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1914. XE W ZEALAND.
MILITARY FORCES OF NEW ZEALAND (REPORT BY THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF THE OVERSEA FORCES ON THE).
Presented f<i both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.
The Inspector-General of the Oversea Forces to the Honourable the Minister of Defence, New Zealand. Sir, — Wellington, New Zealand, 4th June, 1914. I have the honour to submit herewith my report on the Military Forces of New Zealand ; and, although it is not customary in official correspondence to ask for indulgence, the present exceptional circumstances warrant me, I think, in doing so. The whole of the report has been, of necessity, written up and cast into its present form during the past six days. As you are aware, I personally had not a spare moment during my actual inspections, and I would give a great deal to be able to put in another week's work in restating my views in terms which might be considered more conventional. Unfortunately, once I start in the New Zealand Company's liner " Ruahine " there is no possibility of my posting a letter until I reach London. Such a delay would, I understand, be inconvenient, and therefore I submit my attempt with all the imperfections of haste only too legibly imprinted upon it. In the course of my tour I have inspected every unit of the Territorial Force and I have seen members of every company of Cadets in the Dominion. According to parade-states the Territorials inspected by me, together with the Permanent troops, numbered 18,807, and I have seen 17,868 Cadets on parade, a total of 36,675, or 70 per cent, of the Defence Forces. I have also visited the works and fortifications at the principal harbours, and at three of the four defended ports I have been present during practice with the heavy guns. I regret that time has not admitted of my advising you on the subjects of the coast defences and coast-defence schemes. This confidential report will be written, D.V., during the voyage, and will be posted you from London. To those people by whose hospitality I and my staff have benefited, and to many others who have helped to make my visit one of the most enjoyable episodes of my life, I owe my most grateful thanks. I carry away with me wonderful memories of this beautiful country and of the overflowing kindness of its inhabitants. My thanks are also due to the General Officer Commanding the Forces, to the Headquarters Staff, and to the District Commanders, who have done so much to make my path smooth during my progress through the Islands. Las.tly, I have to thank you, Sir, and the Government you represent for much personal kindness received and for the admirable arrangements under which my inspection has been carried out. That what I have been able to do in consequence during the past five weeks, and that the recommendations I have ventured to put forward in my report, may prove of some lasting value to the military forces of New Zealand is the earnest hope of Your obedient servant, lan Hamilton, General, Inspector-General of the Oversea Forces.
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CONTENTS. Pag. I. The Military Institutions of New Zealand .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3 11. Main Features of the Existing Scheme .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 7 111. Headquarters Organization .. .. .. .. .. .. .. !) IV. District and Area Organization .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 12 V. The Training of a Citizen Army .. .. .. . . .. .. .. .. 14 VI. The Army to-day .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. 21
APPENDICES. I. Distribution of Duties at Headquarters .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 28 11. Composition of District Staff .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 29 111. Rates of Pay in the Territorial Force .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 29 IV. War Organization of the New Zealand Forces .. .. .. .. .. .. 29 V. Permanent Establishment as now distributed .. .. .. .. .. .. 30 VI. Necessity for a Military Business Brancli .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 30 VII. Formation of a Military Business Branch .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 31 VIII. Distribution of Duties at Headquarters under Proposed Scheme .. .. .. .. 33 IX. The Necessity for a Record Office .. .. .. .. .. .. . . .. 33 X. Statistical Returns and Reports due from Areas and Units .. .. .. .. .. 34 XI. Summary of Duties to be carried out in an Area .. ..... .. .. .. 35
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BEPOJKT. I. The Military Institutions of New Zealand. Headquarters Organization. 1. The Minister of Defence is responsible to Parliament both for the Navy and the Army of New Zealand. The General Officer Commanding the New Zealand Forces is the responsible adviser of the Minister, and, under him, controls the Military Forces. He is assisted by the following heads of departments : — The Chief of the General Staff ; The Adjutant-General to the Forces ; The Quartermaster-General to the Forces : The Director of Ordnance ; The Director of Accounts. The distribution of duties amongst the Staff at Headquarters is shown in Appendix I. Territorial Organization. 2. The Dominion of New Zealand is divided into four military districts each under a Permanent District Commander assisted by a Staff, as shown in Appendix 11. There are two districts in each Island, their boundaries corresponding generally with those of the four land districts—viz., Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago. Each district is divided into four or five " area groups or " areas," each commanded by a Permanent officer*. An area as a rule furnishes a complete Infantry regiment (of one battalion), as well as other units, or portions of units, and Cadets. An area is divided into two or, as a rule, more sub-areas, each in charge of a Permanent nonen in missioned officer. Unit Organization. 3. The organization and establishments of units are, speaking generally, the same in peace as in war. They are composed of Territorial officers and men. There are no units composed wholly of Permanent men. A slight mixture of the Permanent element is permitted in Territorial units as follows : — (a.) Each battalion of Infantry and regiment of Mounted Rifles has a Permanent Adjutant, sergeant-major, and quartermaster-sergeant. (b.) Each Field Artillery brigade has an Adjutant, a battery sergeant-major, a battery quartermaster-sergeant, a farrier-sergeant, and a saddler-quartermaster-sergeant. In addition, each battery has a Permanent cadre of two non-commissioned officers and eight men (gunners and drivers) and twelve horses. This personnel belongs to tin . Royal New Zealand Artillery. (c.) Each fort ha's a small cadre of Permanent Garrison Artillery. These cadres supply the assistant "instructors, specialists, district gunners, &c, necessary when the forts are manned for service practice or instruction. These also belong to the Royal New Zealand Artillery. Liability to serve in Time of War. i. Under section 27 (1), Defence Act, 1909, all male inhabitants of New Zealand between the ages of seventeen and fifty-five, not exempted, are liable to serve in the Militia. Under section 28 (1), Defence Act, 1909, the whole or any part of the .Militia may be called out in time of war by Proclamation, and, when so called out, becomes a part of the Defence Forces. In so far as all males between the ages of seventeen and fifty-five can be called upon to serve in the Militia, all military bodies in New Zealand whose members are between the above-mentioned ages (e.g., Territorial Force, Reserve, General Training Section, and Rifle Clubs) would be included in the term " Militia." Separate provision exists under section 71 (1) of the Defence Amendment Act, 1912, for calling out the Territorial Force or any part thereof for active service without having recourse to section 28 (1) of the Defence Act, 1909, above referred to.
