A VOLUNTARY DEFENCE SYSTEM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21390, 18 July 1931, Page 10

A VOLUNTARY DEFENCE SYSTEM.

Whatever may be the disadvantages attaching to the new voluntary system of military training in New Zealand —- and they are obvious —there is one outstanding advantage which it will possess over the discarded compulsory system. In the new units there will be no place for the indifferent and the lazy, for the recalcitrant and the sullen, and it is safe to anticipate that as a result soldiering will become a pursuit as engrossing as other avocations which repay the participant directly in proportion to the enthusiasm and energy which he brings to his tasks. To young men who have an inclination for mild adventure less vicarious and more absorbing than that which is obtainable in a theatre seat or behind the wheel of a motor car, the launching of a recruiting campaign in the Otago district presents an opportunity that in jtself should not be unattractive. It offers to them a field of public service of which they themselves, as well as the whole community, may derive the benefit. Moreover, they will probably not be slow to appreciate that they are being asked to ally themselves with no insignificant military organisation. The Otago Regiment, to which infantry recruits will become attached, has a long and honourable record of service, hardly less noteworthy in point of years than that of any of the famous British regiments—the East Surrey Regiment, the Wiltshires, and the Cameronians —to which it is allied. The cadre of the regiment has been maintained since the compulsory training system was abandoned and furnishes the nucleus around which the new establishment may be built. The Otago Mounted Rifles can trace its origin back almost fifty years, and a formidable list of engagements in South Africa and the Great War pays tribute to the quality of the services it has rendered to the Empire. Likewise, the 14th Medium Battery and the 12th Field Battery possess traditions that entitle them to claim direct kinship with the most famous of British artillery divisions. The units as they are now being reconstructed have not lost their identity with the organisation of the past, and the young man who answers the recruiting call will have the proud knowledge that he is allying himself with an oldestablished worthy military establishment. ,He may be moved also —for youth is always ambitious if a trifle thoughtless—by the consideration that in the contingency of the country having need of soldiers for active service in the future, those who-have trained in settled times of peace would naturally be selected for posts of responsibility in the military forces. But it is to be hoped that the reflection that will carry most weight in causing the regimental quotas in the district speedily to attain full strength will be the recognition that at the present time no country can safely dispense with a defence force which could, if the emergency arose, render patriotic service. Unfortunately the proportions of the new organisation that is being formed on a post-war voluntary basis will be strictly limited. The effectiveness of it must, therefore, depend upon the sense of public service in its recruits and upon the enthusiasm they exhibit. It may be hoped that there will be more than a sufficient number of young men in the district possessed of the necessary attributes to ensure that the ranks of the units will be speedily filled under a selective process.