IMPERIAL DEFENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14245, 20 June 1908, Page 4

IMPERIAL DEFENCE

i *. , By Lixk-ahkad. - i 'Ask any Now Zealand boy (old or young) j Vdiat lines of Kipling's he favours, and ' if he bo an average specimen, he, without ' hesitation, will say: ' 'And yo vaunted year fathomless power, and yo ilMinted your iron pride, 1 Ere—he fawned on the Younger Nations (or i the men who could shoot and ride. t 'Advocate military training for our young ' men, and though, perhaps, the words < may differ, that will be tho spirit of the i answer, , i About tho same time our Imperial poet \ penned a complimentary poem tu ''The ' Islanders." A fragment is my text: ' Let us admit it 1 fairly, u a husinsss people ' should, I Wc have lad no end of a lesson: it will do. < us no end o( good. .' • . ( It was our fault, and our very great fault— ' and now we must turn it to una; i ■\To havo forty million reasons for failure, l but hoi a single excuse! So the nioro we work and the less we talk- 1 tho better results we shall g e l— ' •Wo have had an Imperial lesson; if, will '' make us an Empire yet. ] Has New Zealand learned its lesson? At the Colonial Conference of 1907, the de- \ fenceof the Empire was discussed by the colonial representatives and Mr Haldane, the Secretary of State for War. It is ' my intention to deal only with the state- ' ments made, which, while affecting the ' Umpire as a whole, concern Now Zenland in particular. It will be gathered : that Great Britain has, in rc-organising ] lier forces, shouldered her responsibility; ' Canada, has an effective militia; Natal lias ; a compulsory military service; Mr Deakin Las introduced a measure which, statesmanlike and masterly, will pass, if not in its entirety, in a slightly amended form. What is the position of Now Zealand today? Read the remarks of Sir J. G. Ward, and compare them with our own knowledge of the Defence Force of the Dominion. As Mr Haldane outlined the scheme on ' which the discussion took place, I will : quote him rather fully. The Secretary of' \ State for War said : ■ To pluuge at ouoe into tilings, the effect oi tho war in South Africa msido ' a profound impression on the mincU of our advisers here. Wo realised that • Wo bad gone into that war without . adequate preparation for war on a great scale, and that we had never fully apprehended the importance of the maxim ■that all preparations in, time of peace ' mast bo preparation for war; it is of no •use unless it is designed for that; it is tho only justification for tho niaintcnanco of armies-tko preparation of war .... The practical point that we Lave to .put before you is the desirability of a certain broad plan of military organisation for the Empire. We know that you have all got tout own difficul- ■ tics and tho idiosyncracies of your own people to deal with. ... I have circulated four papers for the information of tho Premiers. The first of these, ■which are prepared by our experts here, deals with' tho " Strategical Conditions of tho Empire from a Military Point of View," and it calls attention to the three great principles—first of ail, the obligation of each self-governing community ', to provide, as far as possible, for its own local security; secondly, the duty of srrauging for mutuai assistance on some definite lines iu case- of supreme common need; and, thirdly, tiio necessity for tho m&inteuanco of that sea supremacy which can atone insure any military co-opcra-tion at all. Then the paper goes on to indicate- what wo are trying to do in making our contribution to this end: First, organising troops for home defence to repel raids—that is, the territorial army; secondly, a striking forcetin J expeditionary force is the proper phrase,—tho striking force is that small portion of it designed to act swiftly, or.d ready to assist any part of the Empire; thirdly, a navy capable of maintaining command of 'tho sea. These principles may be said to represent the remit of our reflections upon the events of the late war. At home we havo our territorial army. That would bo our second line. In Canada, you have your Canadian Militia, a creation which may be said in its •innctiou and purpose to correspond with what, in our mind is the territorial army. Mr Deakin lias the same idea in his mind in organisation, and 1 think ■ Sir, Joseph Ward has also, and I believe the saino idea is in tho minds oi the Sonth African Premiere. So that it seems to me we have all of us got the broad idea of this distinction, between the first; or expeditionary, force and the second, or home defence, lice,' in our— beads. Ii it were well' worked' out, if the fact is made to correspond to the idea, then it seems to mo the Empire would bo defended as no other nation in the world is defended, because its Tesources would be available jiom so many quarters. But in- order to work <ra a common pattern it is necessary that wo should havo a common conception, and tba common conception, a matter of groat intricacy and great complication when, you come to details, can only adequately be supplied by the most skilled advisers, and that is where the -utility of tho General Staff cornea iu. My main purpose in addressing die conference is to suggest, for your acceptance, tho opinion that tho General Staff which we havo created at homo and whicb is k' its infancy, should as far as possible m Inrporiad character. •I will define whatt I mean. It is not that wo wish in tho slightest degreo to • suggest that you should boiv your heads to any direction • fiom home in military mutters, hat tho General Staff officer should havo as his funotion this: Trained in a great common school, recruited it may he from the moat varying parts of the Empire, but educated in military science according to common principles, he wouM, bo at the disposition of the local Government or of the local Commander-in-Chief, whether h e wore Canadian, British, or Australian or New Zealandor or South African, for giving advice or furnishing information based •upon tlie highest military study of tbo time. The General Staff is a class by itself in the army. . . . It is & purely advisory body, of which command is not . a funotion. If these things were organised, and if wo wer? to bring about such an interchange of officers as would tend to make the work of the General Staff in the largest sense the work of n military mind which had surveyed the defence of the Empire 'as a whole, it would, it soems to me, do much to bring about that uniformity of .pattern, in organisation and iu weapons, and in other details regarding military matters, which is to some extent essential if there is- to bo effective co-operation in a great war. The Canadian Defence Minister detailed todiat was done in Canada in regard to the Militia, approved of the General Staff cooperation, but coinbatted the proposal to set apart a body of men labelled "Expeditionary Force." Mr Deakin briefly referred to his compulsory training proposals (which cater for homo defence alono), objected to the interchange of units (battalions, batteries, or companies) as "almost impracticable," but thoroughly agreed with the General Staff interchange of officers. The South African representatives spoke highly in favour of compulsory training (instancing their trouble in Natal as a case in point), and went further, advocating the establishment of a branch of the Expeditionary Force in each self-governing State. It was left to our own Prime Minister to elaborate tho following theory: "I would like much to say that upon this question of the interchange of units and officers I hold a most pronounced - opinion. Unlike my friend Mr Deakin, I think that New Zca- . land could arrange for the interchange of units. We have tbo Volunteer system there; wo have for years had all the ordinary organisations referred to by Mr Deakin in the matter of cadets and riflo ranges, and these are being extended for private citizens all over tho country. Iu connection with our Volunteer system, Tin: ONLT TIiOUBLK WE HAVE IS TO* XKEI" THE KCMiißits down". All over our country •we havo the very best class.of men offerto join our Volunteer corps. They are encouraged by men in every responsible position yon e?/j name in the country. (Jur captains of industry, our kings of commerce, the members of tbo administration of the day, and the officials connected with our important State Departments, and the rank and filo of those departments realise that it is on tbo popular basis of .1 Volunteer system that we havo to provide for the internal defence of our country, and in the event of trouble arising they are the source of our internal defence, and wo encourage (?) it in every possible way. Now I have no doubt in my own mind that if there were—perhaps liot in an extensive way in tho first jistajice—an interchange;of Vmitaof Vol\m<

