zealand is not advised to travel to distant Altana and Pharp'ar, but only to give its own familiar Jordan a fair trial. For 'three years past the root principles and methods now recommended have been

recognised more or less, and nave also been more or less applied. ,

THE SEAL OF THOROUGHNESS. Set the seal of thoroughness on a great work that is already at least halt finished. That is the crux of my advice. Beyond question, the training of the Territorial force lias now reached a stage of development which will admit of the detachment ol the instrutional staff from units being racricd a step further. Beyond question the regimental officers will bo soon capable of running their own show with much less adventitious aid from the regular adjutants and sergeants-major than they have hitherto enjoyed, hor routine work during camp training and in the field these regular assistants may still bo indispensable, but at other times the best part of their work would quite adequately be performed by assistant-adjutants and by permanent quartermaster-sergeants ol units, for, in future, unit commanders will neither have the responsibility ior training recruits, nor, under the proposals in section IV., will they henceforth be burdened with a mass work.

1 recommend, therefore, that it should be within the power of the district commanders to decide to wk.it extent the services of any member of the permanent instructional staff should at various periods of the year he placed at the disposal of the unit commanders. Otherwise, they should be regarded as being normally under the orders of the area commanders. DISCIPLINE AND PATRIOTISM. Discipline, the main force of armies,'is closely allied to organisation. Such a sense of cohesion, and ol being under as wise management as good organisation can give; amounts in itself to a sort of discipline. Dp to Ithis point the forces of New Zealand are disciplined. Further, tl\ere is a common wish running through all ranks—a wish to do well. Where every one wishes to do the same thing there is no strain on discipline. In this negative sense also, the forces ol New Zealand are disciplined, but the real tost of discipline comes when men are ordered to do something hard and disagreeable, something which appears to them unnecessary or mistaken. To put it plainly, a deep moral chasm intervenes between a ten-miles march on a lino day on a full stomach, and a twenty-five miles march on a dark rainy night on an empty stomach. Let us but 1 get the thorough habit of discipline on top of the glowing New Zealand patriotism, and no one in this world could wish for move.

A WORD TO THE OFFICERS. What is needed is that officers, especially company officers, should understand'clearly that they are for the time being fathers and mothers to the lads entrusted ta them for a brief period by the State. They must know each man,■ not by name only, but be sure of 019 man. They should be able to guess what he is thinking about without waiting for him to speak, and tlffijh'hfulft rehkhhb'er tliaC they issue no command from any petty personal motive, but ever and only as responsible trusted 'agents of the Sovereign State. At present all ' this may ’steem too hard, but under the conditions of training I have suggested elsewhere it will be much easier, and should these suggestions find acceptance, I have no fear as to the form or thoroughness of the discipline which will characterise the New Zealand forces.