EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 4 June 1913, Page 5

EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

INTERVIEW WITH HON. J. ALLEN. "A LOT OF RUBBISH." (By Telegraph.—Tress Association.) AUCKLAND, Last Night. ''They have been talking a lot of rubbish about this- expeditionary force," said the Hon. J. Allen to an interviewer. "All I proposed was the need of being ready with war material, equipment, and transport arrangements for sending an expeditionary force if the time ever came when such a force; was needed ; hut so far as the personnel of such a .force was concerned I have always said, absolutely unmistakably, that such a force, must be entirely a voluntary one. There is nothing'new about the expeditionary force idea. I ' talked about it myself for some time before I left for England. • In fact, it has been talked about for at Last two or three yonrp. All it means is that we do not want to be caught in an unprepared state in "which we were caught on the occasion of the Boer War. when New Z aland was so ready to respond to the. appeal of our brothers oversea. When that appeal came we had plenty of men eager to go, but nothing arranged in the matter of • equipment and transport. There was n» knowledge of what the requirements would be for horse artil- ■ lefy c.v foot—iii fact, tlnv was no sort of organisation beforehand to meet all the n -cessities of such a situation.- If the call com?s at a | moment's notice it is of little value ! to hive the men if you have not got i all „the .necessary details arranged | which are so necessary for effective operation at a moment's notice." Can | anyone object to such an obviously sensible . proposition ? »'• There was never any question about a New Zealand expeditionary force being othu- than voluntary.'.'