* Organization has now reached a stage when the group of areas formed under the Kitchener scheme has become in itself an administrative area. I recommend, therefore, the " area group " being termed the " area "in future, any subdivisions of it being " sub-areas." I have used these expressions throughout my report.
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Liability for Service Abroad. 5. Under section 26 (1), Defence Act, 1909, members of the Territorial Force may volunteer for special service outside New Zealand. Conditions of Service. 6. Liability for service is as follows : — Senior Cadets—fourteen (or date of leaving school) to seventeen inclusive : four years in all. Territorial Foree —-eighteen to twenty-four inclusive : seven years in all. Territorial Force Reserve—twenty-five to twenty-nine inclusive : five years in all. In posting men to units the wishes of individuals are considered as far as possible. Rates of pay are shown in Appendix 111. All ranks in the Territorial Force draw pay for nine days only in each year. Men passed fit for service but not required for the Territorial Force are posted to a General Training Section. They are liable to be transferred to the Territorial Force up to thirty years of age. Scheme of Training. 7. Training under the Act is prescribed as follows : —
The period of the annual camp for rural units is eleven days (exclusive of the days of arrival and departure) in lieu of the equivalent of the four extra days — i.e., twenty drills. Physical training forms an important item in the syllabus of training, especially in the case of Senior Cadets. Boys under the age of fourteen receive physical training at school under arrangements made by the Education Department. War Organization. 8. The military forces of New Zealand are organized for war into a field army and its reserves, coast-defence troops, and lines-of-communication troops. The field army is organized into two Mounted Rifle brigades (one in each Island) and two divisions (one in each Island). The composition and detail of the above are given in Appendix IV. Certain Headquarters units and divisional ammunition columns will have to be formed on mobilization. Otherwise all units required for the war organization are already raised. Numbers required. 9. In round numbers the requirements of the war organization are, — Officers. Other Banks. Field army .. .. .. .. .. .. 1,144 29,551 Coast defence troops .. .. .. .. .. 147 4,168 Lines of communication, district staffs, &c. (about) . .. 200 3,000 1,491 36,719
Designation. Age. I I Service. J Prescribed Training each Year. Senior Cadets From 14 to 18 4 years (a.) Fifty drills of one hour's duration, or thirty-four drills of one and a half hours' duration. (b.) Six half-day parades of three hours' duration. Territorial Force General Training Section.. From 18 to 25 7 years (e.) Course of musketry. (a.) Thirty drills of one and a half hours' dur, .lion, twenty of which are to be outdoor parades. (b.) Twelve half-day parades of not less than three hours' duration, or six whole-day parades of not less than six hours' duration. (c.) Seven days' training in camp (exclusive of days of arrival and departure). {d.) Prescribed course of musketry during (a) and (b). (a.) Eighteen drills of one and a half hours' duration. (b.) Prescribed course of musketry. Two half-day parades or their equivalent. From 18 to 25 7 years Reserve (including men of General Training Section after 25) From 25 to 30 5 years
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.\ umbers available. 10. In 1915 the Territorial Force will have reached 30,000, the peace establishment fixed by Parliament. After will commence to fill. When the existing scheme is in full working-order it is estimated that the total numbers available will be as follows : — Territorial Force (including about 4,000 recruits) .. .. ..30,000 Territorial Force Eeserve .. .. .. .. .. ..20,000 General Training Section under twenty-five .. .. .. .. 21,000 General Training Section Reserve .. .. .. .. .. 14,000 85,000 Railway battalions and Post and Telegraph Corps .. .. .. 4,000 89,000 In the establishment provision has been made in addition for 112 officers, 211 instructors (warrant and non-commissioned officers), 303 non-commissioned officers and men of the Royal New Zealand Artillery (a total of 626), and 81 civilians, to be maintained on a permanent footing as part of the Defence Forces. (See Appendix V.) Horses. 11. Approximately 8,369 riding-horses, 9,239 draught and 1,029 pack animals will be required on mobilization. There are some 400,000 horses in New Zealand, of which about 40,000 are fit for riding purposes and 10,000 for draught and gun work. A list of suitable vehicles with horses is kept in each district. They may be taken under requisition. Mechanical Transport. 12. Motor-cars and motor-lorries exist in the Dominion as follows : 4,066 motor-cars of various sorts, 136 motor-lorries, and 397 steam traction-engines. A Motor Reserve Corps is organized as a part of the Territorial Force. It numbers 74, each officer providing a car when required. Armament. 13. The Field Artillery is completely equipped with modern 18-pr. field guns and 4-5 in. howitzers. The latest type of gun has been ordered for the mountain battery. The Infantry is armed with the Lee-Enfield rifle. Sufficient rifles and carbines exist to arm the Territorial Force and its reserves. With few exceptions the Cadets are armed with the same rifle as the Citizen Forces. Mounted Rifle regiments and Infantry battalions are equipped with machine guns and pack transport for tin , same. Ammunition. 14. The reserve of gun ammunition is complete for coast-defence guns in accordance with the recommendations of the Oversea Defence Committee. For field guns the reserve will shortly be complete. There is a sufficient war reserve of small-arm ammunition for the field army. Small-arm ammuniiion is manufactured by the Colonial Ammunition Company, which lias its works near Auckland. The factory is capable of doubling its present output in an emergency. m Clothing and Equipment. 15. The Territorial Force is clothed throughout in khaki serge of service pattern, manufactured in the Dominion. Each Territorial soldier receives, on joining, one complete suit, a greatcoat, a hat, and a cap ;no boots are issued. A reserve of clothing to meet the yearly quota of recruits is kept in store. The clothing contractors are prepared to increase their output tenfold in emergency. The Territorial Infantry are equipped with the web field service equipment; Mounted units use the bandolier leather equipment. Each individual in the Mounted Rifles supplies his own saddlery ; there is no uniformity in pattern. The Cadets' uniform consists of blouse and shorts of khaki serge with khaki hat and puttee stockings. They have a waist-belt and pouch. Instruction. 16. The number of Permanent officers and non-commissioned officers who are available for instructional duties is shown generally in Appendix V. A Headquarters Staff exercise is held annually for the benefit of senior officers, and a District Staff ride is held in each district annually. Musketry instruction is imparted by four expert instructors in musketry, one in each district.
