THE TERRITORIALS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 80, 24 May 1911, Page 5

THE TERRITORIALS.

CBJ LXT 011 V A .NS WE A ED: WHAT THE “MiUTAKV SEIIVITEDE” AMOUNTS TO. In Saturday's issue the W IMngion “Post” remarks editorially: Wo have published during the last few week's several letters of pretest against the , enforcement of the compulsory clauses in the Defence Act, and a few more appear to-day. It is hardly necessary to say that we. have not tiio faintest sympathy with any of these correspondents, hut we have thought it proper to let them h ive their fling, in order that our readers might sec the worst that can ho said against the great experiment to which this country is committed. It cannot bo said that the worst is very bad. Bad it may be in ins unreason, its lack of public spirit, and its ciuiic failure to grasp the perilous-position in which any rich, prosperous, and sparselypopulated country is placed in these days of gigantic and ever-growing armaments if it does not learn to defend itself. But that they are had in the sense of damaging to the cause which they attack is mov • than can he said of any of those letters. Some of our correspondents base their case upon so flagrant a misrepresentation of recent history as to suggest 1 hat they possess in abundance cno at least of the military virtues, via., courage. To accuse the Government of having forced the compulsory scheme upon the country, and to have done so under the inspiration ci Lord Kitchener. is to give both the Government and Lord Kitchener credit to which they- are not entitled. A ■•onvspoudent, the perversity of whose ncin in plume, “Semper Pro Patina,” is admirably sustained by the character cf his arguments, points to the highlysuspicious circumstance that at the time when rim Defence Act cf 1909 was passed Lord Kitchener was practically on iris way to N -v,v Zealand. “Was not that, therefore, an indication of the fact that Lord Kitchener, at the invitation, tacit or otherwise, of the Government, had engendered the spirit of the scheme?” This is prodigious! Lord Kitchener’s proposed visit to New Zealand had as much to do with the institution of that scheme as the visit of Commander Peary to Lire North Polo earlier in the same year. Nor had the Government anything to uko with it except as the passive instrument of tire people’s will, and what set the people moving was not Lord Kitchener, hut the feeling of insecurity engendered by the rapid development, of Germany’s naval programme. If ever there was a successful political movement in this country wnicli owed nothing to the inspiration of the Government of the day, it was the movement for compulsory military service, which culminated at the end of 1909. As premier and Minister of Defence, Sir Joseph Ward had opposed it right up to moment of his departure for the Defence Conference in June, hut public opinion ultimately proved too strong for him. Meetings in all parts of the country declared for the programme of tlfo Defence League, and such slight opposition as the movement encountered only served as a stimulus and an encouragement. Ministers hold corupletclv aloof until the return of Sir Joseph Ward, who, after what ho had hoard at the Defence Conference, may have proved a toady convert, hut did not laontrihute a word to the conversion of the country. The compulsory principle was then adopted by the Government, and popular fet-ling was loud in its approval of what it had so enthusiastically demanded. The ago limits fixed by the Act of 1909 ji-P MV cadets, and from 111 years to 21 in tiio Territorial Force. •. To meet the requirements of Lord Kitchener’s" r.chc-niQ tiio age was extended from 21 years to 2o in the following year, but" this extension is counter-balanced by wholesale exemptions, .which will restrict the actual’ number trained ' to about one-third of those’ actually : liable. Now, what arc the - obligations to which our young men are subjected by this cruel ami ton mb scheme? “Very few people realise the fact,” says one of our correspondents, “that when a youth attains his fourteenth birthday ho is caught by the now Defence Act and kept under tiio thumb of the Defence Department for sixteen years.” Few people, hided, have realised the horrors of this worse than German or Russian tyranny which, by some strange freak, lias boon set up in a country that once boasted of its tyranny, but one of them is “Scunner Pro Patria.” He also speaks of our youth as being “bound clown under a severe discipline from the age cf 14 to the ago ol 30.” He also has a gloomy vision of the young New Zealander “fettered by his military duties.” “Picture him in the bloom of manhood, and later the mature man, under the thumb of the military.” Now, wo really dare not contemplate such an appalling' picture of military tyranny, let alone paint it! When we heal iso hat “the best part of a man’s lifetime would lie spent thus, and, being naturally hampered, it would sour u life, and make him curse the day In was born, to be so checked,” we feci that the mines of Siberia would Kb a more habitable spot lor our young men than the land of their birth after the 2nd of next month. But what, have the Acts ‘and the regulations to say to these heartbreaking pictures? In the first place wo may knock live years off the sixteen years of penal servitude at one blow. * Two half-day parades or their equivalent are all that u ill ho required of a man during each year of Ids term in the reserve, t i.c., between the ages of 25 and 30 years. Our correspondents' may surely dry their tears so lav as they relate to the tyranny which "will make a man curse the day that he was horn din - ing these live years. Between the ages of 14 and 18 service in the. Senior Cadets will Involve fifty drills a year, six half-day parades, and a course of musketry. As a^ -drill will only last an hour and a hall-day only means three hours, the time of the labour involved will 1)0 trivial in comparison with what the average boy devotes between the ages in question to study or to athletics. It is the tyranny in the Territorial Force between the ages o! 18 and 25 that represents the real terrors of what we may call tiio Middle Passage in the voyage of the military slave. During each of these seven ycaj'S ho will have to undergo thirty drills of 1V hours, twelve' hall-day parades (3 hours each), or fix whole-day parades ((I hours each), seven days’ annual training in camp, and a prescribed course of musketry. Hero you have the very -dregs of tko bitter cup of military servitude. One correspondent takes out his handkerchief to lament tiio sorrows of tho parents who must cither pay C 5 for not registering their sons or “break up tho happy homo*” Wo must remind him on the one hand that paving the line will not release the obligation, and on the other hand that the happy home need only iio broken up for seven days in the year—a period shorter than those for which most happy homos are already broken up for the Easter or Christmas holidays For this vailing sacidlico Lord Kitchener tells us that tve

