CITIZEN SOLDIERS

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 56, 8 March 1922, Page 8

CITIZEN SOLDIERS

RIFLE CEUBS AND REGULATIONS

ATTITUDE OF DEFENCE AUTHORITIES,

*n reply to the criticism of riflemen at■•■ the , Papawai Bifle Championship last .week, reported In 1 The Post, Major-Gon-eral Sir; Edwaid 'Chaytor, G.0.C., explained to a Post reporter to-day the attitude of the Defence authorities towards the appointment of the Dominion Rifle Association executive, and the conduct of rifle shooting generally. He expressed himself as being surprised at the opposition to the regulations on which the D;R.A. had/been consulted when they were originally drafted by the Defence Department. Those regulations had been more honoured in the breach than in the observance, and this year the Department had simply determined to enforce them. Exception had apparently been taken to the use of the words: It. is desirable that representatives (on the D.R.A. executive) . . . should have had experience in the late war." The" suggestion that .this was aimed at Colonel Collins was lidiculrd by General Chaytor, who added that it ■was surely desirable that those selected for .such a responsible position for training in rifle shooting should have had war experience of the most modem methods. Last year, continued the General, the D.R.A. was given the option of faking over the. control of the meetings entirely, hut they stated that they preferred that the meetings should remain under the control of the Defence Department. The Department outlined regulations for the conduct of the meetings, and the D.R.A. representatives were consulted. Now, because the Department considered it desirable, other things being equal, that officers with war experience should be elected to the executive council, which •was a natural corollary to the desire for the meetings to be of the most useful kind, opposition was expressed to the ■whole of the regulations. General Chaytor jrave reasons for preference for men with recent active service. All were trained in the latest methods. Their rifle shooting was so effective that the Germans accounted for it by the belief that they were heavily armed with machine-guns, their fire was so rapid, and the destruction they wrought in the German ranks was extraordinary. In action the_ use of the rifle is to a great extent limited to rapid firing at close quarters. The machine-gun and ttie artillery take the long-range firing, for it is almost impossible to judge the distances at long range arid adjust the rifle sights accordingly. Besides, firing at such a thing as a target is unknown in a war. Then, there is nothing in the training for long-distancs firm" at a long range, or conditions mostly observed at rifle meetings, likely to be of use in active war. At the New Zealand meetings it takes from ten to fifteen minutes to fire seven or ten rounds for the King's Prize, whereas, in-actual warfare, the same number of rounds would have to' be fired in a 'twentieth of the time. Then, the number of matches at our meetings for service purposes is .ridiculously inadequate:---i 'At Bisley, out of 73 matches, 37 are ser-;-vice matches and 7 for cadets, the rest !being open matches. At the D.R.A. 'meeting there was one match for regulars and one for cadets, all the rest being open. In reference to a remark made by Captain Marshall, that "men who had ■ grown up with' the D.R.A. year by year were in a better position to judge and : to know, the conditions necessary for this country to promote rifle-shooting amongst the youth than military officers not,in touch with rifle-shooting as it was," the General said that the authorities had every desire' to encourage rifle clubs,' and believed that under efficient conditions they would be able to do good service, alth'ongh 5t had been found absolutely necessary to apply the retrenchment proposals to this section as well as to others.;,.When.'it was • remembered,, that in; ths Dfefence' Department were men : who had come through Hythe School of Musketry with the finest records known, and who had had actual experience of i the methods most effective in actual '. warfare, it was surely idle to say that •' anyone without that experience was . more capable of judging whether the ' methods adopted were the best or not.

"I may sum up the position by saying that there is no ulterior motive in the rbgulations at all." concluded General iChaytor, "that efficiency for active ser■vice is what the Department is aiming ;at; that there is every desire to encoiirage.the training of men in rifle shooting so long as tho most effective system is used ; and that there is no question •as to the superiority of the authorities Telied upon by the Department to advise on the question of what is efficient training."