THE NEW ZEALAND SOUDAN CONTINGENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7272, 10 March 1885, Page 5

THE NEW ZEALAND SOUDAN CONTINGENT.

THE DEFENCE MINISTER ON THE SITUATION. [Bγ telegraph—owti cobrespondent.] Wellington, Tuesday. The Colonial Secretary has replied to a telegram by Lieut. A. D. Bennett, of Auckland, which stated " that a number of men who desired to beenrolledintheNewZealand Soudan contingent proposed to leave Auckland and join the contingent being raised in Australia." The Colonial Secretary says in his telegram : —"Nothing cau be done nntil Parliament meets, but whatever force the Government, under the direction of .Parliament, may raise, it will be one that shall be creditable to the colony, and led by its own responsible officers." Ajiropos of the movement now so popular, I heard the Defence Minister to-aay give expression to the following opinion, which I took down as he spoke it, and obtained leave to publish : — "It appears to me that the greatest, assistance which New Zealand, or any other colony, could give to England would be to fut itself in a complete state of defence, speak only my own personal opinion. It is of little advantage to England to send her soldiers from the colony if the colony is left by such action completely defenceless ; but if the colonies put themselves in a satisfactory state of defence England would be relieved of mach anxiety in respect to them, and of the burthen of a constant vigilance which entails on her a great deal of expense. Her libercy of action at a crieis would be much enhanced. There would be no use sending her men for a foreign campaign who were nofc trained for active service. Raw soldiers would be more or less in the way, that is, she could not use them because she could not depend upon them, and they would require to be officered by superior men. Such soldiers or such officers as would be required are not to be picked up every day in the street. There is a great deal of what is commonly called humbug in the talk we hear every day about sending men to assist England. We know some of the persons who have applied to the Government or proffered their assistance. They are knovvn to many as mere loafers. If the coloniea were in a complete state of defence, England could rely upon the men they would send her as being trained and prepared for war, ready to her hand at the right time."