NEW ZEALAND AND THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 May 1920, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND AND THE WAR.

EFFICACY OP COMPULSORY MILL, ' " TARY TRAINING. Remarking that the returns of the fighting forces of the Empire in the lati war show that 7,000,000 men passed through the ranks of the British Army, exclusive of India's quota and of the colored troops from various colonies, United Empire says:—

"The figures for the French Army are known to be.greater; but the preponderance of the numbers of the British Navy and Mercantile Marine will reduce the disparity between the total man-pow-er of the two countries. As things were, however, there is no room for any comparison; to all intents and purposes the resources of the two peoplas were pooled, and Great Britain, as the chief arsenal and workshop of the Alliance, had to regulate her fighting strength to her working capacity at home. Her actual army represented 12.4 per cent, of her total population, a figure, it will be noted, a long way behind that of New Zealand, with some 20 per cent., but in advance of Canada and Australia, with 8.0 and S per cent, respectively. ''Here again the statistics have an interest in themselves, but are of no value for, and in no way justify, any comparison between the relative efforts of the component parts of the Rmpire. With its big urban population, and overwhelming proportion of men in the position of employees, as distinct from being 'on' their own,' the Mother Country 'would naturally expect to be able to provide i armies, even apart from conscription, more easily than, the Dominions, where conditions of life are different. In the case of New Zealand, the high percentage is at once a tribute to the efficacy of compulsory military training, and reveals _thc. Dominion at the most virile stage oc its development."