The Hawera Star. TUESDAY, JUNE 1. 1926. MILITARY TRAINING.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 1 June 1926, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

TUESDAY, JUNE 1. 1926. MILITARY TRAINING.

Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltbam, Mangatolri, Kaponga. Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley, Mokoia, Wbakamara, OUangai, Meremere. Fraser Road and Ararata.

An organisation of high-sounding title —the National Peace Council, to wit — inquires from Christchurch, per medium of a halfpenny post-card, if tlio citizens of New Zealand are satisfied to let the Dominion remain a “conscript country”; if they want to bo “more militaristic than Great Britain”; and .f their support of “ conscription ’ will help the League of Nations' As we were favoured with a. full penny’s worth of these rhetorical questions, perhaps we may be forgiven for interrupting the secretary of the National Peace Council —for the queries we have summarised do not half exhaust his message to the people. We hold no brief for militarism of any type —anywhere. But we have yet to be convinced that New Zealand’s scheme of military training inculcates militarism. In so far as their living depends on war or the fear of war, of course, professional soldiers tend to be militarists, and any scheme of compulsory training demands a certain number of permanent instructors. But to suggest that the tiny permanent establishment of the New Zealand Defence Forces makes the Dominion “more militaristic than Britain”, with her standing army, or that there is any approach to a military caste in New Zealand, is sheer absurdity. This is not to say, however, that the country’s present system of military training is perfect. With the cadet system, which now specialises in physical development, we have no fault to find, save that much more useful work could be done by abolishing evening parades and instituting annual camps under strict supervision. So far as the Territorial Forces are concerned, it is doubtful if they are worth the money spent on them. Those men who wish to learn do so; those who will learn only by compulsion are under orders for so short a period at any one time that they prolix little by the in-, struction. A reversion to the old volunteer system, with liberal capitation from the Government, and a definite policy of assisting rifle clubs, would, wo venture to think, be a more profitable investment for the defence of the country than the present Territorial organisation. Because one rifle,can never equal ten in the conflicts of modern warfare, the old proverb which compares the volunteer with pressed men loses some of its weight. But for the training of officers and non-coms., an*l to ensure the maintenance of an efficient skeleton organisation around which to build a national fighting force at the shortest notice, the volunteer system has few equals. Four years in the Cadets, particularly if the training of the boys were concentrated in annual camps, would give that foundation of discipline so essential to success in the field, and would guarantee the physique of the material upon which the volunteer units would have to draw.

So far as its further queries are concerned, we cannot agree with the National Peace Council that the Dominion's present defence system, much less that which we advocate, can lie held to conflict with the League of Nations. Defence is not defiance; and, although the League aims to reach a state where defence will be as unnecessary as defiance is wrong, the day of such achievement is not yet. We may—wo should —fix our eyes on the goal ahead and plan for the ideal future; but it would be madness at the same time to ignore the dangers of the imperfect present.