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Officers' clubs are instituted in all the principal and many of the minor training centres. These exist mainly for instructional purposes. Lectures are given and war games held. Miscellaneous Military Institutions. 17. (a.) Rifle Clubs, being part of the New Zealand Military Forces, are governed by the Military Regulations. They are 204 in number. Membership of a club is limited to fifteen as a minimum and one hundred as a maximum, consisting of (i) Ordinary members, (ii) honorary members-, (iii) General Training Section attached. Ordinary members must not be more than fifty-five years of age, and are liable to serve as a secondary reserve in the Territorial Force. They must carry out the musketry course laid down. The General Training Section can do the training prescribed (para. 7) with the nearest Rifle Club. Rifles and spare parts are obtained from the Defence Department on very favourable terms. Each active member of ;i club is entitled to 150 rounds of ammunition, and 200 rounds more are obtainable at reduced rates. Members are carried free of cost on Governmeni railways to and from rifle practice, and to approved rifle meetings up to 100 miles distance. The cost of existing Rifle Clubs is approximately £20,000 per annum. (l>.) On the .'3lst March, 1914, there were 25,659 Senior Cadets, organized into 348 companies under Senior Cadet officers. The organization, administration, and training of all Senior Cadet companies is supervised by the Area Commander in whose area the company is situated. Excluding any expenses connected with their instruction, the cost of the Senior Cadets is approximately £21,000 per annum. (c.) A National Reserve is in course of formation. Its membership is voluntary, and includes all who are no longer liable for service in time of peace and who have served in a naval, military, quasimilitary, or police capacity, or who belong to any organization — e.g., the St. John Ambulance Association —which could render useful service in time of war. No uniform is worn. (d.) In time of war the Public Health Department undertakes to receive the sick and wounded in the general hospitals. An Army Nursing Service is in process of formation, the Matron-in-Chief being the Assistant Inspector-General of the Public Health Department. It will consist of qualified muses willing to undertake the nursing of the sick in time of war in hospitals and under control of the Medical Officers of the New Zealand Medical Corps. (c.) The Dominion Rifle Association exists for the encouragement of rifle shooting in the Dominion. It receives an annual giant from the Government. A umbers trained. 18. The following figures show the strength of the military forces during the past ten years. Prior to 1911 there was no compulsory training.
Note. —The establishment is shown in paragraph 10 and Appendix V as 626 : the actual strength appears, therefore, to be 48 less than establishment. The apparent shortage is made up as follows :- Imperial officers on temporary loan (not included in above table) .. 18 Imperial non-commissioned officers on temporary loan (not included in above table) 18 Under establishment: Officers . . .. . . .. .. .. 5 „ Permanent Staff . . .. . . .. 5 R.N.Z.A. .2 Total .. .. .. .. .. ..48 Cadets numbering 26 (not included in the above table) are undergoing training at Duntroon, and eight of these will be available in 1916 for service in the Dominion.
Year. Strength of Permanent Forces (including N.Z. Staff Strength of Volunteer or Corps, R.N.Z.A., and Territorial Force. Permanent Staff). . 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 m 395 13,492 386 13,306 379 12,704 361 12.474 325 14,058 314 14,249 .. i 427 Transition period (no record). 500 22,614 557 23,804 578 25,902
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19. The amount expended by the New Zealand Government cm naval and military defence for each of the last ten financial years is as follows : —
II. Main Features of the Existing Scheme. The Influence of Peace. 20. All military institutions should be built so as to be as peace-proof as possible : if they are to stand the strain of war it is essential that they should offer no foothold to the steady sapping and mining of politics. Under modem conditions the aspirant to public service can only get there by being in the majority, and that majority are attracted by things which catch the eye, but are repelled by any technicality. A mass of inadequately trained men may impress an electorate very favourably ; it is difficult, nay, almost hopeless, to enthuse them by the purchase of rifle ranges. Forts reassure the city during perilous times, but once the danger has passed it is discovered that big guns break window-panes. Then in due course the practice is discontinued, and the guns, though they may appear unchanged, have lost the best part of their value namely, the skill and self-confidence of the men who stand behind them. Let peace only endure and these same sort of sentiments extend at last to the personnel. A cautious administrator appeals to the representatives of the people more than a leader of character and boldness. So at last we reach the final stage when great commands are given to " good peace Generals." Military institutions have then become a name, an illusion. Actually they will have ceased to exist. Study of War-conditions essential. 21. Such are the lessons of experience, and they teach us that the foundations of the military institutions of a country should be so well and truly laid upon the rock of reality that the upper stories of the building shall offer the maximum resistance to the disintegrating forces which are certain, as time goes on, to try persistently to undermine them. The moment war-conditions are lost sight of the mind of the nation will begin to suffer from dangerous illusions. Especially is this the case where the form taken by defence is that of a national Militia. Here there is no room for peace commanders, peace soldiers, or peace systems. .The time devoted to training is so limited and students of war are so few that all classes, civilians as well as militiamen, are bound to quit the iails of efficiency the moment the system practised in peace ceases to be a war system pure and simple. Responsibili/)/ of the Soldier. 22. Hence it comes that a weighty burden of responsibility must ever rest upon the shoulders of the military chief or chiefs charged with the direction of the affaiis of a citizen army. The position demands some of the intuitions of statesmanship, as well as a competent grasp of the true meanings of war. There must be quickness to comprehend the limitations imposed by political and social factors ; temper and self-restraint to enable parleys to be conducted with the faddist and the miser. For lack of such quickness and such temper brave soldiers pitchforked suddenly into high place in the councils of a democracy may in less than no time undo all the hard work of their predecessors. Theoreticallv the blunfsoldier asks for perfectionfand'acceptsfnothing less. Actually he gets just as much as he can, by his own pertinacity and enthusiasm, coax from the pockets of his employers.
