The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1912. GETTING INTO HARNESS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 170, 17 January 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1912. GETTING INTO HARNESS.

On evening the New Zealand citizen army began its work. Although the groundwork of the new defence scheme, the basis of which is that ablebodied youths and men between specified 'ages must bear arms, has long been covered, the serious point, at which the word "compulsion" enters, was arrived at on Monday. This means that 35,698 senior cadets, ranging from fourteen years of age to 18 years of age, and all capable of effective service, must obey the commands of the Defence Department under whom they serve. It further means that 27,080 men from .the ages of 18 to Sli are under military discipline; People who have not: teen careful in the matter of truth have flooded the English press with letters saying that there was a decided and widespread antagonism to registration under the Act, and one peculiarly atrocious letter stated that thousands of young men had left New Zealand and thousands more intended to follow in order to avoid "conscription." The facts are that of the total number of men liable to join only fifty-three have, as far as the authorities can ascertain by rigorous scrutiny, failed to register. This at once falsifies the statements that the new system is not the people's system, and that the youth of New Zealand are antagonistic to the performance of the sacred duty a man may undertake. There is no doubt that if any of the few men who have failed to register are not immediately dealt with their defection without punishment will have an ill effect on the citizen army. The presumption is that any man who does not willingly join is not of much value or consequence, but the principle of compulsion having been laid down, the defection of even one individual is bad discipline. It is a matter for congratulation that despite the fulminations of a few persons of oblique mental vision, the Department has proceeded quietly on the very heavy task it was set to perform. The initial disturbances by thoughtless youngsters have no real significance. It is feasible enough that this type of disturber is as good material as any other. The attempt to teach boys that a service which is entirely in the interests of peace and selfgovernment and the chivalry that all undisciplined people so grievously lack, has happily failed. There is evidence everywhere that the idea of duty instilled by the G.O.C. and his subordinates has taken root, and that there is a better understanding of the necessities of the case than ever before. The enemies of military training must assume many things in order to make out a case for their side. They must assume that New Zealand is safe, and therefore

has no necessity for preparation'to meet an armed foe. The assumption is in antagonism to all historical precedent. The -more valuable New Zealand becomes, the more liable is she to attack. The "antimilitarists" assume that obedience to those whose business it is to protect the country from aggression is humiliating. The humiliation of permitting a foe t» devastate his property and kill his relatives is a position that does not occur to the anti-militarist. He says war is wicked—and it is. But New Zealand cannot prevent war by folding its arms and allowing its muscles to atrophy. Neither New Zealand nor Australia is manufacturing citizen armies because it desires war. Both are doing so because they do not want war. In time of war, it would be the business of everybody in Australia and New Zealand to fight, it would also be necessary. The trained man would ljave a far greater value than an untrained man, and it would be at such a time that the latter would wi»k he' had never possessed "conscientious objections" to smiting back when he was smitten. The facts disclosed by the registrations in New Zealand are gratifying, because they show that 1400 men above the required number have registered for the Territorials. There is every indication that the Territorial army is going to become a popular service, and if) as is probable, the army becomes the nation's pride, there will be no lack of recruits for it. In process of time the training of the young men and the constant drafting of youths to All the places of time-expired soldiers will give New Zealand an effective fighting force containing the majority of the able-bodied |men in the country. Under the new arrangement, the mattar of command a*d promotion will not be a question of chance, and from lance-corporal to major the citizens who hold commissioned or noji-commdssioned rank will necessaTily have earned it by application and ability. The most valuable feature of the whole scheme is that it entirely disposes of the chance element,, and by making really interesting work of soldiering, spurs the emulation of all ranks towards efficiency. New Zealand has been lent some of the finest specialists in the British Army, a recognition, in our view, that in the heart of the Empire there'is a feeling that New Zealand may some day have toiuse all the military knowledge she is now learning.