The Hawera Star. MONDAY, MAY 14, 1928. MILITARY TRAINING.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 14 May 1928, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

MONDAY, MAY 14, 1928. MILITARY TRAINING.

Delivered every evening by 6 o’clock in Hawera. Manato. Norraanby, Okaiawa, Eltham. Mangatoki. Kaponga, Alton, Hurley ville Patea. Wnverlev. Mokoia Wbakamara, Ohangai, Meremere. Prasei Road, and Ararata.

The recent announcement that the Territorial Force is over-strength and that the Department has decided upon certain economies in order that its monetary 'requirements may eonte within the amount, voted for defence, has once more drawn attention to a subject which lias been accorded only desultory consideration during latter years. The official announcement states that the need for economising has arisen from the continual additions to the ranks of the territorial and cadets consequent upon the increase in population, and it- has been therefore decided to adhere strictly to a peacetime establishment of the force. Cadets, though still required to register for training at the age of fourteen, will not be called upon, except in the case of those attending secondary schools, to give service until they have reached the age qf fifteen and the territorials will be reduced in number by the adoption qf a higher physical standard than has obtained in the past. It is to be hoped that these changes will not be allowed to come into operation without much closer attention being paid to the whole question of military training. Our territorial training system is now many years old and the world has progressed at a great pace since it was first deemed necessary to call upon our young men tq perform certain military duties in peace time. The outcry that was made at the time of the introduction of the system has long since died a natural death and is not likely to be seriously revived. Provision is rriudo in the Act for the exemption of the genuine conscientious objector and the general public, though it may believe that a good deal of time and money is- wasted on the compulsory system, is not- antagonistic co the principle of requiring young men to perforin a certain amount of military training. But a point which- has never been sufficiently considered, since the war, either by the Department or by the public, is one relating to efficiency. Has the country seriously asked itself if it is spending its money and the time of many of its young citizens to- the best advantage? Has the Department applied to the defence system many of the military lessons learned during the Great War? Even the stay-at-home civilian now knows something qf the methods of warfare and there have been such readjustments of military values as to make -him suspect that the country could obtain more useful results from the expenditure of no more money than that required to ensure the weekly drilling and annual camps held at present. He lias seen that an efficient force can be raised and trained at short notice when the necessity arises; he knows that a knowledge of the -rudiments of military drill is of practical value, though not essential, when

training a citizen army for the real thing, therefore he. is not likely to favour the abilition of all the machinery at present used for instructing the youth of the country. But on the other hand, he has seen how large a part the Air Force and the Navy played in the last war and he lias some dim conception of the far greater part the technical and mechanical branches of of the army would pay in any future wars. It is not unreasonable therefore that the. average man who gives any thought to this subject should ask, can the country not get more for the money it spends on defence? We do not believe it is for the layman to tell the military experts and the Department their business, but neither do we think that some important contribuions to any discussions on the future of the defence system of the Dominion could not be made by intelligent citizens outside the official circle. The subject need not be discussed in any spirit of antagonism to the military authorities. The officers who are at present carrying out the duties laid down for them by the Act have won the appreciation of the outsider who has taken an intelligent interest in their work. None knows better than the officers themseh'es, we should imagine, the shortcomings of the present system. It must sometimes call for a strong sense of duty to carry on with the task of training youths who are required to give but little time to their duties and then are relieved of the responsibiliy of attending further parades just at a time when they are showing the, result of the instructor’s work. Another difficulty under which the instructors labour is that trainees are made up of all classes—the keen and the intelligent who could be imbued with an enthusiasm for the work, and the incompetent and the unwilling in whom it is impossible, without the rigid discipline of the active service army, to instil esprit de corps; these latter hold back the others until they lose their keenness. These are only a few of the objections which could be raised to the present system. We do not propose to attempt to discuss here the problem in detail, but we do believe that >e Dominion should not allow any more years to pass before it awakes to

'.© fact that in its defence system it is contenting itself with something that was evolved before the world was plunged into* the Great War.