DEFENCE

Southland Times, Issue 14095, 29 April 1909, Page 6

DEFENCE

VOLUNTEER SYSTEM CONDEMNED. UNITE RSAL TRAINING ADVOCATED. (Per United Press Association.) MILTON, April 28. At Milton to-night Mr Allen, M.P., addressed a meeting of his constituents on the subject of defence. In the course of his address he said that, though he had hung on as a volunteer officer year after year In the hope that things would better themselves, and that the young men of the country would realise what patriotism really was, he was now forced into the position that the whole thing was on wrong lines and was a great waste of money. He added that in the Otago district there are supposed to be 4720 officers, non-com-missioned officers, and men, and yet at the last Easter encampment the attendance was 1414 (including 307 cadetaL Mr Allen advocates universal training, where everybody shall give something at anyrate of his time and of his ability to the service of his country. Nothing, he says, is furth;r from his mind than the bugbear of conscription: what he urges is a sys--9981 that has been tried elsewhere and has proved itself to a very large extent a success. He does not believe that this national training should end at 21 years. He would begin with the cadet and carry on the training consecutively to 21, and from that time onward men should be brought out annually for a certain amount of training; so that in the course of time there ought to be such a force ready to take arms at even the most powerful nation approximate to us would hesitate to come into conflict with us. We could not shirk this responsibility and we could not make preparation for it in a day. The Australians he contended, were going on right lines generally in the matter of defence, and they were backed up by expert opinion as expressed at the Colonial Conference. Mr Allen was thanked fcr his address, and the meeting carried a resolution in favour of universal training, both for military and naval defence.