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Evening Post, Volume LX, Issue 18, 21 July 1900, Page 4

Evening Post. SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1900.

THE GOVERNMENT SCHEME OF DEFENCE. ♦ The' defence scheme outlined by the Premier in the statement read to the House of Representatives last night is broader in conception than might have been expected from past Ministerial utterances. Crude as it is in some respecte, its first aim is obviously to provide, without recourse to conscription, a national army, capable of defending the colony in time of need. With this object we are, as our readers are fuily uwure, in cordial agreement, and we note with satisfaction that the Premier's proposals to a very large extent i0..0w the ■ lines that have for a long time past been J indicated by this journal. The scheme, | ho »iever, is so far-reaching,, and the: amount of detail involved to large, that ! careful study of the question in all its bearings wiu be neoeasary beiore exhaustive criticism can be ottered. The Defence Committee to whica the memorandum has been referred should help considerably in improving the original plan, and many interesting and important points should be raised in the subiequent Parliamentary debates. For the present, ib is enough to discuss briefly the salient features of the Premier's suggestions, He proposes to divide the deience forces of the colony into five classes :— (1) The permanent nucleus of artillery for harbour delences; (2) Ordinary volunteer corps; (3) Imperial and Colonial Reserves; (4) Rifle ciubs ; and (5) Cadet corps. Leaving out for the moment the ; Reserves anu turning our attention to the other four classes, we find that if properiy developed they will constitute a territorial deience such as we have , long advocated. The cadet corps, if supporled by regular provision for physical and manual drill in schools, will act as feeders for the volunteer forces and the nfle clubs. Our boys w'lll thus be taught from their earliest years the duty and principles of national self-de-fence, and they will ha-ve their athletic energies directed into channels that will lead them to a taste for the work of the citizen soldier. As he grows up j the cadet will, according to the circum- ! stances in -which lie is placed, 'naturally join a volunteer, corps or, where that is impossible, a rifle club. The members of these volunteer corps and rifle clubs will form the national army of citizen soldiers, and their numbers, if the scheme be properly elaborated and sufficient inducements be offered by the Government, will approximate closely to those of our able-bodied male citizens. Ranges, equipment, weapons, and ammunition will have to be supplied generously by the Government, and, a point not touched upon in the Premier's memorandum, arrangements will have to be made for the training of officers in the theory and practice of the mduary profession. Skill and ability in our volunteer officers will be essential to the success of the scheme, and we trust that the subject will receive the full consideration of the Defence Committee and Parliament itself. Our national 'army thus .constituted will require a stiffening of well-equipped and well-trained artillery. For our harbour defences we shall have the Permanent Artillery forming the first class of our defence forces, as defined by the Premier, but its work will be confined to- that of garrison artillery, and the volunteer army will, we recognise, need also a permanent field artillery. This the Premier considers would cost about £12,000 a year, but the money would, we feel sure, be well spent. We do not like having too large a permanent force, but artillery cannot be too good, and without it riflemen are at a serious disadvantage. We would add, therefore, to our permanent forces several batteries of field artillery. With improved harbour fortifications supplied with good modern guns and manned by an efficient body of permanent garrison artillerymen, our coasts should have a second line of defence to support the Imperial navy and our own auxiliary squadron. Behind this would come our first line of land defences, consisting of the permamanent field artillery and some 20,000 volunteers, commanded by trained officers. Then there would be a second line of land defences to be formed out of our rifle clubs, the members of which could in time of need be drafted into the volunteer regiments, or be formed into auxiliary corps upon the model of the Roughriders we sent to South Africa. The Premier's statement does not, it is true, outline as complete a scheme as that sketched above, nor does it describe the territorial classification of the volunteer corps or the methods of mobilisation, but, taking the memorandum as a basis, we are disposed to believe that Parliament, aided by the deliberations of the Defence Committee, can devise a system that should meet the requirements of the situation. There are, however, two matters upon which we dissent altogether from the views expressed by the Premier. They are the financing of the scheme and the nature of the " Imperial and Colonial Reserve." The Premier connects them in his memorandum, inasmuch as he hopes to gain the financial aid|J>f the Imperial authorities in return for the formation of this reserve. By all means let us have a colonial reserve, if it is to form part of our territorial defence forces, and if it is to be at the disposal of our own Government for sending voluntarily, as our Contingents .were sent, to the aid of the Mother Country upon extraordinary occasions.' JJufc we are entirely opposed to the principle of making this colony a recruiting ground for Imperial forces that might be ordered anywhere at any time by the War Office. "At all ordinary times we want our young men in New Zealand to help in developing the resources of this new country, and whenever a great war ?omea wa naall want them to defend their

own land. In exceptional circumstances we may, as a people, deem it right and proper to send some of " our "boys " to light shoulder to shoulder with their oversea brethren in the cause of the Empire, but such exceptions lose their point il they become, as the Premier suggests, the rule. The Imperial Government will naturally feel less inclined to appreciate the services of a force it finances and has at its own disposal than those of one given as a freewill , offering by a loyal colony in time _of need. We have, it seems to us, nothing to gain and a great deal to lose by placing some 10,000 of our men outside our own control, and making them liable to foreign service at the call of the " Horse Guards." In the debate on the Address-in-Eeply Captain Russell forcibly exposed the dangers lurking behind such a proposal, and it is from no want of Imperialism that we ourselves or the member for Hawkes Bay object to depleting our own defence forces. Our first duty to the Empire, as well as to our own colony, is home defence, and until that is perfected only spurious Imperialism wbuld suggest an Imperial Reserve. For financing his scheme Mr. Seddon proposes that the Imperial Government should borrow the money and lend it .again to the colony, the difference between the rate of interest at which the Mother Country can raise a loan and that at which the colony can do so to form a sinking fund for repayment of the debt. Then, again, with regard to the Reserve, he suggests that the Imperial Government should provide the capital for the purchase "f field batteries, rifles, and equipments, the colony paying a sum equal toT one-half the interest on the first cost, and, further, that in addition to paying for all forces when on service outside the colony, the Imperial Government should provide the payment of the reserve when in camp in the colony. the reserve is to be made, as we hope, purely colonial, all we need ask the Imperial Government is to guarantee the loan, which could then be raised on the same terms as Imperial loans., We should pay for our own defences, and at the same time retain control of our men.