The Star Delivered every evening' by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea. Waverley. WEDNESDAY. DECEMBER 3, 1913. INTERNATIONAL INSANITY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 3 December 1913, Page 4

The Star Delivered every evening' by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea. Waverley. WEDNESDAY. DECEMBER 3, 1913. INTERNATIONAL INSANITY.

There is a distinct difference between military training for the youths and men of a nation, and the equipment of- that nation with military and naval armaments on a scale of vastness. It may be said that without the latter the former would be of very little, use, especially in actual warfare. Perhaps this qualification is provisionally true, but the general statement is open to question. Australia has already begun I to reap what may be called human and social advantages from her system of universal military training, and there are signs that New Zealand is to have a similar experience with respect to the morals, manners, and general manliness of its male population. If experience continues to show this result, unaccompanied by contingent evils, military training will have a claim to be regarded as a boon to Australia and New Zealand. Yet, notwithstanding Australia's little fleet and New Zealand's naval policy, it cannot be said that they have armaments in the1 European sense. Even in Europe itself, '-however, military training is recognised as a thing of high value, quite a^art from armaments. In Germany military service is found to be a physical and moral tonic of the first importance, and conscription is regarded as an invaluable discipline, not a 1 , disagreeable necessity. It is of this state of things that we have fair promise in connection with universal military training in Australia and New Zealand. But folly is infectious', arid; these young countries should be constantly and seriously on their guard1 against Europe's exaiaple of international insanity in the matter of armaments. There is sober reason to believe that much of what has been going on in this connectioa in the Old World has been due to nothing higher than the irrational imitativeness which makes women lose their heads in matters Of fashion, or causes weak constitutions to yield to every successive epidemic that comes along. 'But the price that nations pay for this irrationality is appalling. -This aspect of the subject is frequently dwelt on by statesmen, especially in England; but now we have the Premier of Bavaria announcing in the Diet of his country "that there must be a pause for several years in German armament, as the people are unable to bear further burdens.'' This kind of thing has been said before with respect to Germany, as well as other countries; but is it always to ba said without effect? Surelynot.i It has been well said by an able Englishman, the Hulsean Lecturer at Cambridge, that had this monstrous anna-! ment craze been a matter of- individual and not national folly, the laughter ofj the world would long ago have -killed} it. Only the other day the Germans,, or sections of the German! people, were dreading, or, inspired by some Krupp-like patriot, pretending to dread, a great i Slav combination. Faced by this peril, and purely as,a matter of defence, two more millions were added to the war tax,, and 130,000 new bayonets were ordered. Forthwith, before the Teuton had time -to shake off his nightmare, the friendly, unsuspicious Frank already saw those bayonets flashing on the road to Paris. Faced by this peril and purely as ! a measure of defence, a third year was added to the service of French conscripts, the first result of this neighborly response being something like a mutiny in the ranks. Then (says the same observer) the English themselves are~- just as bad with their faked invasion scares and idiotic Dreadnought competitions, in danger of being covered with contempt by development in submarines. in fact, the whole armament competition craze is a disgrace to the civilised nations of Europe, which it bleeds to the extent of 450 millions a year. Only a fraction of this is needed for legitimate international defence, and all expenditure over , thai fraction means the postponement i of vital social reforms. Happily, however, all the time the shuttles of commerce are weaving the world into a confederation of mutually interested corporations, and the savagery and the senseless waste of the gospel of force is being found out in international affairs, just-as it is in industrial life. The doctrine; of sheer force is quite as evil in the formec iasrit is in the latter case. It is glided by^ the spirit of syndicalism, which, in' industry, is now being discredited in the sight of the whole world from, Dublin to Dunedin. Constitutional ~, arbitration is proved to be, in matters of trade, not only the only method worthy of a civilised country, but the only method successfully practicable in it; and there is ground for hoping that the lesson thus learned .will ere long-be transferred to the international arena with respect to bloated, costly, and offensive armaments. This, however, does not apply to legitimate national defence, any more than it does to constitutional unionism in the sphere of industry.