COMPULSORY TRAINING.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 116, 14 May 1909, Page 7

COMPULSORY TRAINING.

(By Frank Morton.)

The other night in Wellington there jwas a meeting of persons desirous of protesting against the proposed system, of compulsory military training. About fifty persons were present, and the speakers were characteristic of the gathering and the cause. There was Mr D. McLaren, M.P., a sincere extremist. There was Mr P. J. O'Regan, a rather wide-mouthed dabbler in everything that can by any possibility bring Mr P. J. O'Regan. a moment's prominence. And there was Mr Robert Hogg, a good fellow, and the wildest and most consistent Socialist I ever met or heard of as being outside any place from which Socialists are not permitted to wander. Mr McLaren objected to the scheme on the ground of its expense; Mr O'Regan found in the scheme a certain "unparalleled audacity"; and Mr Hogg objected to it because he was a Socialist and objected to every-, thing that smelt of conscription. I explained all about this public meeting to a French friend the other Bight; and I was led to decide that my French friend was somewhat of a rapscallion, because he insisted on laughing in all the solemn parts. He smiled at Mr McLaren and Mr Hogg; but when I had laboriously described Mr O'Regan he laughed joyously. "Quel type I" he cried. "Quel type," indeed 1

Then my friend expressed some opinions or his own, and I'm sorry that I cannot give you their full flavour in this English. "You English," he said, "you talk of your patriotism and your democracy. What a farce! You are so good patriots' that you will not fight _ fgr your country unless you are paid to fight. And those that are paid to fightdoes anyone respect them? When I was in London I saw many of your soldiers, and I saw how lightly they were esteemed. I saw, too, the manner and the bearing of their officers: puppy-boys with insolent manners and a great apparent ignorance of their profession. You are patriots and democrats, and you permit all that? Psstl"

"It is so different in France," my friend continued. "In France we suffer all the horrors of conscription. "We are torn from our mothers and our homes and forced to "barbarous service. Well, we are bad beasts enough to enjoy it, and to approve it. I say that we, who cheerfully give a year or two of our youth to prove our patriotism are better democrats and better citizens than you who pay your reluctant rates and merely make pretence of being patriotic. And our officers aro not insolent cubs. Their are the reward of merit. IVe are good friends and comrades we French soldiers. I was three years in a cavalry regiment, and I know. The friends one makes during one's service are often the dearest friends of

one's life. We are brothers. In my company, a private with me, was young Alfred de Rothschild. He had 'a small allowance of spending money from his father—£B a day of your mouev. In Africa he coulu not easily spend two shillings a day. So he used his pocket money to make things brighter for his poorer , comrades. There are many like him in our regiments ; for in the French army there is no distinction of rich and poor. The private may be a duke, and the officer the son of a shoemaker. They are men, and comrades in arms. In hours of recreation, the officers thinks it no shame to drink a glass with his private '; but the private never fails in respect for his officer. Only it is the position that is respected. We have no snobbishness in our relations. This snobbishness is, I think, an English and American disease. I remember— But we need not go farther with my friend. What we do need is to determine, as speedily as may be, just how good democrats and loyal citizens should stand with regard to this matter of military training. Of the advantage of training there can be no reasonable doubt; but that is not the immediate question.