may guarantee the military seem it;; of oui country, which otherwise may be the prey of the weakest Power that can send a few transports across the seas. If you love your country, young man, it there is a spark of ! patriotism in you, play the man, and | enrol! SEPARATE UNITS. IIJf'HOP CLEARY’S PROPOSAL. Tim proposal emanating from Di I It.ay the Roman Catholic Bishop o, A.kU ai*«i. to form separate Cathq ic ccjiipai IBs of Territoiials and Cadets under the new defence scheme, is not mooting with universal aprovid in Auc'daml. ... The “Herald,” whilst abstaining front pronouncing a definite judgment in tin- absence of a statement ft out the Acting-Minister for Defence, indicated that the innovation does not moot with its support, n The paper says: “The proposal, however it originated, seems to have met with-the approval of tho military authorities, tnough its exact scope is not quite clear. Jt will be interesting to know the reasons which have led them to sanction it, and the advantages from a military point of view that they hope will accrue from its' adoption. To most people who regard the introduction of the spirit -of sectarianism into public life as an evil this attempt to import it into tho defence organisation of the Dominion is not likely to commend itself. To have a military force split up into regiments or companies composed entirely of Roman Catholics, or Anglicans, or Presbyterians, or Methodists may not seriously impair the efficacy of military training, but it must greatly weaken the homogeneity of an army. It is possible that in the present case the authorities hope by the system of segregation to enlist tho active support of the churches in national defence,_ but as it is open to many objections it would, wo venture to think, be vise to first learn how it is regarded by public opinion before finally embarking upon the experiment.” DUTY OF NATIONAL DEFENCE. Bishop Cleary, in a statement upon the question, said ho was a thor-ough-going believer in the duty of national defence, and in every boy knowing military drill and discipline add learning to shoot straight. In very special way ho desired to see every' Catholic boy under his spiritual jurisdiction prepared to do the utmost duty to Ins country if the call should come, and for this purpose ho esteemed it a privilege to assist the Defence Department to the ntroost extent in his' power. , Several important advantages were to be expected from the movement. Some of them were advantages from the military point of view, some from the religious. The great bulk of the young soldiers to be were scions of -the “fighting race,” . and if there was one thing clear in British military history it was that The .men of the* “fighting race” were ever at their best in discipline and in lighting capacity when gathered together in organisations- of their own. They ever Had a leaning in that direction, for, although they joined English and Scottish regiments, they felt most at homo among their own, and it was there they readied the highest point of their ‘efficiency. In “arguing” with bayonet and ball the ablest British officers in the past preferred to see lighters of Irish blood stand shoulder to shoulder in regiments of their own racial kith and kin, and they hold a siauLi'.-prefeyonoo---at-„thc present day, and all on the score of military efficiency. The same view apparently prevailed among the military authorities in Now Zealand. Another advantage would he tho facility-which the scheme offers for the moral supervision of the hoys by the" chaplains in camp, the greater case with which they could avail themselves of the administration of religion and attend church parades of tho faith to which they belonged. t ' -; N ’ • TO WHOM DOES IT APPLY? Colonel Wolfe, Officer Commanding tho Auckland district, said that if the various clergy wished to keep hoys of their own denomination under their eyes ho was perfectly agreeable that they should do so, though sectarianism would have to ho entirely absent. . The arrangement as he understood it was only to apply to Cadet corps formed of lads from fourteen to eighteen years of age, and lie did not think it was, intended to apply to Territorials.

'UNION, NOT SEPARATION. Lieutenaut-Colonel-Chaplain the Rev. W. E. Gillain (Anglican) was very emphatic in his objection to the formation of any corps to consist solely of members from any particular denomination. <: We want to see Union and not separation.” said lie, “and I cannot sec that this proposal would tend in that direction at all. Instead of enabling us to 'show a linrted front it would lead only to sectarian bitterness, which could not improve the morale of any array or body of soldiers.” NOT IMPRESSED. The Rev. I. Jolly (Presbyterian) said that at first glance the scheme did not impress him favourably. He thought that it would be impossible to avoid sectarianism. MINISTER "INTERVIEWED. The Hon., G. Fowlds (Acting-Minis-ter for Defence), when interviewed on the matter, said he knew nothing about the subject, as- it had never come before hiina In the arrangefnont of the different units care would he taken to put those together who wanted to be put together. Lead to discord and strife. i A senior volunteer officer, on being interviewed by the “Herald,” said that in his opinion it was quite impossible to have sectarian companies ih. the regiments under the new Scheme. The defence system of Now Zealand followed the Imperial system, tinder which the regiment was the Unit, and everything, therefore, had to he administered regimentally. Esprit de corps in 'the regiment and not in the company had to he cultivated. He pointed out that if separata companies were formed by Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Methodists anything in the nature of regimental administration and regimental esprit de corps would ho entirely out of the question. It would, lie said, entirely do away with the kilts question, because if things were lo be done on a company basis there would he no necessity for a regimental uniform. He pointed out that the formation of sectarian companies would interfere strongly with the regimental system of promotion of officers. He believed that there would ho no objection to introducing the proposed system in connection with the defence Cadets, but ho. was, strongly of the opinion that its tin-