WEDNESDAY. OCTOBEE 17, 1906.

Evening Post, Volume LXXII, Issue 93, 17 October 1906, Page 6

WEDNESDAY. OCTOBEE 17, 1906.

THE NEW DEFENCE SCHEME. In view of the large amount of work which the Government has had to do and tho short timo allowed for the doing of it, ws do not see that they can be justly blamed for delaying the introduction of their defenco scheme till this late hour of tho session. It is, nevertheless, to be regretted tEat so important a measure is unlikely under the circumstances to receivo tho full cqAsidoration' which it deserves; and i whether it is rushed .through uncriticjsed, or shelved for want of time by members whose chief Parliamentary duty is to attend the Christchurch Exhibition, the result will bo equally unfortunate. In its general lines the scheme corresponds pretty closely with what had been expected, and represents a creditable attempt to reorganise tho most wasteful and chaotic departments of the public service of the colony. In reproducing on a small scale the muddling and extravagance of the Imperial War Office we have shown ourselves to bo genuine chips of tho old block, but the scale is so small and tho evil has had so' short a time to grow that the task of Colonel Pitt is child's play compared with that of Mr. Haldane, and we trust that his reforming zeal may never bo constrained to adopt tho same pessimistic tone. Without superseding the necessary responsibility of Ministers, tho Defence Act Amendment Bill, which was introduced by Governor's Message in tho Houso of Representatives yesterday, proposes to entrust tho general management of our defences to a Council of Defence, and in so doing follows the model of the Army Council which was croated by the Imperial Government in 1904, and recently imitated by the authorities of the' Commonwealth. The Council of Defence will consist of three members, two of whom will be military men and the third a civilian; and the military members, who will bo respectively styled the Chief of the General Staff and the Adjutant-General and the Quartermaster-General, are to be "responsible to the Defence Minister for such portion of the organisation, disposition, personnel, armament, and maintenance of the defenco forces as shall be assigned to them." The third member of the council, who will be called the "finance member," will deal with the finance of the defence forces and such other business as the Minister may assign to him; and there will also be a secretary of the coiincil, who 'will bo charged with the official communications of the council and such other duties as may bo assigned to him," but will apparently have purely subordinate and clerical functions. Provision is also made for the appointment of an Inspec-tor-General, under the defection of the council, who shall inspect and report upon the condition of the forces in the manner to .which we have been -accustomed from the Commandant, but let us hope to a better purpose. As the Bill was only introduced formally yesterday, ■ there was no debate upon it, and such explanation as the Premier gave in answer to a challenge merely extended to a. general outline of the kind above given. The possibilities of friction in the co-operation of the Minister with a council who may out-vote him but cannot control him are obviously enormous, but it is equally clear that the scheme contains great possibilities of good if it is reasonably worked. As the council will only be concerned with business "other than business which the Minister of. Defence specially reserves for himself," he will still have power to exercise an absolute control and to reduce his advisers to impotence if he so desires. On the other hand, a Minister who is not bent on autocracy, and docs not beljeve that h.3 knows everything 'about .military, affairs without studying ' them, will have an admirable oppbrfcuntfcy of getting the necessary knowledge and of relying at every turn upon tho formal advloe of experts who will be officially and constantly associated with him in discharge of his duties. The Bill certainly offers no automatic, cut-and-dried solution of the difficulty, nor is any such solution possible under the conditions of frail and fallible humanity. Much — indeed, everything — will turn upon the spirit of tho administration and .the personnel .of...the new. appointment*,. &üb.if the»c

conditions are satisfied, the scheme will greatly facilitate the work of reform, and may well inaugurate a new «ra in our military administration.