TO ARMS!

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 27 May 1907, Page 2

TO ARMS!

NWiDS." ' "It is a .stale quotation," write* tho Jhiokl.dlow; "it is a dish warmed up; it is lire erved meat and .salicylic and in ilrtmd Arrow or elsewhere no AuMtrul.ui eats 'tinned dog' when he can get any- ' "To arm»!'—it moans 110'l'li'K. Where is tile foeV The! cry had some for our ailcesto":;, j*>.vjo.y. in |j 1( » days when men lay down will, their u vupons beside tilciii; a ha;, hid significance for other cOunInes. l!lo,.,l lias Ik-.-.i ,|,ed ,i Vt . r 11K1 , 1V an acre ut hurope, and , m ,| Africa and America people may litly lie called to arms in those countries. ' Hut Australia is a land of peace; we lime only to grow wool and amuse ouivelvos whi'e other nation* envy our fortunate lot. M tliey would <|uarrel—have we not lliitaiii to protect us?

"Uell. there are subject" upon which Scripture is uncommonly like sense, ami Ave pervert another hackneyed rjuQH-tion:—-'Tile ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentfully:: And ho said, This will ] do; I will sty to my j-otil. Soul, thou hast, much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, vf. drink, and be merry. Thou fool, \\\h

nielli thy soul shall lie required of th«e: then whose shall these things he which thou h ist provided?' ''There cannot b* an intelligent man in this country to doubt, that some day —perhaps soon—the red tide of war wi'l flow over .Australia. There cannot b' a mail to doubt that the time to prepare defence is now, not when the enemy is at the {rates. But thousands of intelligent Australians will read these words and let their niimls wander down tile street of liye-and-by, which comes to the town of Never. They have hen argued into conviction, hut they cannot lie jolted into enthusiasm. They want a leader and they wil folow; an Act of Parliament and tliey will obey; or a referendum, and tliey will vote—moderately, if it isn't the day for a cricket match or a boat race—hut vote tiie right way, anyway. "This country Australia must come to compulsory military service, as in Switzerland—and the sooner the safer. And now we quote freely from Clarence Hook's recent book ahout Switzerland, !to show exactly what Swiss military

cm-vice menus. To the Swiss man, then, soldiering is a second nature, for he. is caught, young and the tradition gets into his Mood. At the age of ten he is taken into the gymnastic class at school, and in most of the cantons is taught the element of drill in the playground.

"But when the boy is seventeen he is liable to service in defence of his country and the liability is upon him until he is fifty years of age; nor even then does it cease if he be still capable of doing his military duty in any capacity —as baker, veterinary surgeon or otherwise.

"The Swiss forces consist of three divisions, coresponding to the divisions of the Forinnn army and its resei-v First comes the Corps d'Eli'e, then the First Reserve, then the Second Iteserre.

"At the age of twenty every aldebodied Swiss youth becomes a member of the Elite, having passed through his gymnastic course. There are exemptions, hut the exempt has to prove nis case. I'f he has the privilege of being |)orn and lired of able body and pro-ier stature in a free country, it is his duty to render himself capable of fighting in defence of that country .should nec«sity arise. Therefore, the Swiss young man accepts the situation. It is ; no very onerous task after all. The young man must serve for forty-five days during his first year of liability, and that, with all all allowance for preparation and return, means but a couple of months. After that he serves sixteen days in every other year—till he is two and thirty. ' And the young workman, the, student, the teacher, the artisan, the waiter who has his brief holiday from the foreign holiday—all of them regard that eight days a year as due tribute to thee ountry of their birth.

"At thirty-two the Swiss passes into the First Reserve, and there he remains til he is forty-four, giving nine days of service in every four years. Then he goes into the Second Reserve, So that every man from seventeen to fifty is at call of the "State.' 'England expects that every man will do his duty.' Switzerland ensures it.

"The system is cheap; for less than £2,000,000 ji year the .Swiss maintain a fighting force of more than half a million. Rich and poor serve together. 'So,' says Cl'trence liook, Sve have a citizen army, mi army which contains ovary element of the nation.' "'Such an army i* the imperative necessity of Australia, which by the accidents of territory and environment is in a position of far greater danger than .Switzerland is That il will he. possible in litis country of scattered population to imitatte all the methods of compact Swizerlanri is not likely. But the prini ciple, the scheme, has proven efficacy and can he adopted. "If general military service were a heavy tax upon the energy of Australia the tax must still be (paid. But fltV in not necessary to so regard it. There are many youths to whom the drill would come at just at the right time to brace them into manhood. The feeling* of solidarity gained by drilling all classes of men side by side would become a valuable national asset. And in the end we should have the satisfaction of knowing Australia—if not safe against aggression, as least as safe as we can ensure—infinitely safer than at present. 5 '