The Daily News TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9. MILITARY MATTERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 13, 9 February 1909, Page 2

The Daily News TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9. MILITARY MATTERS.

A British Army oliicer in England has lately written a melodrama watch calls | out in a loud voice tu the Englishman to rise and defend his ho'ine. The eablus lead readers to understand that the play lias "created a furore,'' but probably the cable, man views the furore more from the, point of view of the author's success than as a national gain. I There is cio news that Army recruiting

ha» gone up lii'ly per cent, or that »i better class of per.son is clamoring for admission into the l'orces. A sudd-en raid on Loudon would do more to settle England'* great problem of defence than all the plays thai were ever writ- , ten, ail the schemes Mr. llahlane ever thought of, or alt the appeals Lord

Roberts ever maue. Naturally hi any eounlry where* there is an organised i military force containing a vast number of sineciirists the military element desires to keep the people in a state uf umpiietude. It is not tin* policy of soldiers in any country having a standing army to allow the people to behove m I heir own safely, because a country | thai believes it is safe doesn't wanl soli- dicrs. Also a country that has no coastline would require no. navy, and 'forth.

The people of New Zeaiand obviousiy believe they are s«th- uevause iiicy show no appreciation oi any uelensive system ihat was ever insliiuv.;U, aud the pres.nt system, which is mole expensive than an\ mat preceded it, arouses no cnLliUsiasni. except in ihc isloatcd bosoms oi a remarkably small minority of the able-bodiediiinen—thc volunteers. Iso one" caii guage the value ol the system of the Council of Defence of Mew Zealand in a time of peace. War is the only lest of the eiiieicncy of any defensive. organisation. -New Zealanders generally uo not believe that war is likely, and 1 therefore they cannot believe in tile necessity of the Council of Defence and the enormous sums of money necessary to keep the Council and its system going. It is often pointed out that the volunteer force is only a skeleton of tho force that would be put into the field in rase ot armed aggression iroin withou'.. so that the ratepayer who foots the enormous yearly bill for his own defence would in case of danger not be defended, but would have to amble out and defend himself. In fact, lie is paying a very large price for an alleged protection that does not and cannot exist without his own physical co-opera-tion.

It is not al all certain that the best available ollicers in Mew Zealand arc I holding sUil appointment*— including j Ike command of districts, district adjut- I aacics, and so on. It is intended— | should the Council of Defence continue to exist, which is improbable in lite present stall' of chaos—that the system shall be extended by sending volunteer ollicers to Britain for training. Thai is to say, the Council of Defence regard it as essential that oliicers to become e , o i mpete. , at must have army training. With the exception of an olliecr, who in any other brancll of the civil service would be superannuated on account ol age, there are 110 army men in the Council. The exception left the Army while lie was slill an ensign. and ensigns luivo long since gone out of date, as also has the system under which ensigns and other ollicers were trained. It would seem thai if the Council of Defence .deeur it necessary to send junior ollicers llomc, they should deem il -necessary for themselves in supreme command of those junior ojlicers to also go Home. There is no sole supreme command in the service ol Mew Zealand. The Council is a body with a nuni'bor of heads and all the heads wag diU'erenl ways.

For many years past the majority of stall' instructors in Mew Zealand holding the rank of Stall'-Sergcants-Major have been drawn from the local forces. Some, of course, have been imported. Many ol these instructors have not only been 0,11 service, but have held commissions as volunteer ollicei's. I uder the arrangement by which volnnLeer oHic-ei s are to by sent Home for training, there is no hope of promotion for any of these men who have been serving for v<ar>. for llic arrangement is to the efl'eci that the oilieer having passed his course at Home sliall return to M'cv Zealand, ami be drafted to the already cumbrous stall', where he must remain for l.hree years. \\ hicli is a very silly argument. It is also most unjust. The men who are lo be sent Home—uuless backdoor intluenee is used—will be civilians. The only thing that will induce a civilian to become a military pupil at Home will be the fact that he is failure in his own line of business, whatever it is. He becomes a professional soldier because Mew Zealand is willing to give him a fairly well-paid job. If ollicers must be sent Home for training why not semi professional sol dit rs to the Stall' College or wherever the soldier-pupils arc to pick up tbeir training?

The colonial scrgcanls-wajor are generally men of as much-or as littlecducatiooi as tile colonial volunteer otlieer, so that if there is any d<air« to make an impression on the British Armv, the impression made by a New Zealand sergeant-major would be as favorable. its that produced by a man who had reached the -hldy pinnacle of a captainev. The fact that scrgcautstnujor almost invariably teach their superiors all their superiors know is a reason why the former should, if necessary. be given the rank of lieutenant and packed Home. The Council ill this matter seems t« be quite idiotic. It mum-els violently with imported Army men, generally sends them Home with "llcas ill their ears," and decides that that is tile pattern lor >vcw Zealand stall' ollieers (barring tho members of the Council). It decides that the proper kind of stall' olliccr for iNew /calami is the person who is oo good at anything else. It decides that bclore these uieked persons leave for Home the.v shall go into barracks with the Permanent Force in New Zealand in older, dining three .months, to get into a routine they must unlearnt when llicv ■arrive iu Inland, "J'' 1 " that I hey may draw pay and allowances they do not cant, because what t | K , v are taught in barracks will neve, lie of any use to thciu m Now Zealand. lint the point is that it is ridiculous to train a large number ol who will be li't with nothing to command, but who «m J,'";, Covcrunicnt pay for three years snbse<iucut to their return from sei.oo . Tll , alleged "forces are nineh o - stalled evi.il now. htall in»tiu t ™n.4iiS'a of wen thi r 'turu'"rom KngOin.l If any; ■J" 1 ™" t tisto be made tlmt will icM -» i ilie wliolc of tin; able-bodied mule popuDefence. The Council ol Defence son ~i,nsi(ler it it ever has any tun., to "«'>-vide cares for a fi-w more