DEFENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 193, 15 August 1936, Page 8

DEFENCE.

With nil due respect to Mr. Justice Northcroft's anxiety for the future, I think it is about time that the hoary old annual "We were caught T unprepared in 1914" should be illowed' to'rest in its grave. For a start we were not "caught" at all, not attacked, and, is a correspondent so ably pointed out the Dther day, were drawn in through a "gentlemen's agreement" that the nation as a -whole knew nothing about. In 1908 I was in Aldershot, the British military centre, in an infantry regiment. Our officers at that early date were, receiving special permission and summer' leave to tour —in muJEti—the valley of the Metise and other "interesting"-' localities—we ill knew what for. Wo footsloggers were jncouraged and advised to take up a study }f the German language with a promise of, n the years to come, quick promotion and ilienomenal opportunities. To-day we know t was a commercial war, and as the one that is now being prepared for is a result >f it, what guarantee have we tliat another slaughter will even up the miseries and sacrifices'of the last? J. BEXFIELD.