COMPULSORY TRAINING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20407, 8 November 1929, Page 13

COMPULSORY TRAINING.

SUSPENSION !N AUSTRALIA. SOME UNFAVOURABLE VIEWS. In military circles in Melbourne the proposal to suspend compulsory training in Australia and with it the military camps at Seymour, Broadmeadows, and Queenscliff, is regarded with considerable concern by men who have devoted a great amount of their time in building up an efficient and enthusiastic citizen force. They are dismayed at the prospect of their work being shattered. It is considered that in the event of training being suspended for any length of time enormous difficulty would be encountered in rebuilding the organisation and in rekindling the enthusiasm with which trainees now embarked upon their short military career. . The camps which will be affected in Victoria are those of the Third and Fourth Infantry Divisions, the Second Cavalry Division, and the Garrison Artillery. The first camps were to have started in February, and training would continue until the end of March. It is understood that a saving of about £50,000 is expected. •

A leading military officer said in discussing the question that the Australian system of compulsory training was conducted as cheaply if not more cheaply than that of any other nation. Under the old system of voluntary training, it was often found that when a man had been fitted up with a uniform and accoutrements, and had received preliminary instruction, he changed his mind and declined to continue the work. Additional expense was then involved in fitting out someone else., with the possibility of a similar result.

One of the greatest dangers to be apprehended from the proposed suspension, the officer adde.d, was the lack of contact with the men who now were enthusiastically giving their leisure time in attending training camps. Were these men to be lost a. colossal task would face the military authorities in building up a new organisation and in reviving interest, which had been created. After fighting for many years hostility to the compulsory system of training, the prospect could only' bo viewqd with alarm.