DUNTROON MUST STAY.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIII, Issue 199, 8 August 1923, Page 3

DUNTROON MUST STAY.

OFFICERS FOR AUSTRALIA. GENERAL CHAUVEL EMPHATIC. Lieutenant-General Sir Harry Chauvel, the Inspector-General of the Australian Military Forces, is strongly in favour of the retention of the Royal Military College at Duntroon. The distinguished soldier stresses in his an nual report its importance as a factor in the defence of Australia. One of the reasons why he would oppose the removal of cadets for training to Sandhurst or Woolwich is that at their most impressionable age they would lose touch with Australian sentiment and characteristics.

“It would, he says, “eventually mean the end of the democratic ideals upon which Duntroon was founded.” He states that the foundation of u college for the instruction of those who were to train the Australian army was one of the fundamental principles of Lord Kitchener’s scheme. Kitchener fully realised that, fur an entirely citizen army, the periods of training of which would be necessarily short, the provision of a highly-trained . instructional stall was an absolute essential. Kit- 1 chener also realised that Australian sentiment demanded that these instructors should be Australians, and should be trained in Australia.

Sir Harry Chauvel goes on to say that the college was accordingly establish ed, and, to meet the democratic feelings of the country, entrance was thrown open to the sons of all classes of the community, and the four years’ education was made free of any cost what ever to the parents. “This latter proviso,” says the Inspector-. General, “in which the Duntroon establishment differs entirely from any other institution of a like nature in the Empire, has necessarily made thu upkeep far more expensive than would otherwise be the case, and a section of| the Australian people are now complain-j ing of the cost. | “It would no doubt be less expensive,” he continues “to train these in-

structors abroad, just as it would cost much less (in fact, exactly half) to purchase our rifles abroad, yet no one urges the abolition of the Small Arms Factory.

‘ ‘ That the Duntroon establishment has already justified its existence there can be no shadow of doubt. To say that the 158 graduates who sefved in the late war had any bearing upon the 300,900 men who comprised the Australian Imperial Force would seem ridiculous, yet most, if not all divisional, brigade, or regimental commanders will bear out my statement that this was so. The high ideals established at the college by late General Bridges were a potent influence which made itself felt through out. In peace the same influence is being gradually spread throughout the citizens’ forces to-day.”