EMPIRE DEFENCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3131, 6 March 1909, Page 5

EMPIRE DEFENCE.

"TIMATES.

i TH&ARMY* Bv -teme.

THE TERITORIAL &*•

SPEECH BY MR HALD.^ W ~

Received March 5, 11.40 p.m. LONDON, March 5

The Hon R. W. Haldane, Secretary of State for War, in a long detailed speech introducing the Army Estimates, said that recruiting during the year had been singularly good. The special reserve now numbered 7u,ooo—equal to the old militia. A generous tribute by Mr Haldane, to the "Daily Mail" and the employers of labour in connection with the Territorials aroused violent disapprobation from the Labour benches. Mr Haldane, resuming his speech, said that owing to the breakdown in the auxiliary services the nation had never been nearer conscription, but £he' recent movement had established a stronger bulwark against conscription than ever before. Thirty-three thousand men had been added to the Territorial Army during the last : seven weeks, and the total now stood at24O,.(MM). The root of the idea was Imperial organisation. "Where- possible the oversea Dominions would work on a similar pattern of organisation to our own," said Mr Haldane, "thus affording the possibility of co-operation in case of great necessity. The last thing the Government would dream of would be to 1 even suggest to the oversea Dominions what they should do." The staff colleges had been enlarged,, and' ifr was now possible to receive any of» the overseas officers. Mr- Nicholson said that the completed plans for the home defence made successful invasion even less likely than in the past. Sir Charles Dilke criticised the Germanic trend- of Mr Haldane's mind. c The Right Hoa. H. O. ArnoldForster ridiculed the training of a special reserve. Mr Haldane, he said, dealt more in names than in things. He commented on the reduction of 100,000' men, and said tnat the smaller army cost more than in pre-reform days.