BIGGER AIR VOTE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 74, 28 March 1930, Page 12

BIGGER AIR VOTE

COMPULSORY SERVICE ■

MAY BE ABOLISHED , CHANGE IN POLICY An important change in policy is understood to be involved in the proposals which tho Prime Minister has announced are to be submitted . to Parliament next session with a view to reducing the annual expenditure on land defences. No official elaboration of Sir Joseph Ward's statement is obtainable at present, but it is gathered from an authoritative source tliat the total abolition of the present system of Territorial training may be expected, accompanied by increased expenditure on the aerial unit of the Defence forces, in view of the important developments that have taken place in recent years in aerial manoeuvre in modern warfare. The abolition of the Territorial system has been advocated for some time in resolutions passed by church •and other bodies, and the system of Territorial camps is without doubt tinpopular with employers who arc obliged to allow boys in their service time off to undergo their period of annual instruction, under canvas. The proposal is also assured of whole-hearted support in the House of Representatives by the Labour Party, which advocates the repeal of the compulsory military service and reorganisation of the defence system. In view of the direct attitude of the Labour Party on the subject, it is not anticipated that The Government would have difficulty ■in giving effect to its new proposals. MORAL OBLIGATIONS. No indication has been given previously by the Government that it con- . tqmplated wiping out the Territorial system, which it is interesting to recall was instituted iv 1909 by Sir Joseph .Ward himself. In his Budget last year , the. Prime Minister remarked that "while there are perhaps some who will say that the expenditure of over £1,000,000 a year on defence is unnecessary, the fact remains that war lias not yet been completely ruled out, and there must be some preparation for the defence of our country in case the need should arise." : The expressed policy of tho United Party iv regard to defence, as enunciated before the last General .Election, was broadly stated: "To honour our moral obligations to the Motherland." There is bo inconsistency, therefore, in the'deeision of tho Government to alter the present system of preparedness and .fulfil what it regards as the country's obligation by transferring expenditure to a more up-to-date branch of the defence servide. QUESTION OF COST. As was indicated.by Sir Joseph. Ward the Government's decision is also actuated by the necessity for effecting financial economies. The Budget estimate for this year's expenditure on the Defence Department—apart from the Naval estimates, which accounted for an extra £505,017—was £491,667, : of %vhieh £237,858 was allocated for purchases, maintenance, and training, : The amount set down for military avia- : tion was £53,097, representing a substantial increase on the previous year, i Assistance to civil aviation was voted i to the extent of £0300. -. Gamps which will be cancelled under ' the announced decision that no further camps will take place until next session are those of the .3rd Battery, in ■the Northern Command; the Queen Alexandra Mounted Rifles, the Manawatu Mounted Rifles, the Wellington East Coast Mounted Bifles, and the ' Central Depot, N.Z. Medical Corps, in ! the Central Command; and the Nelson- : Maryborough Eifles, • Canter- ' bury Yeomanry Cavalry, and tho Otago ' Mounted Rifles in the Southern Com- ] inand. ! PRESS VIEWS. . The proposal to effect defence 1 economies is meeting with approval in ; tie metropolitan Press. '■ '■■ The Auckland "Star" says: "The 1 fact is that the presc .t land defence '• policy, now nearly twenty years old, is ' I'eady for overhaul. Between 1927 and 1 1929 the expenditure in this branch of defence was reduced by £30,000, but ■ this year's estimate was near!v equal : to the figure for 1927. Sir Joseph AVard ' said iv his Budget last year that war ' Had not yet been completely ruled out, and there must be some preparation for ' defence. This is quite true,. bu,t it J does not necessarily mean that we need ; spend a million a. year on defence or that the best value is being obtained ' for the money." ' £100,000 SAVING. • "No one outside the circle of braided i militarism, and jingoistic patriotism '. *,vill cavil at the Government's policy," i says the Auckland "Sun." State i economy in some direction has become : essential, and in the face of existing civ- < cumstances, national and international ' (unless the idealism of peace be nothing more than pious hypocrisy), the proposals of the Ward Administration represent economy in the right place at the right time. ... It is to be hoped that the Government's proposals for a revision of the present system of Territorial defence will take the definite form of more extensive retrenchment. And many citizens, probably th majority of citizens to-day, would not nowl protest against the abolition of compulsory military training. ... If the Government's decision to cancel military camps for the remainder of this autumn should be extended into a permanent policy, the State would be saved an expenditure of not less than £100,000 a year, which would help to pay the interest on money borr&wed annual for reproductive public works. In the event of Parliament agreeing to the elimination of camp training this •Tear, next year, and perhaps for ever '(a vain hope!) consideration will have to be given to the delicate question of Retrenchment among the highest-paid ofificers. Without Territorial training in camps there should be no valid reason for spending about £40,000 a year on ; maintaining the New Zealand StaiiE Corps, which comprises seventy-five of•iieers and three cadets. And so with , '.all the other subdivisions of tho permanent forces of the Defence Department. Altogether they cost tho country; about £210,000 a year. In that ex- '. penditure also there appears to be some scope for the practice of essential economy." "FLAGRANT WASTE." • The "Christchurch Star" states that if the decision of the Government to hold no more Territorial camps pending the meeting of Parliament is tho pre,lude to the abolition of the system of compulsory military training, it is in every way to be commended. "Thero is no more flagrant waste of public money in New Zealand," says the "Star," "than the expenditure on the present Territorial defence system. Compulsory military training of young men on the present methods is out of harmony with the present-day peace movement, but that is not its chief defect. It is virtually valueless as a defence factor. It costs*ah inordinate amount of money in proportion to its real value. As a preparation for actual warfare it is .almost ' a joke. It involves a great deal of loss of time industrially, and it vexes Hi large section, of the public. The : wonej sgenfc eft it could muuh more '

profitably be devoted to the organisation of an efficient air force. All this, however, can be said without condemning the idea of local units for military training. A skeleton organisation must be maintained, but the actual training of young men could be bettor conducted "on the voluntary system, because that system at least secures keenness and enthusiasm on the part of the trainee," . . .