The Daily News. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10. THE NEW COMMANDANT'S TASK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 207, 10 December 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10. THE NEW COMMANDANT'S TASK.

No military commandant of the New Zealand defence forces in peace time has ever commanded the troops without hindrance and political interference. The one strong man who attempted the almost impossible task of doing his duty, irrespective of politics or politicians, was aware of his dismissal only when he saw an advertisement in an English paper calling for a successor. It is hoped and believed that a new era dawned (when Major-General Godley, the first Commandant under a novel regime, set foot in Wellington. On him devolves the exceedingly important task of devising the machinery that will give us effective defence under the partially compulsory territorial system. Major-General Godley is approaching New Zealand warily. He probably has the history of New Zealand military matters at his finger ends, and is naturally careful to avoid saying anything which will set the tongues of politicians wagging and the fingers of scribes itching. He mentions that he does not intend to interfere- with "regimental" traditions. The fact that there are no regimental traditions to interfere with is a curious one. The military forces in New Zealand cannot have any regimental traditions, because ninetenths of the training done is purely company training. The companies of a battalion and the battalions of a regiment are rarely at work together, officers have hardly any experience of handling troops in the mass, and the traditions that do exist are generally the traditions of very small detached bodies of men, who have never had the opportunity of acting or thinking "regi? i mentally." (In "regiments" of artillery,' mounted infantry or infantry, the lack of uniformity has always been a most i striking feature. Thus, supposing it were possible to mass siegiment of New Zealand infancy, one would find that the variously garbed officers knew 1 very lit-1 tie pforoe another, and had their military views .largely bounded by what happened to fifty or sixty men in a drillshed or on the parade ground, or by the shooting successes of say a dozen men in the company "Regimental". officers Jiave not always been able to see further thatf the flank men of a single company, and therefore there never could have been any regimental tradition or sentiment. Major-General Godley knows and has repeated a belief expressed by many general officers, that "the material is the best ill the world." This, is a splendid tribute to New Zealand men. The New Zealand volunteer is not keen on the useless frill of soldiering and the more or less ineffective ceremonial parade (a very necessary adjunct, certainly, but one which in the past has been the main reason for the existence of the force). The aim of the new system will possibly be to create an interest in the mind of the individual soldier, in the New Zealand army as a whole, and in his regiment, battalion, company or section, for the reason that it is part of the army. New Zealand soldiers hav? not ten allowed a! pattern up to now, and therefore the suggestion that a British regiment might be quartered in New Zealand is wholly good. The men of a British regiment are not better men than the men of a New Zealand Territorial company, but they are the expression of the War Office idea of training for war. That is to say, an Auckland regiment of Territorials should be at home at the work set it by the O.C. the Grenadier Guards, and the various arms of the Imperial service throughout the world should form portions of the same smoothly working machine. Major-General Godley has laid stress on the value of sound elementary training, and the sound training of the rank and file is a reflection of the training of the officers. All military men of distinction, including Lord Kitchener, lay stress on the value of the great American soldier school, West Point Academy, and probably the point of most interest in Major-General Godley's remarks on West Point was that its rigid training and discipline, making for self-reliance, gentlemanly bearing and honorable conduct, spread to the other great Americans schools. If there is not an absolute lack of devotion to an ideal of conduct in Australian and New Zealand schools, it is not pronounced: and if the new Australian Military Academy, patterned on West Point, is to be run as successfully, it must have a splendid national influence. It will be highly interesting to observe the results made by this new college on more or loss impressionable New Zealand material. Antimilitarists see in soldiering nothing but blatant, swasli-buekling aggression. The : friend of his country sees in the scheme to be set in working order by MajorGeneral Godley promise, of immense national service. Everyone who has given thought to the matter knows that national discipline and a national sentiment are just a little lacking in this Dominion, been use most of ns feel that it is humiliating to obey. There was a time -when Napoleon was a "sous-officer" and when Roberts and Kitchener were junior lieutenants.