leers from bnth parts of (lie world, I do not ray with the Militia, because wo have no Militia in New Zealand, bnL if there was mi interchange of units, as between the Old Country and ourselves, I have no hesitation whatever in saying that we would be able to get from' time to time a body of men. not from any ohe particulf.v part of the uolony, but selected from portions of it, with'the instruction and information upon detail so essential in times of trouble, that they may come back, and by permeating the country, so to speak, be able to inspire and infuse into others something of the enthusiasm yott arc trying to inspire in the Old) World, and it brings about a feeling that the interchange of individuals iu the rank and tile tends certainly to a desire for unity and a desire for co-operation, and that that is not to be confined to the officers only." When asked to explain away the difficulties of pay, employment on return, etc., our Prime Minister was hopelessly cornered. The foregoing is, however, commended to the National Service League. In the course of the ensuing discussion (although 10 minutes previously having advocated the exchange of units- at a high rate of pay), our Defence Minister said: " We are against anything in the nature of a standing army." And this is the bogey with which he endeavours to frighten the universal military training enthusiasts. Next session, I hope that Sir Joseph will be able to explain bis speechos on Defence at tho Colonial Conference of 1907. His questioners might seize as a fair bone of contention "The only trouble is to keep the numbers down!'' Numbers of what? Those outside the force? I await the session with interest.