A WARNING NOTE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLI, Issue 227, 25 September 1907, Page 4

A WARNING NOTE.

With China awakening, and Japan very much awake, it is imperative that Australia and New Zealand should look to their defences. There are those who think we have nothing to fear from either quarter, but even these should admit that a helpless condition of unpreparedness would be a temptation to aggression on the part of nations that might not otherwise trouble us. To be prepared for war is the best guarantee of peace. It is interesting to note what the Commonwealth of Australia is doing in this matter. Besides supplementing the British fleet in these waters with a fleet of her own, our big neighbour is entering upon a scheme of compulsory military service. Her young men are to be trained to arms. Under a Bill now before Parliament it is provided that all boys over twelve and under nineteen years of age shall join either military or naval cadet corps. This is as it should be, for the youths of to-day will be the adults of to-morrow, with all the responsibilities of defending the land of their birth. However desirous of doing £30 they may be, or whatever their bravery and endurance, they would, untrained and undisciplined, be no match for a highly trained foe, skilled in all the dreadful art of warfare; Therefore to be ready for eventualities is the height of wisdom. The interests of New Zealand and of Australia are bound up together in this matter. The danger of one is the danger of the other, and the question of adequate defence is as vital and pressing here as in Australia. Much has already been done to train our people to the use of arms, but much yet requix'es to be undertaken. It is not sufficient to have a few militia corps in training, though that is an excellent thing as far as it goes, but every youth and young man capable of bearing arms should be taught to do so. It should be made compulsory, as proposed in Australia, so that should the evil day come when the invader would be at our doors, instead of depending upon a small disciplined force fdr protection, while the bulk of our manhood, unarmed and undrilled, looked helplessly on, the whole male population would be able to rise in defence of their country. We have the men—better material could not be found in any land —but they need arms, and they require ammunition, and, above all, the country should be in a position to manufacture its "own munitions of war, so as not to depend upon supplies from outside, which may be cut off at a critical moment. The danger of invasion is no idle fear. We have to a large extent provoked our Asiatic neighbours by legislation specially directed against them. Reprisals may at any time be made, and having practically invited attack we should be.in a position to stand to our guns whenever and wherever the necessity arises. But are we? Unfortunately the present unpopulated condition of the Northern Territory of Australia is the chief and most pressing danger of the situation. There is the conspicuous weakness of the position, for it is through that defenceless region, Australia's back door, that our enemy will come, if at all. This is no mere speculation; they are there now, in peaceful occupation, it is true, and they continue to gather there in ever increasing numbers. Some day they may be sufficiently numerous as to attempt to oust the whites from that region, and then Australia will have to fight in order to dislodge the foe. And to successfully resist aggression, and regain and effectually hold territory now being quietly filched from them, cannot possibly be achieved by raw, undisciplined levies, unskilled in the use of weapons- of war. The responsibility therefore to prepare for eventualities during the present time of peace is one that it would be a national crime upon the part of our rulers to ignore.