THE DEFENCE QUESTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14047, 29 April 1909, Page 6

THE DEFENCE QUESTION.

NEW ZEALAND'S SYSTEM.

WORKING ON WRONG LINES.

MR. JAMES ALLEN'S VIEWS.

UNIVERSAL TRAINING.

[lIY TELEGRAPH.— PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

Dunxdin", Wednesday. At Milton to-night, Mr. James Allen, M.P., addressed a meeting of his constituents on the subject of defence. He alluded at length to the wild rate at which shipbuilding is proceeding in Germany and England, causing a burden that was bearing those countries and others down. Those who had read the debate on the British Naval Estimates must come to the conclusion that in 1910 or 1911 not only would Britain have lost the twoPower standard, but the chances were that Germany would be more than equal with her. It was necessary now to define anew the expression "control of the sea." Any scheme involving a subsidy, or otherwise, ultimately meant, as we were coming to the Mother Country's aid, that the Mother Country must give us representation. To his mind what they ought to do was to endeavour to get t' is representation, for one reason in order that our people might be assured that some definite policy applicable to • the whole Empire was to be followed, each part doing its share, and for another reason because without this representation we were in the dark as to what was being done, and as to the reason for the expenditure of our money. Then it should be decided as to how much each portion should give towards the main fleet, if anything was necessary to be given by the outlying portions towards the main fleet.

In addition to that, said Mr. Allen, the various portions of the British Empire interested in particular seas should join hands to police those seas and to protect their trade routes. He had no doubt he was long before the time in these ideas in New Zealand, but he could not help believing that ultimately we must come to some such conclusion, and he put these ideas forward in order that they might sink into the public mind, and be gauged for what they were worth. He wished to point out that the Imperial Conference, which sat only two or three years ago, made it perfectly clear to all the outlying portions of the Empire that they must provide for their own local prosperity. He believed it would be a righteous and a just thing for us to say to the British- • crs : "We will relieve you of the responsibility of your Australasian Squadron and of the expense." Some of the vessels were of little use to us. In his opinion the Australians were going on entirely right lines generally, though he was not prepared to agree with all their details. More than that, they were backed up by expert opinion, as expressed at the Colonial Conference. They had adopted a statesmanlike proposal for the defence of their shores. Would that we in New Zealand had some statesman at the head of affairs who could take a similar grasp of the situation and make rome such provision. He could not view the situation in New Zealand and the attitude of the powers that be without grave disquietude. We were relying upon a volunteer system. We had an inadequate harbour defence; docks and other works were not protected as they ought to be. He gave ©very praise to those of our people who belonged to the volunteers. Their devotion to their work and their self-sacrifice were beyond all praise, and he did not hesitate to say that they were more efficient than they were some years ago. Therewas not much more work required of them than in the past, but they ought to be "given time to prepare for the defence- of their country. There were men who simply scoffed at those who were doing this duty, and that state of things could not be endured any longer. Apart from that, he went on to say, the volunteer system itself did not produce the results required. He had only to call attention to last Easter and to the facts as they were disclosed in the Otago district. In that district there were supposed to be 1730 officers, non-commissioned officers and men; the actual strength of the corps was 3776, and the attendance at the Easter camp was 1414, including 64 bandsmen and 307 cadets,-so that about 1043 men were all tho actual volunteers of mature age who turned out. Ho was not going into the efficiency of this force—there was not time and he referred his hearers to the Inspec-tor-General's report of last year. Though he had hung on as a volunteer officer year after year in the hope that things would better themselves, and that the young men of the country would realise what patriotism represented., he was now .forced into the position that (ho whole thing was on wrong lines and was a great waste of money. They had tried reforming the Commandant, they had tried the Defence Council, and -it was to be reformed, but the evil wag not there. It was deeper than that, it lay in the whole system, and he unhesitatingly said that the time had come when it was necessary to enter upon a system of universal training, where everybody would give something at any rate of his time and of his ability to the service of his country. The Prime Minister had frightened the people with the word " conscription." Those who favoured universal training had no such idea in their minds. Nothing was further away from the idea of universal training than this bugbear of conscription. It waS not that they were after, but it was a system that had been tried elsewhere and which had proved to a large extent a success. Such a system, from his reading, did not interfere with industrial capacities, and it aided towards the development of the' true citizen. He did not believe that the national training should end at ?1 years, as the Defence Minister had hinted. He believed in beginning with the cadet and carrying on the braining consecutively to 21, and he also thought from that time onward our men should be brought out annually for a certain amount of training, so that in the course of time there might be euch a force ready to take up arms that even a powerful nation would hesitate to come into conflict with us. He was aware that this needed more than the training of men ; it needed equipment and ammunition and other details which he would not go into. We were told, so far as New Zealand was concerned, it was our business to look after the defence of our own shores. We could not shirk this responsibility, and we could not make preparation for it in a day. It took years of preparation, and that was where the statesman came in: he had to look forward and see not just what was immediately before his view, but the possibilities of the years to come. He (Mr. Allen) looked forward to the day when the Commonwealth, New Zealand, and Canada might join hands to produce a. Pacific fleet, which would keep clear for us the trade routes of the Pacific, paid for out of our own money and manned by our own men.

Mr. Allen was thanked for his address, and a motion was carried in favour of universal training, both for naval and military defence.

"TO THE LAST SHILLING!" [BY TEL .;;iiArn. —I'EESS association.] Owaka, Wednesday. Speaking at a banquet tendered to the Hon. T. Mackenzie to-night, Mr. Anderson, M.P. for Mataura, said that the man who said this country should not he defended to the last shilling and the last man was a traitor. He hoped during the life of the present Parliament to see such steps taken as would prevent the possibility of Germans or Japanese violating our shores.