"WRIT SARKASTIC."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 13 May 1913, Page 4

"WRIT SARKASTIC."

A writer im a southern journal waxes facetious at the expense, of Mr J. A. Pease, President of the Board of Education in England, who expressed big disapproval of "the Boy Scout movement because it .tends to militarism-. The writer says : "This is a. great mistake—as great a mistake as the idea that military training in New Zealand is a dodge to teach the young men to kill invaders. Of course, th<guns may mislead Mr Pease and others. But in point of fact the . guns served out to the Territorials are merely intended to keep the men from putting their hands in theiir pockets, The drilling, also has for its object nothing .more reprehensible than the training of the men in deportment. When the Germans, say, or the Chinese, send a few hundred thousand men (in passenger steamers whimsically arranged to look life battleships) to discuss from the public platform the excellence of peace and brotherhood, we cannot have our men staggling along to the meeting, and filling our speakers with shame. It would be harsh to blame the* antimilitarista for their natural mistake. Those who approve of military training know that there is no enemy. They know that there is no such coujwtry as Germany. They Juiow that war has br-en abol-

ished for thousands of years. And it pains them to bo told that they are training men to iire at invaders. That would be a mcfct roprehensibl? thing to do."