DEMOBILISATION.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 201, 25 August 1919, Page 4

DEMOBILISATION.

The agitation in Britain for reduction in defence expenditure and the steps taken by the Government to satisfy the demand within reasonable limits, should be a reminder to New Zcalanders of the necessity for rigid economy locally in the same direction. Britain has immense responsibilities abroad; with the slight exception of Samoa, we have none. The Expeditionary Force, is, being demobilised as quickly as possible, and the Government has made reductions in the staff in New Zealand, but there are directions in which money is heing wasted. We arc compelled to ask again why no decision is reached about the men in t:ie internment camps. The maintenance of these men and their military guards is expensive, and there is not that we can see any reason why the camps should not have been closed some time ago. There is the garrison at Samoa; has it been reduced it; conformity with the new conditions produced by peace? Now that the war is over, and our position in Samoa has been regularised, only a mere handful of troops is required there. Thirdly, there is the retention of so many doctors in khaki. Instead of the military hospitals being demilitarised, and the work done cheaply by a fewcivilian doctors (as it is in the civil hospitals), these institutions are overstaffed by colonels, majors, captains, and lieutenants on liberal pay. If the Government will not cut away this military extravagance, Parliament must insist on it doing so. The country is determined to cut its defence expenditure to the lowest possible figure, and does not wish to see anything done by a man in uniform which can be equally well done by a civilian.