THE PROOBLEM OF DEFENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 13937, 20 December 1905, Page 4

THE PROOBLEM OF DEFENCE.

(TRIGGER, in “ Canterbury Times.”) An interesting lecture was recently delivered at Home to the members of the Liverpool Sergeants’ Tactical Sot ciety by Lieutenant-Colonel J. M. . M’Master, V.D.. of the Ist V.B. King’s Regiment. After reviewing the existing conditions in regard to defence, the lecturer said that he was impressed with the part that boys might be made to play in connection with the* solution, of the defence problem. He said that attention should be directed more than ever to the military training of boys, and he looked forward to the time when it should be considered of any man who had not in his youth received some measure of training to fit him to serve liis country in time of need that his education had been as much neglected as if ' he had \ never been taught to read or write. It was becoming increasingly evident that this was the most hopeful end at which to attack the problem of home defence. The principle of compulsion was not open to the same objection in the case of boys as of adults. Youth was everywhere under restraint, and if some military training was a desirable thing there could' not he any •violation of principle in the compulsory education of a boy being extended to liis training in drill and arms. The Volunteer organisation could undertake a large part of the work of such training at a very moderate cost to the ■ State. He had confidence in the fu-' ture of the Volunteer force. The nation was gradually beginning to realise that it was by the general training of the great bulk of thp manhood of the country to arms that the solution of the problem would be found. The method of it would be the enforced training of boys during and immediately- after school age, and it would be continued, be was convinced, in an enlarged and glorified Volunteer system. The Volunteers, .he predicted, would again become fashionable, and at first under official encouragement and national ap-. predation, and. ultimately under penalties exacted from those who failed in their duty, the Force which' arose spontaneously to ward off a threatened invasion would .spread 'over the land an organisation so strong in numbers and in efficiency as to set at rest permanently the anxiety of the nation for ' the safety of our shores; and would provide an inexhaustible supply of trained men to reinforce, by the voluntary offers of their services, the Regular Forces ol the Crown when hard pressed in fighting for the Empire in any quarter of the globe.