NAVAL AND MILITARY NOTES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15552, 9 March 1914, Page 5

NAVAL AND MILITARY NOTES

A (%a.«s for non-commissioned officers and men of the Garrison Artillery, who wish to quality for promotion, will be begun on luursday evening this week. The class it ; i! .at a-quarter to eight o'clock in the Drill Hall, and as the instruction gi\e.i v. ill be p.uticuiany interesting a. large attendance is anticipated.

A staff tour, in which only staff and senior officers of the Auckland military district will participate, takes place in the neighbourhood of Cambridge and Jiorrinsville from .March 23 to 26 (inclusive), and tactical exercises will be carried out by the officers engaged, although on a smaller sca.e than was the case during the recen' headquarter staff tour.

Captain W. L. H Burgess, Captain A. B Morton, and Lieutenant H. L. de F. Garland, all of the New Zealand StaffCorps, have qualified by examination in subject D for promotion. The undermentioned lieutenants m the Staff Corps nave been granted the temporary rank of captain:— Henry Peacock, George Walker, and Joseph Coleman. Lieutenant H. H. bright, Army Service Corps, has been granted the temporary rank of captain whilst employed as Assistant Director of Supplies and Transport.

According to Colonel Johnston, director of ordnance, who has been inspecting the Garrison Artillery camps in the South, there is a scarcity of young men coming forward who are ready and willing to take up commissions in the artillery and capable of qualifying for what is ready a very high grade of territorial work. Without competent, earnest, and enthusiastic officers, especially in a technical branch of the service, the rank and file cannot be expected to attain any high degree of efficiency.

On occasions there has been noticed a slackness on the part oi the members of ! the Defence Forces in the matter of saluting their superior officers. It may be' pointed out that a military salute is an entirely different thing to "touching the hat" in civil life, which is sometimes regarded as a sign of servility in the Dominion. The military salute is an honour paid to His Majesty's commission, and not at all necessarily to the individrai holding thai commission. AH officers, known tobe such, whether in plain clothes or in uniform, should always be saluted by territorials and by cadets when in uniform.

No territorial will be able to say that he did not know that lie had to attend camp, as every man has been notified in the clearest of terms that attendance at, the camp at Hautapu is compulsory, %vA { that he must be there from May 1 to May 9. Each man has also been instructed that his regiment will parade at the Drill Hall on May 1, the time to be announced later. Leave of absence "will be granted under the most exceptional circumstancesonly, and any applications for leave received aiter April 9 will net be considered. Those who. do obtain leave to be absent from the main camp will attend the casual camp, which lasts from May 15 to May 23.

The officers in charge of the various areas often receive letters from men who, having changed their addresses, have not received notice of the company to which they are posted. In many cases it is necessary to transfer the men, and they are told that they will get instructions. Owing to change of residence it sometimes happens that instructions do not reach the men, who think that that affords sufficient excuse to refrain from attending drill. But it may be pointed out that the responsibility of finding the nearest available drill centre rests upon the men, and not upon the- Defence Department. Any man can attend drill at any place, and it will be credited to him in the parade books of the company to which he belongs.

Oil fuel, vertical armour, and the ability to overhaul and cut down any destroyer afloat are the points claimed to be possessed by the new light-armoured cruisers, of which the first two, the Aurorora and Arethusa, have been launched at Devonport and Chatham respectively. Eight vessels of this class are row building, and they are considered to be the smallest, cheapest, and fastest type ever projected. Their province is to be" the eyes and ears of the battle fleet by day and night, in movement and at rest. Several experts consider that the days of the destroyer are numbered. The submarine, and now light cruisers, usurp its functions, and the ordinary destroyer bids fair to become obsolete. ' These new light cruisers are 50ft in length and will nave a speed of 30 knots.. Each of them will carry a number of 8-incb guns.

A lecture, entitled "The New Zealand Military Forces," was recently delivered to an intelligent class of officers at Home by Lieutenarit-Golonel J. T. Burnetts D.5.0., at one time Director of Military Operations in New Zealand. After cutlining the general scheme of Imperial defence, and the part played therein by New Zealand, the lecturer said that, since the South African war, the committee of Imperial defence and the Imperial general staff had become actual facts. Uniformity of organisation, equipment, and methods of training throughout the forces of the Empire were now an accepted principle. Australia and New Zealand had gone to work with characteristic promptitude, but along rather different lines, although both were working towards the same result. Having reviewed the condition of the old volunteer system, Colonel Burnett-Stuart traced in detail the making of the New Zealand Army as it stands to-day, emphasising the work done by all officers, from the General Officer Commanding to Area-Sergeants-Major. They are, he said, incessantly explaining the scheme to all and sundry; studying the special needs of employers, farmers, dairymen, shipowners, and miners; reassuring anxious parents; enlisting the aid of schoolmasters and ministers; urging patience upon the many who expected the new army to spring ready-made from the ground, and patiently bearing the attacks of a small but noisy band of anti-militar-ists. The military authorities, the lecturer continued, had received loyal support from Government and Opposition alike, and from the press. Great pains had been taken to make the annual camps as attractive and instructive as possible, and all officers had worked with a zeal and tact that could not have been surpassed. The people regarded the money well spent, both as an insurance premium against molestation and as the price of a national institution of great educational value. There was no doubt, concluded the lecturer, that if New Zealanders went on as they had started, and they certainly would go on, they would begin to possess an army of real value in war. The proper strength was real, and the names on the rolls not only represented real men, but men trained and equipped according to the regulations.