THE New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1901. BRITAIN’S MILITARY SPIRIT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1514, 7 March 1901, Page 34

THE New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1901. BRITAIN’S MILITARY SPIRIT.

If the British War Office is not acting on the policy, enunciated by Mr Arnold White, of adjusting the .Imperial defences to Imperial needs, it is evidently determined, pending the announcement by the recently-appointed commissioners of necessary reforms in methods and organisation, to be adequately supplied with “sinews of war.” Our cablegrams have informed us that the Army Estimates for 1901-1902 amount to nearly eighty-eight millions sterling, and provide for an effective force of 450.000 men. Seldom in the history of the British nation has the taxpayer been asked to provide so enormous an expenditure for defence and conflict. It is, true that the long: Napoleonic wars caused the British people to expend in twenty years something like 620 millions' sterling; but the expenditure of eightyeight millions in the manner proposed by the Estimates for the year 1901-1902 is quite unprecedented. Of course, in this proposed expenditure is included the amounts necessary to make reparation and to provide gratuities to the relatives and friends of the killed and wounded in the Transvaal war. Pensions will also be awarded to the widows and children of those who have died as the result of active operations. This is a humane as well as necessary provision. It has too long been a charge against the British nation that the soldier’s widow and orphan have been forgotten in the flush, of victory. It is essential that those who depended on him who fell fighting the nation’s battles should be made to realise, as far as material comforts can enable them to do so, that the nation is prepared to assuage their, sorrows and compensate them for their loss.

The outstanding feature of the situation disclosed by the. Army Estimates is that the British are still a fighting people, and are prepared to meet boldly any emergency. It has been the pleasure of our enemies to gloat over our discomfiture, and any vigour displayed by them in making extensive preparations for war has been regarded as a successful movement towards the overthrow of British supremacy and power. The French have always cultivated an exuberant hostility for their neighbours across the English Channel, and have repeatedly planned an invasion of the British Isles. Giving vent to this hostility, an eminent Frenchman, more than forty years ago, wrote—'‘Destiny has already marked on the dial-plate >of empires the hour of England’s) decline. Before 1899 the haughty Mistress of the Ocean will have sunk to the level of Holland. America • and Russia, the two Romes of the future, will long ere then have occupied the vacant space. The British Empire may possibly struggle on a few years longer, but that it is doomed, and that its palmiest days have set for ever, no reasonable man can doubt.’* When we are able to vote £87,915,000 for war purposes two years after this l precious forecast was to find fulfilment, it is surely a forcible negation to the prescience of the prophet. The point to* 6 be emphasised is that the first step towards placing the British Army on an efficient footing ha 3 been taken. Some regard a social reform in the army as the first step to raising its status and efficiency. It is recognised that rank and fortune do not make men soldiers, and the experience of the present campaign has pro? ed that the officer of high social standing has not been the man to win honour and fame. However, the pay for military service has been inadequate, and

many young men of grit and brain have preferred a, civil career to that which the army offered. The various increases now provided for in the different branches of the service are doubtless intended to improve the prospects of the capable, but not wealthy soldier. Leaving out of consideration the fifty-eight millions required for “war services” and reparation, there remain of the total vote nearly thirty millions for ordinary services. That allows for an expenditure of nine millions more than last year, and for the maintenance of a permanent army of 220,000 men —an increase of 40,000. The effective forces, which exceed that figure by 230,000 men of all ranks, are to be regarded as temporary forces on account >of the war, and they will be maintained until August next, after which they will be gradually reduced. But besides all this, greater encouragement is being offered to the militia and volunteers. The strength of the irregular and partially trained forces is to be brought up to 3(5,000 men, and, as it may he presumed, xhe majority of those retiring from the effective force will become attached to the reserve, the fighting numbers of the British people will be higher *thaii they have been at any period in the nation’s history. We may anticipate tjhat a spirit of militarism will now permeate all sections o-f the Anglo-Saxon race. Opportunities will be taken to cultivate a martial spirit in all ranks of society, and volunteering and rifle clubs will receive the ■ approval and patronage of the State in a greater degree than Hitherto. While the philanthropist and social reformer will regret expenditure being made in warlike preparations, the political economist will regard it as necessary if the British nation is to maintain its position in the world. The hour is not yet when swords shall be beaten into ploughshares, and all expenditure on war must still be counted as essential to the Empire’s defence and independence.