IMPERIAL DEFENCE.

Timaru Herald, Volume LII, Issue 5165, 11 June 1891, Page 4

IMPERIAL DEF ENCE.

Leoturing on " Imperial Defence " before a large audience at Nottingham, Sir Charles Dilke urged that it was the duty of all who held strong opinions on the present disproportion between expenditure and effie'enoy as regarded military affairs to take every opportunity of ventilating the subjeot, which waa strictly of a non-party character. Tbe British Empire spend on defences some £57,000,00, annually, of which £56,000,000 were disposed of m a way for which the Imperial Parliament was directly or indirectly responsible. Yet there was a general admission that all waa not done which might be done to secure safety against attack and that there was a good deal of waste. There were about 136,000 men of regular troopa at homo, but these figures were merely nominal. Some of the men were absolutely non-existent, and a very large number were merely raw recruits who could not be put into the field m case sf war. Home regiments were drained for the sake of regiments abroad. The regular forces at home were singularly weak ia artillpry. Under the present system it was impossible to train generals to efficiency Hespite the lart'6 expenditure the country was not prepared for war. Ihe manoeuvres which took place last year supplied a typical case of the breakdown which might bo expected m regard to our cavalry m caaoof war. rhere was one reply often made to all he had said It wae, that thn proper defence of this country was by the Navy. They must remember, however, that of the £56,000,000 to which he had alluded, the vastly greater portion waa spent on (he land forces at the present time, and it. was no answer to the critics of the way m which the money was spent to say the defence waa by the Navy, India could not be defended by the Navy, and a large part of the expenditure on the land forces wns directly or indirectly incurred on account of tbe Indiin defences. It waa cheaper to provide for defence portly by land aod parlly by naval raeana. There was, m his opinion, a necessity for tho reconatitution of Ihe Army for home and Indian service. There would have to be, he though', a return to the longeervice system for Indin, and a wholly differei.t system would have to be adopted ac to tho infantry at home. If they had their permanent artillery and cavalry, thpn for infantry service he believed they could rely, if not upon the present Volunteers, upon an adaptation of the Volunteere, m which respect they might advantageously imitate the Australian colonists, who had established partlypaid Volunteers.