LECTURE BY BRIGADIER—GENERAL RICHARDSON

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 24 August 1922, Page 4

LECTURE BY BRIGADIER—GENERAL RICHARDSON

SOME INTERESTING POINTS

Brigadier-General G. S. Richardson, C. 8., C.M.G., C.8.E., Officer in Charge Administration, gave an interesting address under the auspices of the United Service Association at the Masonic Hall last evening. About 80 officers and ex-officers, as well as several ladies, were present. Colonel Hume presided, and expressed pleasure at the presence of their visitor. In the course of a most interesting address, General Richardson dealt with the past military history of New Zealand, and our past and future problems. His mind ran on Imperial linos, and this aspect of the matter , would be largely dealt with. After bvieliy dealing with ex-Presidenb Wilson’s' 14 Points, the Covenant of the League of Nations, the Washington Conference, the special report recently brought out by Sir John Salraond (New Zealand’s delegate at the Con- i fereuce), and the Treaty of Versailles General Richardson said lie was not going to speak on future wars or past wars, but wanted to deal with present problems. The world was going through a phase similar to that which it had Wu through before, as, for instance, after the Napoleonic war. What was wanted to-day was an Empire army and an Empire navy, and every part of the Empire must play j a fair part. One rarely heard of Empire Obligations, yet wo are all part (of one Empire, and must in time of ■ trouble help to maintain its integrity, j Regarding the position of France, he said to-day it had Die largest army lin the world. Politically France was hard to analyse, but she had lost so j much that we ought to sympathise to some extent with her. At the same time whether polities was playing Hie ■ right game was hard to say. Passing , ;on to Germany, General Richardson i reminded his hearers that after Juno i she was allowed a standing army of 40,000 men, hut she got over the difficulty by training on a short-ser-vice system, which allowed her to expand/ A nation must not ho judged by its standing army, hut by its capacity to expand. In Russia a large army was necessary, because her transport system, railways, etc., were in a chaotic state. Referring to the reduction in “the British Army, the speaker said he wanted the trend of his remarks to show that a nation could not afford to reduce her military machine below a ] breaking point, as an army could not be extemporised. The British army is being reduced to such an extent that it would he very hard to meet all obligations, as theland frontiers had' been increased. It was now more than ever incumbent on overseas Dominions to remember that all future questions would be oL Empire defence. Was it fair to leave it all to the British “Tommy”? New Zealand did supply its quota during the war, but he emphasised that our army was not intended for Empire defence, and that a superior force at decisive points was the deciding factor. If Australia was invaded, were we going to leave her to do the job? No. Wo wore all one, to stand or fall as we did in the last war. War could be stopped by being strong, not by being weak. General Richardson proceeded to deal with and combat i certain fallacies. It bad been said' that the Territorial force could be done "away with because our men were so good that they could be trained in a Tew weeks. Try and visualise, ho said, that the Panama and Suck Canals represent doors that could ho easily shut. Here we stand alone in the Pacific. Old officers knew that ■ Iwe could not extempore; we could train a man to form part of a ma- •, chine, but if we had batteries and battalions we could fill them up. We must, he insisted, have the machine in which to } merge the men. To-day the New Zealand force was going through the economic process, and no said no Department was doing more to economise than the Defence Department. Going on to deal With the history of the New Zealand force, he divided it into six periods (1) 184561: Period of dependence on British Government and British amy; (2) 1861-64: Period of co-operation for 10.cal defence; (3) 1865-99: Self-reliant; period; (4) 1899-1911: Recognition of Empire obligations; (o) 1912-19: Uni- * versal military service and practical ' application of the principle of' cooperation in Empire defence .in the Great War; (6) 1919-23: Reconstruction period. In dealing with the various periods General Richardson amplified his points in an interesting way, and said that it was probable that if there was any future war it would lie entirely of tanks, aircraft, and mechanical devices. Still, he did not want to convey a wrong idea; men, not material, won wars. Spirit and morale were required, which could he built up only by long training. At the close of the lecture a number of interesting lantern slides were shown dealing with various subjects.

A hearty vote of thanks was accorded by acclamation to General Richardson.