Naval. Military. Battle- cruisn. 5fear. (Contribution to the Admiralty. Total Interest Naval ExContribu- and Sinking penditure. tion paid Fund paid out of out of ConLoan, solidated Fund. Paid out of Consolidated Fund. Paid out of Public Works Fund. Total Total Defence ExMilitary penditure. Expenditure. 904-5 905-6 1906-7 [907-8 1908-9 [909-10 .910-11 [911-12 912-13 913-14 £ 40.000 40,000 40,000 40,000 40,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 50,000* £ £ £ £ 40,000 40,000 40,000 40,000 40,000 .. ! 100,000 489,289 8,904 598,193 I (i()5.7ll 91,687 797,398 525,000 103.102 728,102 69,035 ; 126,995 246,030 £ £ 188,251 111.103 159,459 ; 36.869 152,705 16,415 176,426 : 21,153 195,685 ! 18,063 190,346 10,349 205,269 8,936 401,870 11,581 505,267 24,129 488,569 30,725 £ £ 237.357 277,357 196,328 236.228 169,180 209,180 197,579 237,579 213,748 ! 253,748 200.695 i 300,695 214,205 , 812,398 413,451 1.210,849 529.396 1,257,498 519.294 765,324 489,289 605,711 525,000 69,035 * The balance ( ho 31st March, 191 N.B.—The toti nents of interest a >f the £100,0 4. il cost up t( nd sinking f K) due for tl ) due for the year 1913-14 wai. at t I,,- request of the Admii raltj . nut paid until after the early j ind will ceai the early part of June, 1914, of tli nd will cease in approximately Bixti ie battle-cruiser was £1,1 een years' time. 698,035 : the annual pay-
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Nature of Test applied. 23. Passing from principles to particulars. I conceive it to be my primary duty to the Government of New Zealand to report on the success or otherwise attained by the military authorities of the Dominion in producing in peace a machine which has in all respects its exact analogue in war. Therefore I shall proceed to apply the war test to everything connected with the Citizen Forces—their organization, their administration, the Territorial arrangements, the daily routine of office-work, as well as the supremely important question of training and instruction. My comparatively brief sojourn in New Zealand has at least had this advantage it has involved the simultaneous embodiment of every military unit in the country, and has enabled me to inspect large bodies of Cadets drawn together from wide areas at the very identical time when the whole of the Citizen Forces were actually under arms in camp. The possibility of making the same permanent instructional Staff march across the inspectional stage with the Cadets one day and with the troops the next was absolutely precluded. Accordingly, the military machine in New Zealand has been .subjected to a severer trial than that of any portion of the Empire ever inspected by me. The elements themselves seem to have leagued themselves with me in adding some of the genuine discomforts of war to my mimic campaigns. The town-bred lads especial'y must have often thought wistfully of their happy little homes when the tempest howled around their frail shelters of canvas ; when the icy rain penetrated eve] vt hing and every one : when the mud waxed deeper and ever more adhesive. Actual mobilization would, in fact, have made no greater demands either on the energies of the military authorities or on the pluck and good temper of the rank and file. Result of the Test. 24. I may as well admit straight away that the machine has stood the racket. One or two little jars there have been —of so much every one who reads the papers is aware. The land forces of New Zealand are not perfect, or anywhere near perfect. In some respects development may be backward. But at least I am able to report, broadly, that the progress made during the past three years, in giving shape to a real national army in New Zealand, has been singularly rapid. Further, in my opinion, the general lines on which the organization and training of the Citizen Force, and of the Cadets, have been laid down are sound. Here and there I shall, later on. propose readjustments, bul the changes suggested are such as can readily be effected without radically altering any existing institutions. Unquestionably there is a good prospect of a practical war machine, and on;' admirably suited to the needs of home defence, being ultimately produced. That this is so is t\uc every wit as much to the patriotism of the people as to the wisdom of the military authorities. The Cadets: 25. Of the Cadet system it is hard to speak in terms which may not appear exaggerated. For the moment I am concerned only with the moral and physical effect of Cadet training on the boyhood ol the nation. Its military aspect, as a substitute for recruit training. I deal with again later in my report. • I have spared no pains to ascertain the views of those best entitled to form a judgment on this most vital subject. I have discussed it at length with politicians of both parties in the State ; with employers of labour ; with schoolmasters ; with the clergy of every denomination : and last, but not least, with dozens of Cadets themselves, and, whenever and wherever I could catch them, with their mothers. I have not heard one single adverse opinion from the mouth of a live New-Zealander, though. from the numbers of disapproving letters I have received, there must be a minority which makes up for its want of dimension by a radium-like activity. No : amongst all the people I have met there seemed to be a consensus of opinion that the system is wholly beneficial, not to the boys alone but also in its wider national aspect. If the working men and women of Scotland could have participated in my Cadet inspection through Otago Province (verily a smaller Scotland) ; if the fathers and mothers of the poorer children of London, Birmingham, Manchester, and Liverpool could only have been present at my Cadet parades in Canterbury Province and in the North Island—could they have done this and have shared with me the joy of seeing so many keen happy faces, so many bodies in the pink of physical condition —I know they would not permit their rulers to deny to their own sons one day longeT the same privileges that the boys of Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa are now enjoying. Economic Aspect of the Scheme. 26. A striking feature of the military system in New Zealand lies in its economical working. This I attribute in a large measure to a strict observance of the Militia principle throughout the constitution of the Force. Not a single professional officer or non-commissioned officer appears to be employed whose services, with due regard to efficiency, could possibly be dispensed with. The Permanent nuclei, which form part of the Garrison and Field Artillery units, are cheap and excellent substitutes for the Permanent units employed elsewhere as a means of imparting artillery instruction. New Zealand owes much to those who had both the prescience to inaugurate an experiment of this nature, and the boldness to carry it through to a logical conclusion. Detachment of Instructors from Units. 27. The same prescience is observable in the domain of military instruction. The detachment of the Permanent instructor from the Mounted Rifles and Infantry unit, and his attachment to the Territorial area, does not come to me altogether as a novelty. This featuie formed part of Lord Kitchener's original proposalr The New Zealand Army, however, is remarkable for the thoroughness
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with which this separation of the instructor- from the unit has been effected, and any one who remembers the old Volunteer system and the limpet-like devotion with which the unit then hung on to the skirts of its Permanent Staff must realize that this achievement has not been attained without considerable firmness on the part of the higher authorities. Result of such Detachment. 28. As a consequence, the bulk of the Permanent instructors are available for the training of the Cadets, as well as of the Citizen Force, and I have good reason to suppose that the interests of the Cadet in this connection are adequately safeguarded. Had not some such arrangement obtained, the large and very creditable Cadet parades I witnessed during the first fortnight of my visit would have been impossible. These parades were organized by Area Commanders and Permanent instructors, and. as 1 have already stated, they took place at a time when the whole Citizen Force was embodied. In any other Citizen Force I have inspected, the bulk of the instructors would at such a moment have been out with the Territorial Force. The economy of this system, from a purely financial standpoint, is self-evident. With its effect on the units of the fighting arms I deal later on in my report. Departmental Corps. 29. I must conclude my preliminary review of the military institutions of New Zealand by a special reference to the Railway battalions and the Post and Telegraph Corps. These bodies form a brilliant object-lesson in the keenness of the nation to help in solving the problem of defence. With comparatively little assistance from the military authorities, save in the matter of uniform, arms, and equipment, two great State Departments have set to work in real practical fashion to organize themselves for war. As a result, with a minimum of cost to the State, two bodies of highly skilled experts have been added to the establishment—assets of the utmost military value. A splendid example indeed. May every portion of the Empire recognize its full significance. 