NAVAL AND MILITARY

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4407, 13 July 1901, Page 3 (Supplement)

NAVAL AND MILITARY

REGULATIONS “POUR RIRE.” The editor of Army Orders, if there bo such a functionary at the War Of* fice, appears to possess a sense of humour. Otherwise he would scarcely have bracketed as new King’s Regulations an order as to “Surrenders in the Field” and a direction as to “Tho Length of Horses’ Tails.” . ■ Th e first Order for May is that for the reorganisation of the Yeomanry, with the Secretary of State for War’s instructions thereon, which appeared specially early in April; and the Order which follows as to surrenders in the field, laying down that any one hoisting the white flag shall be tried by court-martial, has also been specially published. But the law of horses’ tails is a novelty. It is a good law, however, which provides that such tails shall not fie less than twenty-one inches in length, and General officers at their inspections are to see that the instructions are adhered to. The resurrection of the reduced units of the Royal Artillery is one of those happy , ideas which cost nothing but are worth a great deal. In order to perpetuate the memory of distinguished services rendered by certain units of the Royal Regiment which have been at various times reduced, the King has directed that the batteries and companies named in the list appended to the order shall be considered as reformed from the reduced units as stated in each case, and shall adopt and carry on their traditions. The appearance of these regulations is an acceptable sign of the coming of the end. The country will welcome with gratitude and pleasure their general apnlication. . . No regulations, however excellent in themselves, are of any good unless they are observed, and they cannot he observed unless they are understood.—“ Broad Arrow.” THE LONG RANGE CRAZE. Colonel MaoLeod deprecates the idea of our spending large sums in order to satisfy what he describes as “the craze for long ranges for rifle practice.” In Colonel MacLeod’s opinion practical marksmanship is not improved through the agency of such ranges. . . There is undoubtedly much common sense in Colonel MacLeod’s ideas. It is all well and good that specially fine shots should train themselves at the longest distances, but it would be better for the army as a whole, we are disposed to think, if th 0 general course of musketry training could be made more practical. Only recently a well-known musketry officer, writing from South Africa in a letter to a friend, expressed the opinion that the Boers were wonderful shots. He went on to say:—“The more I see of their, performances with the rifle the more convinced I am that we are much behind the age in practical musketry training, and that great changes will have to be introduced. There is no denying that too much attention is paid in our service to long ranges.”—“Army and Navy Gazette.” THE FRENCH NAVY. The French Navy League does not appear to have caught on in France in the same way that the similar body has in Germany,' so at least we may judge, from the account of an interview accorded by its secretary to the representative of the Paris “Franco Militairo.” In reply to a query as to the prosperity of the institution, its secretary remarked that, unfortunately, its members at present were not sufficiently numerous to allow of its doing much useful work. The superior prosperity of the German Navy League is ascribed by him to the fact that in Germany the navy is loved, and the whole county is passionately interested in it. In this matter the Germans have yielded, he continued, to the influence of their Emperor, and from the day when the latter proclaimed “Our future is on the sea,” have spared no effort to render their country a great naval Power. But the progress which has been effected in this direction—the possession by the German Navy at the present moment of seventeen battleships, a number which will b e increased during the next five years to thirty-eight—could not have been achieved by the mere expression of an Imperial desire by the sovereign. The Emperor fully realised that more than this was necessary, and consequently set to work to engender and develop in his people a desire for maritime aggrandisement. As a means to this end the Navy League was former, was officially and both privately and publicly encouraged in every way, and with such success that, while th o French League has a- the present time a membership of 3800 only, th® German League can count 570,000. —“United Service Gazette.”