MILITARY TRAINING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23220, 18 June 1937, Page 8

MILITARY TRAINING

The references to military training that were made at the reunion of the Dunedin Highland Pipe Band this week will be cordially endorsed by a large section of the community. They touch a question of which the importance is not to be denied. Most people will probably have little difficulty in agreeing that the effect of military training upon those who undergo it should be beneficial, involving as it does instruction and discipline and improvement of the physique. While the proposals of the Government for the organisation of sport go a certain way in the promotion of the physical wellbeing of the population, it is a sound suggestion that if more young men would get into uniform and attend military training an improvement would be brought about in the manhood of the country. When it comes to the question of making such training compulsory, however, a somewhat sharp division of opinion is encountered. The Government has not shown itself at all favourable to the introduction of the principle of compulsion, but it must be cognisant of the failure of the volunteer system of training to provide a territorial quota commensurate with the circumstances of the Dominion. The dominions have a duty which they cannot shirk in the matter of providing, so far as possible, for their own security. But if the percentage of young men in New Zealand trained in such a way as to be.able to contribute to the defence of the country if need be, is to be distinctly negligible, it cannot be said that the country is showing foresight or self-reliance, or facing its responsibilities. In the published summary of the Imperial Conference discussions there is no reference, nor would any be expected, to intimate details of the defence preparations of Great Britain and the dominions, but it is reasonable to suppose that the dominion delegates were impressed, as a result of the Conference, with a deepened sense of the importance attaching to courageous defence policies on the part of the several Governments concerned. The example set by Great Britain in this respect is clear-cut, and the logic behind it is unanswerable. Unless the dominions are to be content to lean upon the Mother Country for protection to an extent for which there would be no justification, even were it not at the risk of their own security, they must, proportionately to their resources and needs, follow the example of Great Britain. In the case of New Zealand so far as defence is a local responsibility the question of the military training of the manhood of the country merits consideration as a method of contribution to the Empire's strength in this part of the world which it rests upon this country either to make or to neglect.