111. Headquarters Organization. Responsibility of the Commander. 30. In New Zealand the functions of command and of military organization are combined in one man —the General Officer Commanding the Forces. Such is the theory, and such also is the practice. One man is responsible to the Minister of Defence for the training of the troops and their discipline, for the Territorial recruiting organization, and for the efficiency of coast defences, and the same man is answerable to the Treasury for the correct expenditure of every pound voted by Parliament for military purposes. The same system goes right through the organization. Each District Commander is similarly responsible tor all financial as well as military arrangements within his own district. The reality of this responsibility has forcibly been brought to notice within the last month. Two District Commanders have had their pay stopped by the Treasury because certain vouchers due from their districts were nut forthcoming. The justification for so sharp and painful a rap over the knuckles may seem to the civilian clear enough. It is intended to make the Commanders realize and live up to the serious financial responsibility which overhangs them from the cradle of their appointment to its grave. But does the punishment really meet the crime— i.e., does it produce the best military results ? What are these results ? Why, naturally enough, that District Commanders are becoming more and more immersed in administrative detail. The pounds shillings and pence are receiving the closest possible attention —so close, indeed that hardly a moment remains available t<> attend to those purely military duties which are the sole object of all this vast expenditure. * Conniiiniil and Financial Responsibility. 31. " We strongly hold that the training and preparation of His Majesty's Forces for war should he the first and, as far as possible, the undivided duty of General Officers Commanding-in-Chief. . . . The principle of the division of training from administration, which we have sought to apply throughout our scheme, appears to us to be fundamental.' . These words, taken from the report of the Esher ( (immittee published in 1904, are but an echo of the Duke of Wellington's protest before a Royal Commission seventy years earlier, that " The Commander-in-Chief has, and can have, nothing whatever to say to finance." In Great Britain to-day the principle is fully accepted that the administrative officer has a personal responsibility in financial matters which the commander does not share. In Germany, and in most modern armies, the same principle holds good. Incidence of Financial Responsibility. 32. After examining most carefully into the working of the military machine in New Zealand both at Headquarters and in districts, and after conferring with the Auditor-General and the heads of the Treasury, 1 feel convinced that many advantages will be gained if a system can be devised whereby commanders of troops, from the General Officer Commanding the Forces downwards, can be relieved in some measure of the financial responsibility now resting on their shoulders. In Australia, where conditions are in many respects analogous to those in New Zealand, I had to face a similar problem, and I arrived at the definite conclusion that its only solution lay in bringing the financial and the administrative branches of the Army together, as a Department, under one head, on whom and on whose
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representatives in districts full financial responsibility should in future be imposed. I earnestly recommend the adoption of a somewhat similar system in New Zealand. In my report on the Australian Forces, recently published in Melbourne, I have stated at length both the principles involved in this system and the conclusions to which their application necessarily leads.* 1 will now briefly restate those conclusions : — (a.) In all armies, and especially in Militia armies, the Commanders of troops should be freed from financial responsibility, and so placed in a position to devote themselves wholly to their military duties. (h.) Financial responsibility should therefore be transferred to the men who, in war. will have to feed and supply the army with all its needs. (r.) Inasmuch as such men form an integral part of a war machine, they must in all grades have full military status and military rank. (d.) The business branch of an army, which necessarily includes a finance section, must be homogeneous throughout, its officers and men forming part of one corps.f (c.) The organization of the business branch, and the appointment, promotion, and distribution of its personnel, are matters which, subject to the authority of the General Officer Commanding the Forces, should be left as much as possible to the head of the branch. (/.) The instruction of the officers and men of the corps must, from the start, be specialized mainly on business lines, only so much military education being added as will enable its members to fulfil military requirements with intelligence. (g.) Last, lint not least, the chain of responsibility in matters of finance and accounting must run within the business branch itself, and Commanders of troops should have no share in this responsibility. Fonimlion of suck a Branch. 33. The chief of the business branch would be, under the British nomenclature, the QuartermasterGeneral to the Forces, and the heads of departmental sections working under him at Headquarters and in districts would be termed Assistant Quartermaster-Generals and Deputy Assistant Quarter-master-Generals. The business branch as a whole might, again on the British analogy, be styled the Army Service Corps. The rank and status of the Quartermaster-General should be in proportion to the importance of his duties. Assuming that the General Officer Commanding the Forces is a Major-General, the Quarter-master-General might suitably be given Brigadier-General's rank. In matters of rank, as in all else, the due subordination of the administrative branch to the executive head should be adequately safeguarded. /is Instruction. 34. It is desirable that the Quartermaster-General should be left a free hand to determine the technical instruction of his subordinates, the examinations they should undergo, and the method of reporting on their fitness for promotion. Their military instruction and efficiency are. however, matters which, under the Commander, should be attended to by the General Staff. In particular, administrative officers should be encouraged to take part in Staff exercises, the service of supply, transport, accommodation, and payment of the troops in war being fully elaborated on these occasions. Bui in ii Militia army the military instruction of men whose primary concern is with administration can easily be pushed too far. For instance, it would be unnecessary to insist on officers of the Quarter-master-General's branch passing the usual examination of tactical fitness for command. Relation of Administrative Officers to Commanders. 35. The relations of the Quartermaster-General, and of his representatives in districts, with the Commanders of troops require to be defined. First and foremost, they are Staff Officers just as much as are officers of the General Staff, or Assistant Adjutants-General and Deputy Assistant Adjutants General, and in that capacity they are agents who are bound to carry out the Commander's wishes whatever they may be. \i is only when the Commander's wishes clash with the Financial Regulations, or with principles of economy, that the administrative officer's personal responsibility makes itself felt. In such an event it is his duty to point out to the Commander either that his proposed action is financially irregular, or that the intended procedure is economically unsound. Overruling an Administrative Officer. 36. In the last resource —in war, or in any grave emergency —the Commander of the troops may always elect, at his own risk, to overrule the financial objection of his administrative officer. But as, by doing so, he would himself have to accept the fullest financial responsibility, it may fairly be assumed that this power would very rarely be exercised. Were it exercised, the administrative officer whose financial responsibility would thus be interfered with should have the right of direct reference to his own administrative chief. Both the power of overruling and the right of representation should be embodied in the " Regulations for the Military Forces of the Dominion of New Zealand " if the new system is instituted. The Quartermaster-General's Position. 37. Under the system I advocate, the Quartermaster-General Would become the (in the Treasury sense) " accounting officer " of the Defence Department, and the responsibility resting on him in this
* Extracts from this report are printed in Appendix VI. t For proposals fur the formation of such ■ corps see Appendix VII.
