THE ARMY OF THE COMMONWEALTH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12427, 16 February 1901, Page 4

THE ARMY OF THE COMMONWEALTH.

WHAT IT OUGHT TO BE. (MR ALFRED HALES, in the “Daily News.”) Personally, I believe that the Commonwealth wilt provide for the establishment and maintenance ol 100,000 volunteers, who will be ready to take the field at any ’time should they be required. The officers for the forces will, in the main, be Australians, men who love the work and will not shirk it. Some scheme will be formulated which will allow young officers to travel, to ob■serve, to work, to learn, not only in the British Army, but in the armies of the whole world. The men selected for such work will be chosen because they possess military gifts, because they possess God's grandest dower, the dower of brains; not because their parents happen to fill a high place in society,.not because ‘‘papa'’ happens to possess a large amount of political influence; not because a youth happens to be the scion of some nolte family; because in that new land a noble name is not worth a bag of potatoes unless it# is backed by a stout heart, a# level head, and a. decent sense of proportion as between man and man.

The humblest private soldier will have as good a chance of getting -to the front as any other man; for lam in a position to state that in the proposed Federal Volunteer Army of Australasia the Marshal's baton will be in every soldier’s knapsack. Therein will he, in my opinion, the future success of the young nation’s army. The absurd thesis that a private soldier will not willingly follow a leader who does not boast noble or genteel blood will find few champions in a land where every man stands or falls by his own personal merits, irrespective of any thing his great-grand-mother may have done. To give a case which will illustrate my meaning, I will mention that, some years ago, one of the -foremost Australian barristers was serving in a volunteer corps as corporal. He was a rich man. His social position was of the highest. As a politician he was in the front rank, and to-day is one of the foremost statesmen in the Southern Hemisphere. A friend met him one Saturday afternoon returning from a. parade, arrayed in all the glory of a corporal" s uniform, an<l commenced to remonstrate with him for what- ho (the friend), considered his undignified action. “Well," was the curt reply," why shouldn’t I servo as a corporaU” “-Oh, that’s nonsense,” said the friend ; “ why, one of your own clerks is a lieutenant ju the same corps!” “Quite right, too," retorted the barrister,” “and a. jolly smart young soldim- be is, tor, I’m. a. better politician and a better lawyer than he could ever be ; but I’m not, and -never will be, as good a. soldier. He has put all his brains, all his energies, all his spare lime, into the business of soldiering, and-works more weeks at it than I work hours. If there is any glory in the game he is entitled to it. The man who would try to force him down below me because I happen to- have more money and more influence is a, d— —cad, in my opinion”

If. was not a, graceful reply, but it “ got there” all the. same, and the corporal now’s got another stripe. To-day ho is in the position to offer much larger billets to others, for he is a Premier.