BRITAIN'S DEFENCES.

Timaru Herald, Volume LX, Issue 2355, 29 March 1897, Page 3

BRITAIN'S DEFENCES.

„■-„; a C^ ■■■T.^-r. ■■.-'-■ • -,-.V In the House of Commons on January 29th: tho Government submitted .proposals ; to;,h<)rrow five and a half millions for 30 years, for various permanent military expenditures. The first item mentioned was improvement of the defences of certain naval baßes. The second was' fortification of four mercantile ports, now , undefended — Berehaven, Lough Swilly, Falmouth, and Scilly— the conversion of these ports into naval bases being necessary foi 'the ; purpose of providing harbours of refuge and to enable the Fleet to act with greater freedom and activity m the Atlantic* " They were bound to remember," explained Mr Brodrick, " that m case of war the enemy would strike our trade, that the safety of our mercantile marine could riot be guaranteed by any fleet, however large, and that its ; safety should therefore be secured'bri the nearest point on the West Coast .: The Naval and Military Committee attached great importance to the defence of these strategic positions. These were not measures proposed for the purposes" of aggression, but for the purpose of defence, and nothing he could Bay would add anything to the unanimous and deliberate opinion of their expert advisers on these points. The whole sum proposed to be spent on these and the ports abroad did not much exceed the price of a single ironclad, and hardly equalled the price of any two of the great Atlantic liners which would alwayabe subjected to chase, and possibly capture, on the outbreak of hostilities.", The next item was the largest m the list, nearly three millions for the reconstruction of barracks and large camps. For the first two-thirds of the, century the barracks were shamefully neglected and there was a great deal of leeway to make up. .£150,000 was to be spent m renewing huts. They had to provide for barracks abroad at the coaling stations ; to build a new cavalry barrack m Dublin; to erect, a central military hospital m London; to replace the barracks destroyed by fire at Winchester ; and lastly erect a considerable number of married soldiers'- quarters. The next item was £66^000 for the defence of London, .A system' was set on foot ten years ago by which certain specially selected sites' were to be fortified, at which troops, could" be. massed m time of necessity .'" Thirteen of these sites had been acquired since 1888, and store houses" for ammunition and trenching tools 'erected: £96,000 had been so spent, arid it was proposed to spend £66,000 more. Another item was half a million to provide central rifle ranges. 400,000 men had to be provided for, and the difficulty of obtaining ranges had increased to a degree which would scarcely be credited, especially since the new rifle had been introduced. It was, of course, absolutely impossible for the War Oflice to find a range at their own doprs for every militia regiment. The last item was about half a million to provide, a -new training ground for the troops. On thiß head Mr Brodrick said : He came now to the last, and m some respects, to the moat important, proposal they had to make. The military authorities had pressed upon the Government that some further steps must be taken with reference tb the training of troops. The absence of proper mari!bsuvering grounds made it impossible for them to attain the efficiency of Continental troops,, In time of war a general officer would have to handle lO.OOOmen, and there was rib place m this country on which he could learn to handle 10,000 men. They were, m fact, asking him to go into action wjthonehand tied behind his back. Lord Lansdowne felt the necessity'of having from time to tirrie larger manoeuvres. For those purposes, havign regard to the fact that the value of land m the ' neighbourhood of Aldershot had gone upvfour or fivefold, and that it could not be purchased at anything like a reasonable price, they had been obliged to seek for a manoeuvring ground elsewhere, and for that purpose negotiations had been entered into for acquiring 40,000 acres of land, covering sixty square miles on Salisbury Plains at an estimated cost of £450,000. This Bite has been . pronounced by military authorities admirable for the purpose. He ventured to think that it would be an extraordinary thing for the richest nation m Europe to, refuse to provide the ground necesssaryfor the adequate manoeuvring of its troops. ", ■ The Daily Chronicle remarks on the foregoing proposals;— Military expenditure is increasing by leaps ahd bounds. Some at least of it is to be wasted as Lord Palmers.ton wasted thirteen or fourteen millions on land fortifications, most of which are now admitted to be perfectly useless. A comparatively small sum, indeed, is asked for the defence cf London. It might as well be thrown into the sea. Ninety-six . thousand pounds have already been spent, and now sixty-six thousand- more ai'e to be sunk m building store-houses — bombproof structures — for ammunition' and trenching tools on sites round the capital. Why, if an enemy ever got within forty miles of London it would be

all up with the Empire. Our fleet and our home army would meet him on blue water, or at the worst on his landing, and if the game were lost, then all would be lost. How are six millions of people within the circle of the proposed fortifications on the Surrey and Middlesex and Essex hills to be fed if an enemy gets near them ? The thing is ridiculous.