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capacity, and through him on his subordinates, is fully defined by Treasury Regulations. This responsibility cannot be shared by the Commander of troops, who would not therefore be compelled to take any cognisance of such matters as contracts, accounts, vouchers, or detailed estimates. His place would be with his troops rather than on his office-stool. Policy once determined by a Commander after consultation with bis business adviser, be bad far better leave that officer a free hand in the mat ber of ways and means. It is a consequence of the proposed system that communications on matters of accounts, audit. &<■.. with the Treasury and with the Auditor-General should be conducted by the Quartermaster-General. He is not concerned with the War Policy. 38. As a general rule the Quartermaster-General would not be concerned with policy, either in war or in peace. In all that directly concerns war the General Staff is, under the Commander, responsible for the initiation of policy. For example, it is for the Chief of the General Staff to advise whether a new work is required for coast defence, and bow it should be armed. Also at manoeuvres, and in the field, the control of operations is, in the fullest sense, the business of the General Staff. The Quartermaster-General is. however, the man who more than any other has to find the means for giving effect to policy. In peace it rests with him to demonstrate the financial effect of any given policy, and in war the part played by the great administrative services, for which he is responsible, will affect in an important degree the strategy of every campaign. It is unlikely, therefore, that his advice can be neglected where matters of policy are under discussion. Nor with Pence Policy. 39. Peace policy is par excellence an attribute of the Adjutant-General, for peace policy is, as a rule, primarily a matter of officers and men. The provision of personnel, the establishments of nn army, its distribution in peace, as well as all thai concerns the interests of the individual, are essentially the Adjutant-General's business. If, for example, new units are to be raised, or existing ones abolished, it is for the Adjutant-General to advise how and where these operations can best be effected. Administration must in such cases wait on policy. Only too often money has been wasted on buildings, storehouses, iVc. owing to too hasty action on the pari of administrative branches. Similarly, the Adjutant-!leneral's responsibility for regulating the establishments of an army as a whole must be adequately safeguarded. This responsibility should extend as much to the establishments and the emoluments of the Quartermaster-General's branch as to those of the rest of the army. Only so can a well-balanced machine be ultimately produced. Without central control of this nature there is always a danger of some one branch or service being, as regards numbers, terms of service, and rates of pay, unduly favoured as compared with the rest of the army, and discontent is certain to be caused in consequence. His Relations with other Branches. to. In one other respect the relations of the Quartermaster-General to the other branches of the Stall require clear definition. He will have to account for all money expended in the interest h,| training as well as of personnel, in spite of the fact that these are matters with which the Chief of the General Staff and the Adjutant-General are immediately concerned. His position as Accountant would not, however, justify the Quartermaster-General in dictating to his colleagues on such matters, still less in acting as their hostile critic. His role rather should be to assist them by all means in his power, both economically and in the interpretation of Treasury Regulations, to discharge the duty entrusted to them by the Commander. He should place freely at their disposal what assistance the) require in framing their estimates, and at intervals he should keep them informed of the state of their account. An Illustration. 11. The relations which ought to obtain between two branches of the staff can best be explained bv an illustration. Under the War Office system at Home a grant is annually placed by the Army Council at the disposal of the General Officers Commanding-in-Chief in commands to be expended by them on training to the best advantage* As soon as the amount of the grant is notified to a command, the General Staff officer at once roughs out a general scheme of training for the year, and takes the instructions of the General Officer Commanding on it. When he has approved it in principle, a formal conference takes place between the General Stall officer and the officer in charge of administration, and ways and means are discussed. As a result the programme may have to lie curtailed or altered in points of detail. Agreement having been reached, the programme is formally submitted to the Commander by the General Staff officer and is ultimately approved by him. Henceforward the expenditure of, and accounting for, the grant rests with the administrative officer, who is responsible that it is not overspent. He keeps the General Staff officer informed, from time to time, of the state of his account as the financial year progresses, and that officer cuts his coat by the amount of cloth still in hand. This arrangement, as I know from personal experience, works to the complete satisfaction of all concerned.
* 1 repeat here in New Zealand what 1 stated in my Australian report: 1 strongly advocate money for education and training, outside the statutory camp training, being entrusted to the Chief of the General Staff in the form of a block training grant which lie might allocate as he tninke lit. This plan lias proved most suooessful at Home, and 2."> per cent, better value i~ obtained from the block grant than from the same sum of money meticulously apportioned under different headings. Offioere and men are ready to make considerable pecuniary sacrifices if they know thai the training grant gains by their self-abnegation.
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Definition of Responsibility at Headquarters. t2. Definition of responsibility is the basis of sound administration, and as between the officers at Headquarters responsibility can best be denned by the vote, or votes, thai each is called on to administer. Broadly, the peace duties of the Chief of the General Staff, of the Adjutant-General, and of the Quartermaster-General respectively may, as regards expenditure, be classified under the separate heads of training, personnel, and supply. The allocation of votes as shown in Appendix VIII would set at rest any doubts which may now exist as to where the responsibility of each branch of the Staff begins and ends. It would certainly be convenient if, in future, Army estimates could be prepared in three votes only, corresponding with the functions ascribed to the three branches of the Staff. Proposed Headquarters Organization. 43. In Appendix VIII the proposed organization at Headquarters is described in detail, including the distribution of duties assigned to each branch of the Staff. The Director of Ordnance and the Director of Accounts, who figure in the existing organization (Appendix I) have disappeared,* and in future the General Officer Commanding the Forces should have only three heads of Staff branches to deal with instead of five, as is now the case. The duties now assigned to the Director of Ordnance and the Director of Accounts should be distributed between the other branches of the Staff and the various Inspectors. No increase of clerical staff at Headquarters should be necessary. The Inspectors. 44' A word is necessary as to the position and functions of these Inspectors. Their duties of inspection should extend to stores of all kinds, books, accounts, &c, as well as to personnel and animals. But inspection should not be regarded as their sole function. They must be instructors as well, and therefore they should lie regarded as available for any military duties which the General Officer Commanding the Forces may assign to them. Their reports should be rendered directly to him. Moreover, in technical matters they should be the recognized advisers of the various branches of the Staff. Summary of the System proposal. 45. In conclusion, 1 desire to emphasize the fact that the organization I have proposed is essentially a war organization. It is modelled on the staff system evolved by Wellington during nearly five years of warfare in the Peninsula and in France ; it reproduces as closely as circumstances permit, with due regard to economy, the system laid down for war in the Field Service Regulations : it should render easy the training of officers in peace for the specific functions they would have to carry out in the field ; it frees Commanders of troops of all financial responsibility, and of the anxiety that such responsibility entails, especially for men who have had no commercial training; it leaves them free to devote themselves to the troops under their command, instead of for ever sitting in their offices : finally, it should in time produce a type of military administrator who, to the instincts and the training of the business man, should add a sufficiency of military knowledge. IV. District and Area Organization. Work effected in the Area.~\ 46. The area is the basis of the whole military structure. It is here that the registration of those liable for military service takes place ; and from the moment a boy is registered as a Cadet until, as a man, he is passed fit to take his place in the ranks of the Territorial Force the area is his military home. Later, as a Reservist, he again comes under the Area Commander, or, should he not be embodied in the Territorial Force, he will, as a member of the General Training Section, remain constantly under his control. Therefore it is specially desirable that the personal record of every man still liable to military service, whether he belongs to a Territorial unit or not, should be filed and maintained in a " record office " established at area headquarters. . Dual Nature of Area-work. 47. The work of an area divides itself sharply into two categories, viz.: (a) Record work, (6) Depot duties. Both functions may, for convenience' sake, be vested in the same officer, but the distinction between them should be clearly defined, as it might be necessary at any time to separate them and entrust them to different individuals. The Area Commander —that is to say, the senior Permanent officer present in an area commands every one in it who is called up for training or service but is not embodied in a Territorial unit. His responsibility is to the District Commander. The Officer in Charge of Records, on the other hand, exercises his authority as an agent of the Adjutant-General at Army Headquarters, to whom he is directly responsible. He is not an executive officer, and may accordingly be senior in rank to the area officer without prejudicing in any way the letter's status as a Commander. The Record Office. 48. In the Imperial Army the Record Office as an institution is a product of the South African War. In my Australian report I have explained the need for it and the sort of work it has to carry
For reasons sec Appendix VII. paragraphs .s:> and 84. f See footnote to paragraph 2.
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on. (See Appendix IX.) Briefly, the Record Office is the place where a man's personal documents are kept; where all information regarding his military career is recorded no matter where lie may be serving, whether in peace or in war; and to which all inquiries regarding him should normally be addressed. The Officer in Charge of Refolds is f be person who deals with individuals —Territorials, Reservists. General Training Section, Rifle Club members, unci Cadets —in their civilian capacity. They come under military command only after he has called them out for service or training. He. more than any one else, should get into touch with the educational and Civil authorities and invoke their aid in matters of registration, changes of address, &c. (See Appendix XI.) Personal Records. 49. The existing duplicate record-book can, if a good deal of irrelevant matter is excluded, be easily adapted for use in Record Offices. One such book will have to be maintained there for every Cadet and citizen soldier liable for service in the Territorial Force. No record-books need be retained with units. * The record-books now in the possession of Cadets and serving soldiers appear to be of little value. In many cases they are not up to date; in some instances they are not even forthcoming. The work they entail is out of all relation to their usefulness, and I recommend their abolition in their present shape. Accurate information regarding a mans service can, if wanted, be obtained at any moment from his Record Office. On the completion of the citizen soldier's liability for service he might appropriately be presented with his record-book as a memento of his service. Statistical Returns. 50. Statistics affecting personnel should be made up in the Record Office. The Officer in Charge of Records is the man who is at all times in touch witii those liable lor service within an area. He records their addresses, postings and transfers out of or into his area, and, being where and what he is. he is sure, sooner or later, to get news of any casualty that occurs. He is, therefore, at all times in a better position than any one else to report accurately as to the actual strength of Cadets, General Training Section, and Reservists, as well as of the units, or parts of units, which recruit in an area. Statistical returns are, as a rule, required for use in the Adjutant-General's department at Headquarters, and unless there is any special reason for District Headquarters seeing them, they should invariably be sent from tin- Record Office directly to Army Headquarters. (See Appendix X.) Record Offices directly under Ihe Adjuia/nt-Qeneral. 51. On principle, the supervision of Record Offices should be undertaken by the Adjutant-General himself, or by a deputy of bis, and correspondence between Record Offices and Army Headquarters should, in all matters, be as direct as possible. Any intervening authority is superfluous. For instance, supposing sonic complicated question affecting an individual's registration, or exemption from service, arises, which for some reason or other the Officer in Charge of Records cannot himself decide, it is pretty certain that no one other than the Adjutant-General himself can give a definite ruling on the point. Reference on such a subject to or through a district office would be a meaningless formality. It represents so-many postage-stamps unnecessarily expended, and so-much energy wasted. Record Offices on Mobilization. 