VOLUNTEERS AND THE WAR OFFICE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7319, 4 February 1902, Page 2

VOLUNTEERS AND THE WAR OFFICE.

A DEADLOCK.

(Per R.M.S. Ventura at Auckland.) [Peb Pbess Association.]

AUCKLAND, Feb. 4.

A despatch from London, -dated- Jan. 11, says that the British War Office is confronted with a most serious condition of affair.. Its calls for Volunteers ti> relieve the regiments ait the front 'have thus met with absolutely no response, and havo served to intensify the widespread indignation existing among all Volunteer Regiments. In the first place Volunteers answering the calls would only receive one shilling a day, while the Yeomanry, in which many Volunteers have already . enlisted, receive five shillings. The only solution of the deadlock appears to be that the War Oflice should introduce conscription, or withdraw new regulations. These have stirred up a strife which has not existed for many years between the Government ofiicials -and the voluntary arm of the service. According to high officials, .ifc will bankrupt the majority --pf the regiments. Under the new rules, every regiment must go into camp for one week in each 1 year, and the Government grant is reduced in proportion to the number of absentees from eadh company. Volunteer commanders say that it is " impossible to gefc more than 40 per cent of the men together during the same week, so different are the occupations of the men. In addition, the War Oflice refuses to recognise drills which aro nofc attended by a percentage of men which it has been found quite impossible to attain. No drill hall or ground in London is large enough to enable battalions to manoeuvre. Among those who condemn the new regulations is Colonel Balfour, a brother of the Cabinet Minister, who commands th© London Scottish. The matter will be brought under the notice of Parliament. If the order cf the .Secretary of State for War, Mr Brodrick, .is enforced, the Volunteer force, so a Colonel of one of the strongest London regiments says, will dwindle to nothing. In the meantime the War Office is waiting anxiously for an answer to the call for troops for service in South Africa. '