THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1913. THE EXPEDITIONARY FORCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 7 February 1913, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1913. THE EXPEDITIONARY FORCE.

It now transpires that prior to his departure for England the Hon James Alien, Minister of Defence, Irad expressed the opinion that New Zealand should furnish, an expeditionary force for the Mother Country if necessity should arise. Nobody, of course, ob-jects-to such a proposition. The respoh.se made at the time of the Boer War shows that the people of New Zealand are ready to give of their bone and sinew to preserve the integrity of the Empire. The cables have led us to suppose, however, that the Minister has offered more thr:n this—that he has suggested an expeditionary force for immediate service. Ah agamst this, one naturally asks in what part of the world an expeditionary force is at present require;! p Ts.it required in South Africa, or India, or Madagascar, or elsewhere? If a. force of the character named is not required, why should the Minister make an offer ? As we said at the outset, it looks as though the cables had done an injustice to Mr Alien and his colleagues. Why the matter of an expeditionary force should have, been mentioned., at all, wo are at a loss to know. At a time when an appeal is being made to the financial institutions at Home for a loan on reasonable terms, it may be well to remind the Motherland that not only have we furnished a .Dreadnought, but we have, always been ready to gjive of i4ie best of our manhood in the. defence of the Empire. It. is questionable, however, whether even our loyalty as a people an<] our buying a Dreadnought with foreign capital, will appeal particularly to th.>.~;o who have money to lend. The price we pay for our loan will depend more upon the stato*of the money market, and the confidence 7*epased in our administration, than in our expressions of loyalty and pfitriotißni. In this

connection it i,s satisfactory to note that the High Commissioner has written tho leading newspapers, showing that a largo proportion of our loan money has been expended in the. past on reproductive works. It is, perhaps, too much to expert him, from nis peculiar position, to state that the hut that tin' Reform Party is in power i" a sufficient guarantee that there will lie n.o cause for apprehension in the future on the score of extravagance. The financial institutions at Homo are •too well informed on this point to require an a.ssuranee from the High" Commissioner. When the whole position is summed up, therefore, one I can only regard the statement in reference to an expeditionary force, :n whatever connection it was made, as a. mere surplusage of words. Tt is obvious that tho remarks of the Minister have, been misconstrued both -at Heme and abroad, and for this reason it were better that they had not been uttered. The most that we can do in this country is to train outvoting poo-.de. and to train them for service. Tn the. event of a crisis our land forces would probably be placed at the disposal of the War Office in the same way that it is proposed that our fleet -should bo at the service of the Admiralty. Tf p>igj>t thousand, or ton thousand, men could be of u:>e to the Empire in a foreign land, we 'have no doubt that they would be immediately available in case of grave emergency. But it .must not. be thought fA- n moment, that our compulsory military service has instituted «o that an expeditionary force could be sp.cured at any time f-..v service in anv part of the Empire. This was nat th" intention of the Legislature, nor is it the intention of the people. The Minister of Defence would do .himself justice, and do justice to the Dominion, if he wore to make it clear that his remarks do lot bear the interpretation placed upon them by Home and Dominion journal*.