Volunteering.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13685, 29 August 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

Volunteering.

COURSES OF TRAINING. In Switzerland : (says a writer- in a Home paper) the accepted uompulsor'iJy enlisted infantiy recruit has to undergo forty-five days' very strenuous training in barracks. After) that'.there are compulsory repetition courses' of eighteen days each every two years. By the referendum of last year it was proposed that these courses should be annually, of eleven days, it being held that the shorter the intervals between drills and training the greater the efficiency attained. In England the recruit who voluntarily conies forward and enlists in the Territorial Army is called on to go ; through a course of forty drills in the first year. These are performed on an evening after work is done, on Saturday afternoons, and during the time the battalion is in camp. :.As a matter of fact every recruit attends "two or more nights a week 'until he has completed his forty drills and become a trained man. The general average of drills put iu by a volunteer in his first year would certainly be nearer sixty than forty. Having joined voluntarily he puts his heart into his work. On joining the ranks of his battalion he will be found on most of the Saturday afternoon parades, and he is only too eager to go into camp and stay a fortnight if he can do so without actual injury to his livelihood. Iu succeeding years life attendances—officially limited to ten—naturally are not up to the first; but there are few who do not exceed the ■ number laid down as necessary. .The Swiss recruit, for his forty-five days' . training, goes into barracks and lives as a soldier, learning his military drill and duties. Then he is-free. Our Volunteer recruit attends • fifty to sixty two-hour drills spread- over the '. whole year, and goes into camp .for. eight or fifteen days, during which he also is put under military.; instruction. Iu one instance—-the Swiss—you take a man away from his work and drill hiui hard for about six weeks, and then, you leave him alone for two years—now proposed to be 1 one—when you compel him 'UP come up for eleven days' training again. In the other—our own—the English Volunteer or Territorialist is not taken away from"'his work, but voluntarily submits in the same first year - to 'systematic' two-hour drills once or twice a week,after his work, and goes into camp foi - a week or a. fortnight annually. Opinion, civilian and military is absolutely unanimous that instruction carried on systematically all the year round is far more valuable both to man and employer than instruction condensed into a short space of time, then discontinued for. the'rest of the year. Military opinion is against the Militia system of training in tliis country. That you should annually train a soldier for one month and then dismiss him for ■ eleven must on 'the face of it be a bad system, for at the end of the eleventh you have to" begin all over again. The one thing to make the continuous system perfect is the establishment of more drill halls, more more rifle ranges. • There 'is not - the slightest doubt that, with the multiplication of these and the grant of certain legitimate privileges, such as the Territorial Medal aid some form of old-age pension, the Territorial Army ere ■ long. will be filled with.the manhood'of the country and firmly established for. all time in the hearts of; omi people.::..:-:-.; .1;%.' .c,: i ; But ■ when the ranks are- filled we shall

still require it steady Mow ' of recruits,. and we must also be prepared. for. a sudden cull in the case .of- a sudden emergency. Our recruits- must come from the youth of our country. • The boy of to-day will be the citizen soldier of tomorrow. We are all, almost without exception, agreed that "it is .every boy's and mail's duty to preparo himself to take his share in the. defence of his country by undergoing some form of military training which will not , injur© or interfere with his work as a breadwinner. But we maintain, and the results of the past support this view, that this duty can and .will be given, qn voluntary lines. We cannot have a better example of a -voluntary system than in the. formation of rifle clubs. When Lord Roberts made his appeal to the country five years ago, the . National Rifle Association and

two or three other smaller bodies of that nature alone exised. Jfow there are some two thousand - clubs, and in a year or two. there should be scarcely a village without one. The compulsory military training of boys—that is, those under eighteen years •of age—is a very different subject. Once more let me make a .comparison. Iu Switzerland we find 'what we may call a form of official provision in the various training depots and schools, where lads of from fifteen to twenty can be trained and drilled on a military system. There has' been a law. in existence .for many years under which every boy must undergo this training between these ages.' Yet in this patriotic little country, which has been held up to iis as an example, .it is admitted that the law is more or less a dead letter. The most that can be said.ps that about-. 6000 of a total of' 30,000'd0 avail themselves of the facilities offered them. Why do they not all come forward? Possibly because they see before their eyes the.time when they may be compelled to enlist in,the ranks of the national Army, and do not see why they should begin to train before that time.

Now, if the Swiss, with their tiny population, their ancient laws, their geognrphieal inosition, and tlieir .love of independence, cannot inaugurate and carryout a legalised system of training for some 15,000' boys or young men, what right have we to suppose that we should be more successful.,in dealing with over a million? . '

Here in England we have' no official provision, whatever for the military training of, our boys; and what; the Stale. has failed to do, and what Switzerland has failed to do, a body of unselfish men, aided by philantropio friends, haye done without thought of reward of :any kind. The historfy of this voluntary training, of our working boys is ono of the most remarkable facts in the moral and physical development of our people. Without a penny from the State,-with-out official recognition - or- help of any sort, there has been built up by private voluntary effort a most wonderful system of physical drill and military instruction in this country such as, no other nation can show. In our system of cadet corps, cadet battalions, boys' and Church Lads' Brigades, religious and scientific societies of all descriptions, we have a voluntary organisation; .which has trained in a, goodly; proportion, on,, a sound military basis over two ihillipn of our boys dining the larst, fiveVaiid-tw.enty years, and every year i has under such training -upwards .of three hundred thousand. Thus wo iu England are voluntarily 7 training about one-third of the total boys .of the country without a x>enny. of ..cost to tli9 State. Switzerland, which has legalised convulsion, is only training aboifc cneiifth of hers, . - "

-i-iJi'r voluntary, .organisers t.ike . wcrkiiigi boys at the most critii'il period of t'cjr lives when they are leaving school, say - thirteen, to fourteen. They enrol them, drill them, teach them, to shoot iu ,_a majority of cases, give them, bright companionship, train them up as God-fearing.. King-honouring citizens, and,;'inculcate into them tho noble duty of every one so to prepare himself that he may be ready, to join in protecting his hearth andhome should he be required to do so. Surely it. were better to. lielp ■ these...organisations so that operations may . be extended until, not a boy in the country is, outside their influence. ... And, mind you, it can be done if funds. and willing workers are provided. Help and encourage rather than wreck thei "•oik of half a century. For assuredly if compulsory military . training for. boys were to become the law of the land, these splendid organisations would cease fo exist, and we slurald be face to face with the failure.which has attended such legislation elsewhere. ' "'.', ;The aim of Mr Haldane and' his military advisers, in establishing the Terri.-. tonal Force, has been the weMinng of the* nation.and the Army into. one. The aim of the .country associations will be to make the country and its Territorial regiments—Regular, Yeomanry, and Territorial battalions.—-one. And it has ever been the;object, of all 'those grand .vplun: tary organisations, to niakei. our .boys and men worthy of the great heritage .which has been left iliem by their forefathers^ Voluntary - duty to King and com-'ry is really the keynote of the ,'ife of every English boy-and man, and in liisi hurt of hearts lie ; knows it.■■„:•■: