COMPULSORY TRAINING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21102, 12 August 1930, Page 6

COMPULSORY TRAINING.

WASTE AND INEFFICIENCY REFUTED. , STRIKING COMPARISONS. The charges of "waste” and “inefficiency " which have been levelled against the Defence Department in its operation «f the now suspended compulsory military training system were effectively answered yesterday by a Dunedin .territorial officer.

In a comparison with other countries of the British Empire, it was shown that the provisions of the Defence Act in Australia were practically identical with those in New Zealand. The Act provided for compulsory training in time of peace. At the present time, owing to financial stringency, and the advent of the present Government, the operation of the •compulsory clauses had been suspended, but the Act itself had not been repealed. The permanent ■ forces in Australia numbered about 1600, and the citizen forces had an establishment of 35,000. The military forces of- Canada were known as Active Militia, and were divided into two main portions: (a) The Permanent Active Militia, which was recruited voluntarily, and corresponded in its functions with the Regular Army at Horae. It had a • strength of about 3800; (b) _ the Non-per-manent Active Militia, which was also recruited voluntarily, and had a strength . of about 127,000, but if insufficient volunteers were forthcoming their numbers could be made up by ballot. In South Africa, the Defence Act provided for compulsory training in peace between the ages of 17 and 25. All those liable for training must register. - Should sufficient volunteers not be available to bring the Coast Garrison Force and the Citizen Force up to establishment, a ballot could be applied to procure the necessary; numbers. Persons liable for compulsory training who did not volunteer for service, or. who were not required in the citizen force, were required to fire an annual rifle course. The strength of the permanent force was 1400, and the coast garrison force and citizen force 6500. The respective strengths of the 1 land forces of Canada. Australia, and New ’■ Zealand (before the suspension of our ' compulsory system) and their populations were shqwn as follows: Canada. Australia. New Zealand. Permanent Froca.... 3,758 1,627 489 Force .... 3,758 1,627 489 Force .... 126,774 30,000 16,809 Cadets .. ,126,000 5,000 33,198 , Population 9,750,000 6,110,500 1,450,000 .It vas shown that the percentage of citizen forces to population in each of the three countries, was as follows: •Canada 1.3, Australia 0.5, and New Zealand 1.1. Australia’s percentage was thus less than half that of New Zealand, while Canada’s was more. The percentage of permanent forces to citizen forces was ’ still more striking when it was remembered that Canada and Australia were working under the voluntary system, while New Zealand was operating 'Under ■the compulsory system. That of Canada and New Zealand stood in both cases at 2.9, while that of Australia was 5.4. In the case of the percentage of permanent forces to all trainee’s (citizen forces and cadets) the difference was still more marked. Canada's figure was 1.4, Aus- . tralia’s 4.6, and New Zealand’s 0.98. This would give an idea of ho'w much was spent on New Zealand's compulsory system in comparison with the training eysterns of the other countries mentioned, in especial .application to the permanent force. Up to. the time of the suspension of New Zealand’s compulsory system, said the officer, the strength of the permanent force in New Zealand bad been cut down to i, minimum, the successive reductions from 1920 having been:— 1920, 1134; 1921, 847: 1922, 451: 1923, 441. In addition, other “cuts” had been made in the New Zealand system during,the years 1923-24-25, as foliow:—r(l) Closing dowliof schools of instruction: (2) ■ total cancellation of camps for three years; (31 ’ closing down of many drill centres; (4) reduction of service from seven years to two; (5) reduction of night parades in the territorials from 30 to 12 per annum. It was shown that this year, before the suspension of the compulsory system, the amount spent per head of population in the Domihion was 1.48 pence per week. With the reduction of the land and air defence vote to £275,000 this amount would be .87 pence per head per week—a saving of a little over Jd. The total amount expended on the compulsory system in 1929-30 was £464,595, - which included £60,397 spent on air force and aviation. 1 It was to-be observed that the Continental nations were riot inclined to adopt such 1 measures as had been put into effect in the suspension of the 'Compulsory sys- ' tern. There was an inevitable reaction against war after the terrible experiences of 1914-19X8, and there was the usual danger to he feared from such reactions—that they would sweep away too much, -it waa significant in this connection to remember the words of the Prime Minister . of England (Mr Ramsay MacDonald), while defending the Naval Treaty with the United States and Japan in the House of Commons last May:—“ Since the' failure at Geneva in 1927 great deterioration in the peace spirit has taken ?lace. I attribute no blame for that allure, but if hon. members will look at the shipbuilding programmes and various other military programmes since 1927 they will find that the failure at Geneva has been a great impetus to trusting once again to military preparation rather than the pursuit of-pacific ends. . . . We have signed treaties of peace, peace pacts like the Kellogg Pact, but, curiously enough, when we come to close purposes on the problem-of 'armaments ana the provision of arms, .the mentality of the ) assumptions regarding, how wars are to be kept off and national security established, we find deplorably little trust being placed nppn these peace pacts and the organisations to secure peace.” Tnfere had been many charges, said the officer, that the declaration of war in 1914 had found the compulsorily trained territoriala inefficient, and that they had been told on enlisting to “ forget all they had learnt.” To a certain extent that was true; but it was unfair to judge the compulsory system on the results obtained in 1914. It had been in operation then for only about two years, and in that ' time not a' great amount could be expected. At the outbreak of the war the best of the staff men had been taken away to fight. It had been desired to have ' as effective an expeditionary force as possible, as it had been thought that, owing to the size of the countries involved, and the tremendous expense which would be incurred, peace would he restored in about a year. This skimming of the cream of the staff had left the territoriala to be trained by men whose chief military experience had been gained in the Boer War, and whose teaching, consequently, • was out-of-date, owing to the meteoric development which, had taken place in methods of warfare even in the first year or two of the war. Notwithstanding, there was no doubt that these officers had done a great amount of good work as far as lay within their power. The officer referred to the experience of some 60 or 70 members of the • Wellington Regiment, New Zealand Expeditionary Force, who had witnessed a parade in Wellington when the Ist Battalion, Wellington Regiment, was being presented with new colours. They had watched it with critical and _ bad been so impressed with the steadiness and efficiency of the men that they had cheered them to the echo as they marched past the saluting base. That was the answer to those who said that the compulsorily trained forces of New Zealand were not.efficient, and that their maintenance was a waste of public money.