The Daily News. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1911. NATIONAL ARMIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 89, 5 October 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1911. NATIONAL ARMIES.

Tn a recent issue of the Auckland Herald appears a striking article by "Ilistoricus" on the value of national armies. It is singularly appropriate at the present moment, when two Powers, certainly not ranking with the large ones of the earth, are conducting an unequal contest. The writer points that it is somewhat strange that in these days of Keen international rivalry there should irise serious objections to the creation ' of a national army by the compelling force of universal training. All think- i ing men will only need to be reminded I of the value of national armies, as re- j vcaled by history, and their universal superiority over either voluntary systems or paid levies, to abandon any attitude of latent hostility to a movement on whose future development the future, not only of New Zealand, but indeed the Kmpirc as a whole, depends. Ancient Egypt was a powerful and very wealthy state whose defence was entrusted to a national army of 400.000 men, who form- , ed one of the great castes similar to the samurai of Japan, and as long as Egypt ] trusted to a national army she preserved her wealth and power; it was when too much prosperity influenced them to pay others to do the national work that the Persians, originally a poor and hardy race, attacked Egypt for the sake of plunder with a national army and by' the single battle of Pelusium destroyed the greatness and the power of Egypt, which has ever since been ruled by forc.gi crs. In its turn Persia, having conquered the rich lands of Asia Minor, became exceedingly prosperous, relaxed it', ancient discipline, replaced its national army by soldiers taken from the slums and bv levies from subject nations; and when Xerxes attacked Greece no less than 50 different nations were represented in his army, in which Persians formed a small minority, with the ret-ult that these vast hordes were easily shattered by the national armies of Greece. At that time all Greek citizens bore arms, and they considered military service to be not a burden, but a privilege: all fought side by side, and the best citizens were the best soldiers. After thi' Persian wars, however. Persian customs corrupted Greece, and the latter hired instead of training soldiers; result, -mashing up of the Greek slates by Philip K. of Maecdon wiih his national army. Phoenicia was the greatest maritime and colonial power of antiquity, and the pre-eminent position of her people had been gained by their own arms, but when she was at the summit of her prosperity she began to rely for her defence upon the paid help of subjecl races and colonial troops, with the result that her mighty neighbors robbed her of power and prestige, and Alexander the Great completed the ruin of the country by tli" capture and destruction of the i-laml city of Tyre, his national army proving the experience of history that hired defence will not stand the test when opposed to a nation in arms. And the story of history is ever the same, and always will be. When the best elements of life in Phoenicia migrated to Carthage, her greatest colony, they made Carthage great; but when success induced a relaxation of personal effort Carthage succumbed to the national armies of Rome, who in her turn gave way to the national armies of the Turks, who founded a western empire when they captured Constantinople, and who threatened at one time to over-run all Europe with their successes. That they met with defeat at Tours at the hands of Charles Martel only proves the value

of an army really representative of the nation, for the Turks had already the-.i begun to rely largely upon mercenary troops, and live on the reputation of their early martial glory.