CHEAP SOLDIERS. Fair Wages in Peace, a Pittance in War.

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 131, 3 January 1903, Page 8

CHEAP SOLDIERS. Fair Wages in Peace, a Pittance in War.

APPARENTLY. New Zcvland was entnelv left out of the Wai Office wk'rac \. leieby it pioposos to ia>ise a cemi-iegular foiee of militia m Aastia'aa, nine thousand stioiiL,, to be at its beck and cail and under its cupei vision This dees not matter Any New Zealander who is of sufficient size round the chest w tli sound teeth, capable of masticating biscuits, may become an Australian, for the puip^es of gloi,>. The scheme concern & New Zealand equally with Australia, and, maybe (the Wai Office's idea 5 of gecgiaphy being assumed pio tern to be haz\) Nc\ Zealand ma\ have been deemed to be pa.it and paicel of Australia for the purposes aforesa d. * * ■» It is a queer scLem", and, to a lawman, seems absolutely and entnelv unnccebsairy On the same date two cables weie published, one about a banquet giveo to the well-known brigadier, Colonel Rumngton, saying that he could not have done without Austialian volunteers during his successful operations in South Africa, and another setting forth the desire of the War Office to traan men w *th a sup le Pie officer commanduig (who shall b<? Knglich), to be what they were not dm ing the late usr. They want nine thousand of these men, leadv at any time to ' up kit" and away to China, the Indian Bolder. Zululand, Basutoland or anywhere else

They w anted more than this number to go to Africa, and they could get them as fast as ships could take them, without having a depot of trained men to draw from. The mem that. Colonel Rimington could not do without weae not trained men, any more than his Afrikander "Timers" were. They were Australians, from town an,d bush, New Zealanders, from office and farm, Yankees, from ranche and cattle boat, and Canadians, from run and river. All w filing to throw everything to the winds to "go and have a cut." Unltrammelled by years of service and red-tape, the men weie "keen as mustard," and did good work. The War Office likes them keen, and so it is going to try te raise a force of that kind of person. * * *• It will give him a fair wage while- he ib doing not lung, and give him next to nothing when he is at work, 01 , in the w ords of the cable, "pay when abroad to be at English rates." There is to be no volunteering and glory business about the arrangement. You enlist for two years, and if the War Office v ants you it will take you from your partially-paid military duties in the colonies, and send you wherever it has one of its "daily wars" on, at the' rates ruling, which pains out at something under 2s< a day, with a struggle for "ordnance stores" throw n in • • * The War Office, instead of saying "We w ant nine thousand patriotic civilians, who can use ai gun, to help mow dowa the Mullah, or maxim a Mahdi," remarks that it will, at any moment, "demand" that nine thousand semisoldiers shall relinquish their billets in Australia to do what the} 7 will be stingily paid for, without the glory of volunteering for it. Is it a good scheme, whereby the Old Country may get sympathetic colonial soldiers to share any future hard knocks w itih Tommy ? Before this idea was mooted, the Old Country would have required only to hold up her finger to get as many volunteers for service as she required. -r * * There is no need for a small army corps for Imperial purposes in the colonies. The Old Country could have a large one of as good quality a 6 she got foi Africa without partial payment and stringent 1 gelations. It would be reasonable enough for the War Office to have a recruiting depot m Australia, w here colonials, who were aching to get mto 1 the Army, might enlist m any British regiment wanting recruits, but to establish a glorified civilian army, which at any time might be called away, and its pay reduced to a pittance, is an undertaking that will require the help of the proposed recruits. New ZeaJanders, go early to avoid the crush '