THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1902, POPULARISING THE ARMY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12071, 15 September 1902, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1902, POPULARISING THE ARMY.

We do not suppose that any reasonable opponent of " miiitaryism" objects to .Army reforms which have for their purpose the humanising of the soldier's life. Doubtless those who desire to see the Empire broken up, not realising that political chaos would then reign where law and order now dominate, would sympathise more with regulations which would completely close the army to all self-respecting men. But all others must approve warmly of wellweighed changes, the effect of which must be to raise the standard of recruiting and make the Army popular with a good class of men. The exceedingly large number of old soldiers who have become respected colonists is proof positive that the rank and file of our Imperial troops have never deserved the odium which once attached itself—in time of Peace— the man who " went for a soldier." But on the other hand it cannot be questioned that the often unnecessary stringency of the regulations and the petty privations needlessly incurred in barrack-life ?

did commonly exclude from the ranks the average respectable man- The army was too generally regarded as a last resort of the reckless, the incapable, the despondent, the unfortunate, outside of those soldier families whose sons wore raised with a uniform in view and from whom, by the way, so many non-commis-sioned officers have come. The records of the British Army show what discipline and patriotism can do with this material when obedience -'o orders is made the ideal virtue of the soldier. But the increasing difficulties of recruiting have compelled the War Office to seriously consider the question and the wise decision has been arrived at to endeavour to make the Army an organisation to which no young man need be ashamed to belong. For when all is said and done, it is only by drawing into the ranks young men who look upon their period of service as in no way wasted, and who can anticipate that their soldiering is only a prelude to an honourable civic life, that the taint still lingering about enlisting can be removed. The conditions of the Imperial service are not in themI selves repellant to adventurous | young men, but the very reverse. ' The smallness of our regular military forces, as compared to the vast territories to be occupied and the tremendous frontier to be warded, is very remarkable. The work is only accomplished by an activity and dispersemeat which no other nation even attempts to rival. There is always a "little war.'' There is incessant foreign service. There is a perpetual strain upon the power of what is relatively the smallest military organisation ever known in the history of great empires. And in the gift of the Imperial authorities are very numerous employments, while the great industrial concerns could easily find room for every deserving and industrious man who has served his time with the colours. If the standard of recruiting can be raised—and it must be raised to keep the ranks full—there is no reason why the short term of service now in vogue should be a detriment to a young man's career in life. The time-expired soldier, who becomes a civilian reservist, j may, in the near future, have cause to know that the training which empowers him to strengthen his country in time of danger is an advantage to him in time of peace. This is what ought to be. But before it can be, it must cease to be regarded as a sign of some flaw in character to take the King's shilling. The Army must be made attractive enough to be popular. When it is popular enough to enable the authorities to apply a mild Cromwellian test and to refuse a would-be recruit for moral as well as physical insufficiency, we shall hear no more of the difficulties of the discharged soldier and shall forget the strange era when heroes of Balaclava died in the workhouse.

j The value of the Army order suraI marised in our cable messages of j this morning may seem insignificant i as a factor in wide-reaching Army reforms. But the pin-prick is notoriously one of the most effective of irritants and by this order a variety of pin-pricks are abolished. To those who do not smoke the regulation forbidding a soldier in uniform to smoke on the streets meant nothing, but 'the vast legion of smokers will realise at once the relief which has been afforded. One of the paradoxes of the Army has been that the punishment of defaulters increased the "fatigueduties" of the faultless, owing to the withdrawal of the former from their share of necessary work. So much irritation has this caused that the Rev. Mr. Hardy, the well-known Army chaplain, has written it down that, as a last resort, persistent defaulters are '"' dealt with" by their comrades, while Autnority looks another way. Now the defaulter will carry coals and otherwise contribute to the leisure of the man who behaves. A similar flavour of justice and common sense runs through the rest of the alterations, the total effect of which is the all-important one of making a soldier more of a man and less of a machine. That he is being recognised as doing useful and honourable work, while training for the defence of his country in branches which demand "regulars," and as entitled to exemption from all frivolous, unnecessary and antiquated duties, which infringe his leisure and have no useful purpose, is not only a great step, but a step which is altogether in the right direction.