Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News THURSDAY, MAY 20, 1909. UNIVERSAL COMPULSORY MILITARY TRAINING.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4413, 20 May 1909, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News

THURSDAY, MAY 20, 1909. UNIVERSAL COMPULSORY MILITARY TRAINING.

7 his above all—to thine own self be true , ind it must follow as the night the day Thou oanst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

To the student of modern European history one of its mast striking features is the rapid growth of the power of the Piussiin monarchy. An ancestor of the present German Emperor,. Conrad of Hohenzollern, was placed by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa as Burggraf (or chief ruler) of Nuremberg in Bavaria, at that time (1170) one of the most important-cities in Europe. A later Burggraf, Frederick of Hohenzollern, in return for large sums of money advanced by him to the Emperor, Sigismund, subsequently became Elector of Bradenburg. Later on, another Hohenzollern merged the title of Elector of Brandenburg in that of King of Prussia. The kindom of Prussia was subsequently enlarged at the expense of her neighbours, Austria and Poland. Under Bismark and Moltke Prussia became, by means of universal compulsory military training, the first military power in Europe. With the aid of Austria she tore Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark, and when the victors fjwrelled over the divisions of the spoil?, Prussia in a campaign of a few short weeks, brought Austria to her knees, - Four years later, in J. 870, began the war wiffr France, which resulted in the coronation of Ktfl# William of Prussia as Emperor of Germany, th 3 occupation of Paris the German hosts under Moltke, tfia payment by France of a huge war indemnity, and the cession of Alsatee-karrnine to the victors.

Since the present Emperor came to the throne he has sedulously set himself (and Germany) to the task of building up a huge navy. Germany proposes to borrow forty million a year for two years, so great are the demands which the building up of a finge navy makes upon her finances, A survey of the present political situation, nod a review of recent German utterances compel us to suspect very strongly, to say the least, that Germany’s navy is meant to make possible an attack upon England- Germany is‘one of the most prolific nations of Europe, her population is outgrowing her territory, her surplus population is flocking to the newer countries overseas, where they quickly lose their distinctively German nationality, and become Americans, or Australians, or New Zealanders, as the case may be. We cannot suppose that the Guman Emperor views with complaisance this yearly exodus of the most enterprising of his subjects for (a few exceptions to the contrary notwithstanding) it is usually the most capable and pushing members of a race who emigrate, and not the wastrels He sees the fairest and wealthiest parts of the earth already occupied by one civilized power or another, his own colonies are inconsiderable in extent, consisting largely of German New Guinea and one or two slices of African territory. The Monroe Doctrine of the United States stands in the wav of Germany’s acquiring colonies, either by purchase or by conquest, in America. On the other hand, in Britain he sees a country with rich, numeorus, and extensive colonies, with a much smaller population (some forty million as compared with Germany’s sixty million) and an army which, in point of size, is to the German Army as a Bantam to a Game-cock, an army scattered, too, over the four quarters of the globe. But between Germany and *

England stretches the North guarded by the British Navy. Ilcnce the necessity for a German nivy, to ensure the success of his dream of a German Co onial Empire. 1o be secured only by England’s humiliation.

lU' ' a If we are caught napping we cannot plead that the enemy gave us no, warning. The German Emperor himself has publicly stated that the future of Germany lies upon the water. The German Navy League has begged coppers from German school children to enable it to have ready by next year (1910) a Navy strong enough to give battle to the British Navy. If we ( do not take warning and set our house in order we shall have only ourselves to thank when we wake up and find ourselves involved in its iuins. ' We can do our part to strengthen . 'the hands of the Mother country. There is no doubt that New Zealand ought to bear a larger proportion than she has done in the past, of the cost of maintaining the British Navy, upon whose command of the seas the very existence of the British Empire depends. Further w % e roust take steps to raise such a New Zealand field force for the defence of our own land that we can view without panic the withdrawal if necessary from Australian waters of British warships in order to strengthen the first line of defence in the North Sea orelsewnere. With our small population the only solution of the question appears to lie in the adoption of some reason' able scheme of universal compulsory military training, some scheme which shall be as far removed from Germany’s method of conscription a 3 possible, yet so effective as to render us secure against defeat.