WELLINGTON NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 279, 4 May 1915, Page 7

WELLINGTON NOTES.

(from Our Own Correspondent). TUEXTir.VM CAMP. Weliiii'-lon, April 30. Before (lie eii.i i,f 11;"iA year Yronlhain .i.I Iks one. of the lie.iU'-.jiiippci Oalunig camps in tile Empire. lvr:ui'.;:c:iL iicvoniiaodation in the way of sleepily; (juarle!'s i coo!; hu'.uos, ho.-piiai warns, etc., \vi;i have been provided for something like 501)0 troops at least, and adjoining tint residential area there will be ample Hat ground for training and parade purposes. The l'ilie ri',:<go Ml Trenlham was a good one before the war began, and it can serve the needs of a very large body of troops. The creation of a, liist-class ■military cam',', at Tivutham has been uudcrluKoi! by the Defence Department simply as a portion of the work incidental to the training and despatch of troops during the present war, but it seems unlikely that the camp will cease to lie. useful when peace lias been restored in Europe. The war has set a new standard of efficiency for the. defence foivcs of the dominions, and New Zealand surely wiil not be content to relapse to the conditions of a year ago. A BIG ACHIEVEMENT.

"It is early to make plans,'' said an officer in discussing this matter - with your correspondent, ''but I shall be surprised if this country is content to abandon in the future what it is gaining now in military and defensive capacity. A year ago we had a scheme, a few enthusiasts and a fairly large body of slightly-trained men. The 'position was improving gradually under the in'lucnce of the universal training system, but as all admit freely now what we suspected then, that months and months of hard, continuous training would have been required to fit our forces to face the firstline troops of a foreign nation. We had no training camp to be compared with the TrcntJiam of to-day. We hail not developed the splendid instructional corps that is now preparing our troops for service at the front in Europe. Just consider what we have achieved since then. We have built up an effective, efficient military organisation, which has already turned out some fifteen thousand trained men and will continue to -produce them at the rate of something like fifteen hundred a month. We have not abandoned the old machinery. We lia'-e extended it, given it the menus of working and the material to work upon, and the result is that Xew Zealand has a real, growing army, capable of undertaking any service in any part of the world. If the war is brought to a slo.se a year hence, we shall have at our disposal some Oi.OOO to 30,000 seasoned soldiers. What then? Hasn't the Empire learned the lesson of pre-paiedae-s for war? These men, or the vast, maority of them, will return to civilian life, of course, and we shall go on with the training of the young men under the Territorial system, as we were doing before the war began. But I have an idea that we shall have new standards in defence matters, and Trontham—the new Trcntham—may help us to maintain them."

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE. The view thus expressed is a military one, and it need not be construed into an expression of opinion in favor of a standing army or anything like it. But one gathers that politicians as well as soldiers are looking at the future with speculative eyes and wondering what the dimensions of the defence problem will be When the war has been brought to a close and the Empire is setti»g about counting the price of victory anil reckoning the chances of an enduring peace. Nobody can doubt that for very many years to come the Mother Country will require to maintain its military efficiency at a high level, and naturally the dominions will desire to bear their part of the new burden. That is not to say that there will be large standing armies on the Continental model within the Empire, but the ordinary defence forces, the territorial armies of the Motherland and the self-governing States, will conform to the standard that is being set them to-day. What that will mean to New Zealand is a matter for the Government of the day to consider when the proper time comes, but it is not too early for the public generally to weigh the needs and possibilities of the situation. The new Trentham is for New Zealand the symbol of new military conditions.

WILD RUMORS. A great, many-people.* appear to have convinced themselves that the Defence Department has information from the front that it is not willing to give the public, particularly in reference to the New Zealand forces. During the last wool: or two a story has been circulated to the ell'oet that the • Department had '•up its sleeve" a-casualty list forwarded by General (iodley, and the cabled congratulations of the King and Colonial Secretary upon the "magnificent achievement" of the Now Zealanders at the Dardanelles have produced a whole crop of wild rumors. As a. matter of fact, the Minister of Defence and the officers of his Department are not in the-habit of withholding information unnecessarily, and it can. bo said confidently tbat: they have no secret to keep regarding any action fought by the Expeditionary l'oi'ce. Your correspondent received a personal assurance from an unimpoacnable. authority that nothing-was liaing held back. The fact that the troops had been moved to the Dardanelles was known last week to perhaps half-a-dozen people in YY'cHngton, and many others, no doubt, had made shrewd conjectures upon the. subject. Hut the first news of the New Zcaliindors having been engaged was contained in-the Colonial Secretary's cablegram, and up to this afternoon the Government had remained as much in the dark regarding the- detail's, of the operations as the public has done. The censor is an arbitrary, uncontrolled, often apparently unreasonable being. He takes no chances.. When he is in doubt he stops the, message. Sometimes he makes a mistake, as when he betrayed the position of certain New Zealand troops by placing upon an otherwise inmiieiit ciiblcgrnm the tell-tale stamp, ".Passed at ." the. name of the idace giving away the whole secret. The censor has to take the blame for the delay in the arrival of definite news from the Dardanelles, and it is unfair to hold the Dcl'emc Department resi onsifcle.

A PARTY Tlft'C'fi. f-'everal newspapers in various parts n -i (he country arc urging that the parly leaders ought to be coming to an understanding regarding the conduct of the business of Parliament during the approaching session, in order that the Dominion may lie spared a political struggle in {he present national crisis. A prominent member of the Liberal prty pointed out to your correspondent that while the suggestion may he so.:nd in itse'f, the. leader of the Opposition can hardly be expected to make the lirst move. The full responsibility for the direction of the affairs, of (lie Dominion rests with the (iovermnent, which is able to claim a small majority in the House of Beprosentstives. Under these cii.'iniislaiicos the leader of the Opposition would be guilty of an impertinence if he said more timn,ho has said already, that he will loyally supj'ort the

Ward v/ou'.d (-a;; if a. \..-.-'i/ ~.-. e were proposed hy the. <ie,i (r;i'u-c :U , u another question, but it seem; !■•■'„ ualikciy that hi; would take Ms cue iVora tiir Conservative! Opposition in the. House of Commons. .Mr. Ponar Law's position is made highly responsible by the lac: ll.at he, is sitting opposite the .Miiii.-i.cr-; w.-o are engaged in the actual loud-.i.-; ol the war and who must he ;.■ ivt-ii I'rcilom of action in meeting cveni,:i:i!i(iei of tremendous import and unexampled magnitude. Hut he has stated rioariv, .with the fuil concurrence of the hbdiest constitutional authorities, that la- does not nhandon his 'right ( !f criticism or become in any way associated with the Ministry, on whom the full imrden of administrative responsibility nm4 jvs!„ If that is the position in the House of Commons, where the real harden of Empire rests, it is scarcely reasonable to surest that parties cannot continue to exist in a Dominion Parliament while the war is in progress.