DEFENCE ECONOMIES

Southland Times, Issue 19508, 6 May 1922, Page 8

DEFENCE ECONOMIES

THE POLICY CRITICISED. TRAINING A MERE PRETENCE. (Special to the Times.) WELLINGTON, May 4. Tn view of the recent world happenings,” says the Evening Poet to-night, “There will be many who will question the wisdom of' the Government in ordering such extensive retrenchment in the Defence Department. The personnel Of the Department has been cut down to such a low ebb that the question may well be asked as to whether the country is now getting any real value at all for the money being expended. The value of the Defence Department expenditure must be measured by the numbers in training and the extent to which they receive instruction. Can the Government say that for the amount of money being spent to-day the country is getting the same proportional value as for the larger sum voted in previous years ? Has not the Defence Department policy developed largely into a system, of simply retaining the services of a certain number of highly qualified officers and reduced thd numbers in training to a more or less skeleton force, and the amount of training they are to receive to a mere pretence?”