TOPICS of the DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 222, 16 September 1905, Page 9

TOPICS of the DAY.

iFrom Oar Special Cotrespoadeat-) LOM»N, August 4. J ' LORD ROBERTS' TO [ THE IfATIOM. j AN. IMPRESSIVE APPEAL. j Great Britain has been brought face | 'to face with the momentous question i lof universal military training. Lord j j Roberts, the man who has fought and ; i won more battles than any other living : general, has raided the question, and i j appealed to his countrymen, with all the j i force and impressiveness at his com- j j niand. to abandon "the fancied security , :of their island isolation." and ensure j I peace by preparing for war. In solemn j ! words oi warning, addressed nominally \ :to the London Chamber of Commerce, j I but in reality to the nation. Lord Hob- ! ! errs declared last Tuesday that it would i Ibe "the height >t folly' , tor Great Bri- ! I tain, depending oa an army constituted t ;as hers is at the present time, to enter ! I into war ajrainst a civilised Power. This i country, he maintains- is qnite unpre- I pared for war. Nay. more, by reason j of her unpreparedness. she actually in- i vites attack. We are Irving in a fool's ■ paradise, declares our late Commander-in-Chief. and he asserts that this opinion is shared by every soldier with any experience of war. Our victory against the Boers is absolutely no' criterion. '•We gamed the day, but." says His Lordship, "with such a heterogeneous and improvised force I feel confident that we could not have hoped to have been successful against an enemy of | anything like equal strength, trained and organised as are the armies of the great military Powers.'" j Lord Roberts' warning is not new. His ; predecessor in office, Lord Wolseley. i zave voice to a like opinion in his recent memoirs. The Royal Commissions j which have sat from time to time have j pointed out our in no un- j [ measure A terms. But hitherto these j warnings have been disregarded, partly j because the country has viewed the subject with the indifference born of a sense, real or unreal, of security, partly j because the experts themselves have! . differed radically in their views. But I the process of tinkering with the organisation of the Imperial forces has j , steadily on. and thinjrs have got i . worse instead of better. There appears ! t') be general dissatisfaction all round. • . General Buller. who does not mince his j . words, declared bluntly this week that! •'our foolish statesmen" have "disorr iraniscd the army, discouraged the mili- J '. tia. disheartened the volunteers, and. as j , Lord Roberts told them the other day, j ; they have produced a state of affairs v which is worse from a defence point of 5 view than before the war." t » SHUT-SACRIFICE OR—COITSCRIPTION. I It is true that Mr Arnold-Forster, j ■ the Minister for War. described this I statement of Lord Roherts' to be u of ! too sweeping a character.*' It is true, ; also, that the Prime Minister, with airy ' 1 confidence, dedared the other (say that ! a successful invasion of this country -was 1 an impossibility. Granting that, the Prime Minister's view i≤ the correct one. there still remains the need ofprepara- . tion for a great war in some otler portion of the Empire—say on the Indian. frontier. As for Mr Arnold-Forster, Lord Robert* returned to the charge ■ on Tuesday, and marshalled a formidable array of facts in proof of his asser- , tion. In one respect, he added, we are ' worse off than before the Boer War. namely, in the falling-off of ofEeers. This, he pointed out. is one of the gTavest features of the present situation. Taking the Imperial forces as at present constituted, there is a shortage of no fewer than 7000 officers to make good before the forces can take the field on a war footing. The further large additions that would be absolutely nec-?s-pary to replace the wastage of tield service are over and above the 7000 mentioned. It takes time to educate and train an officer, and when the shortage is so great the position becomes very serious. "It is not a matter which will admit of delay," declares the FieldMarshal: "and the people of this country must decide at once that it shall be * remedied, or they must hold themselves responsible for any disaster that may occur. Neither the Army nor the Government will be to biame.. but the people themselves, whose lack of patriotism prevents their takinp any interest in i the condition of the armed forces of the r country." w In addition to the shortage of offi- " cer>. Lord Roberts declares that, we are n J not much better off as regards medieai , requirements than we were in 1599. " j "Nothing has been done No help t j could possibly he offered to the Army in j. I India, which would be sadly in ireed of j j medieai aid in the event of a prolonsed r j ! war." j. i Lord Roberts denie« that he has ever j . advocated conscription as the onJy re- ,. [ medy for our military ills. he jj ] says, i= a matter tor the nation to deu eide. What he does lay stress upon is 3 i that Great Britain must either have j. j conscription or else a greater measure 2 J than at present of voluntary self- ', sacrifice oa the part of the manhood of <r I the nation. For a war in the direction a' of Afghanistan we would require, he 3 J estimates. 300,000 men. Including t- j 30.000 colonials, it is doubtful whether - : we iould raise under the existing sys- '• ' tern mure than 330.000—which would. i ! leave a shortage oi 170.000. Thi= prosl_ pect. combined with other eireumstanees. n lparis Lord Roberts to tbe conclusion : " j that "there is now no option but to ink troduee universal training and service a I for home defence," leaving it to the '• ■ nation to decide, when the time comes, whether this citizen army *tiall be callr . e<l upon to ;<we abroad. A neeeasarv c part oi am b-.ueh scheme is the training ,of all boys and youths up to the time j of their reaching the military age. in drill and rifle shooting, and such preliminary instruction would tend to reduce the period of subsequent training in the home defence army. But universal military training there must be. Vhe- , ther voluntary or compulsory—such is I the conviction at which Lord Roberts '.has arrived. And that is what he means jby these wetghty words: "I feel certain 1 that every soldier with any experience : or war will support mc when I say that iit would be the height of folly for us ito enter upou a campaign with a, civi- . Used Power while depending ou an army .' constituted a> ours is at the presenr j time."