The Value of Military Training Emphasised.

Franklin Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 126, 30 October 1936, Page 5

The Value of Military Training Emphasised.

MR H. DELL’S VIEWS.

INDIFFERENCE DEPRECATED.

.ADVICE TO THE YOUNG BRIGADE. The value of military training from the viewpoint of discipline and Empire defence, was strongly emphasised by Mr Henry Dell senr., when addressing an assembly of cadets and students attending the Pukekohe Technical High School, during'the ceiremony of the handing over of the South Franklin Mounted. Infantry shooting belt on Wednesday afternoon. Mr Dell deprecated the fact that there was a school' of thought diametrically opposed to such training —people who were rather indifferent but who were content to live happily under the British flag so long as it held its pre- . sent place in the world. To illustrate his point Mr Dell instanced the indifference of a friend' he met in London while on a tour abroad a few years ago. They were walking along casually when they came to the ceremony of changing the guard. To the speaker it was a most inspiring event but to the friend it was nothing —a mere every-day incident. So it was with those who were opposed to military training. They were content as long as the British flag fluttered at the mast head. He reminded the members of the young brigade that men who formerly owned the property on which the assembly stood that day, and their sons, who had undergone military training'in the volunteer days, left with the New Zealand forces to uphold the traditions for which the British flag stood. The value of military training was vividly brought to his mind when he tbured tfie battlefields of Belgium and France. He mentioned that when passing through country the contour of which was very similar to that between Pukekohe and Mauku, he came to a clump of trees, secluded in which was a solid concrete gun-pit mounted with a German gun measuring 59ft. long, weighing 74 tons and which would take a six-foot shell and throw it 25 miles. “As I gazed on that peaceful scene the thought of what the poor Belgians and their children had suffered, flashed through my mind. Had it not been for the military training of the Belgians and their gallant stand at Liege the advance of the Germans in the early stages of the Great War would have been easy and might have placed them in a secure position. Where would New Zealand be today had it not been for military training? ■Under a different flag,” asserted Mr Dell. In strongly advocating military training, Mr Dell said he was not advocating aggression. He believed that to preserve' peace the British Empire must be prepared for war. It did not follow that because Britain was prepared that she. must go to war.

Mr Dell told his hearers of some of his experiences on a journey from Ostend (Belgium) to Middleburgh (Holland), where Customs officials and guards searched tourists’ luggage and where travellers were often placed in embarrassing positions. “There is no such treatment in countries ovei which the flag of Great Britain flies, and the freedom we enjoy today would not exist but for military training and the gallantry of that contemptible little army of which you know so much, therefore I say to you boys and girls of the young brigade that you owe much to your military instructors and -teachers/ Heed them and you will not go far wrong.” Mr Dell concluded by saying that the 16 or 17 years he spent with the volunteers was not lost time and he believed -the training .indulged in in the volunteering days helped a little to keep the British flag where it was today.