52. On mobilization, the calling-up of Reservists and men of the General Training Section for service and training would be effected in the Record Office. Forms for this purpose should be kept ready filled in in peace. Notices to Territorial soldiers to join their units for training and on mobilization should also be. sent out by the Officer in Charge of Records, who should be kept informed of changes of address within the area. He will send to units the names of men who have been exempted from training by order of a Magistrate. Record-work is of 'a highly specialized nature, and Record Office clerks, provided they are efficient, should on no account be transferred to other duties on or after mobilization. Depot Duties. 53. For purposes of command and training an area is in a sense a depot, of which every Cade! and every citizen soldier not actually embodied in a unit forms a part. The duties of a Depot Commander are the same all the world over. He clothes, arms, equips, feeds (if necessary), and trains all individuals brought under his command. These, then, are the chief duties that the Area Commander has to perform, both in peace and in war. as regards Cadets, recruits. General Training Section, and Reservists. In peace he supervises the instruction and training of these men. In war he must keep units in the field supplied with the batches of trained men required to replace losses and wastage. The necessary machinery I'M this purpose should be carefully elaborated in pence. Unit Command. 54. Commanders of Territorial units are responsible to their Brigadier, and, through him, to the District Commander. They are in no sense under the orders of the Area Commander. They must supply the Record Office or Offices concerned with any information regarding individuals— -e.g.. promotions, reductions. &c. —that may be needed, such information being oohveyed as a rule by means of regimental orders. In turn the Record Office will keep them informed of any postings to or transfers
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from their unit. Seeing, therefore, thai units will in future be relieved of all responsibility in connection with record-books and statistical returns, the clerical work carried out in their orderly-rooms should, during the non-training period, be extremely limited. Moreover, if recruit training is effected wholly under the supervision of the Area Commander, and it responsibility for the instruction of the trained soldier rests, during most of the year, entirely with squadron and company commanders, it follows that the services of a Permanent Adjutant and of a Permanent sergeant-major will only occasionally be required at times other than during the annual camp. Quartermaster-General , s Duties with a Unit. 55. There remains to be considered the duties in which the Quartermaster-General to the Forces is primarily interested. The selection and appointment of non-commissioned officers to act as quarter-master-sergeants should be vested in him, and he should ensure that unit commanders have at their disposal men capable of assisting them in looking after the stores for which they themselves are held responsible. [am glad to find that in preserlt circumstances unit and Area Commanders deal directly with the Quartermaster-General's department on all matters which concern that department. Equipment and store indents, store accounts, returns of ammunition expended, and all documents of a similar nature should continue to be sent straight from the unit to the departmental officer, and, vice versa, without passing through any intervening office. Brigade < 'ommand. ■">(). The only correspondence, therefore, between units and District Headquarters which need pass through a Brigade Office is that connected with the work with the Chief of the General Staff, and of the Adjutant-General, less Record Office work. In existing circumstances a Brigadier is kept in touch with the training of his brigade, with disciplinary questions, and with the promotion and appointment of officers from Captain's rank upwards : but this is about all he should be troubled with, and if Brigade Office correspondence is kept within these limits one non-commissioned officer should amply suffice to deal with it. and he should still have plenty of spare time wherein to assist in the instructional or clerical work of an area. Staff Available fai Area-work. ■v . Many new duties, both clerical and instructional, will, under my proposals, be imposed on the area. On the other hand, certain existing returns can be considerably reduced, both in volume and in frequency of rendering. (Appendix X.) Further, under my proposals in this section and in Section V the services of officers and sergeant-majors now detailed for duty with brigades and units should, during most of the year, be available for work in areas and sub-areas. In this way I estimate that, without any increase in the existing establishment, there should lie at least three officers and about eight non-commissioned officers available for instructional and record-work in cadi area. It should be for the District Commander to determine when and how often during the year the services of the Permanent instructors should be placed ai the disposal of Brigadiers and unit commanders for duty as Brigade Majors and Adjutants. District Headquarters. 58. Under the suggestions I have set forth the position of a District Commander should, in future, be very different from what it has been. Relieved of financial responsibility, and of the supervision of Record Office work, he will be at liberty to apply his mind to broad questions of policy and to the training carried out in the units and the areas under his command. Policy once settled, the QuartermasterGeneral's representative in the district should be left a free hand in providing ways and means. Outside of the Quartermaster-General's sphere of action, .ill clerical work at District Headquarters should be confined within the narrowest possible limits. The work of the Adjutant-General, if his branch is not directly represented at District Headquarters, should be dealt with by thy General Staff Officer. Identity of System in Peace and War. 59. The system of district and area organization foreshadowed in the previous paragraphs is essentially a war system. Under it no sort of office-work is left with a unit that can possibly be dealt with in a stationary office. Responsibility for record-work, for depot and unit command, and for the command and training of Reservists and of the General Training Section is accurately defined, and both the incidence of responsibility and the necessary machinery remain the same in war as in peace. The channels of all kinds of correspondence are regulated by war conditions, and superfluous post-officec are altogether avoided. Above all. Commanders of troops arc. as far as is compatible with efficiency and economy, left free to exercise their purely military duties. To a Citizen Army thus prepared war will come not as a strange, incredible event demanding all sorts of frantic expedients and extravagant Improvizations. No ;to them it will merely be an affair of putting ball cartridge into their rifles instead of the customary blank. V. The Training of a Citizen Army Principles and Methods. 60. In a country like Xew Zealand, where the people, though warlike, are unversed in military tradition, where a Citizen Army is actually in process of creation, and where the electorates are so quick and so thoroughly alive to their responsibilities, it is especially desirable that all classes of the comiminitv should be given an opportunity of grasping at least the essential points of questions they
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and, in the last resort, they alone can decide. Not only should the principles underlying military training and military organization be submitted to their consideration, but examples drawn from other parts of the world should be adduced so that they may easily follow the methods by which those principles have elsewhere been put into practice. I propose, then, to disclose in simple terms the principles underlying training, ami to discuss certain methods of applying them. Individual and Unit Training. iil. Military training may lie classified under two distinct headings: (a.) The instruction of the individual officer. Qon-commissioned officer, and soldier ; (/).) The instruction of the squadron, company, regiment, battery, or battalion, and of the larger bodies e.g., brigades and divisions. The fighting efficiency of an army depends mainly on the amount of sympathy. experience, and enthusiasm which has been put into the training of its individual components. Second only in importance to the education of the individual comes the practice, under war conditions, of the units and higher formations. Individual Training. 62. In every country the training of the individual is guided, both as regards matter and form, by specialists who stand altogether apart bom the units themselves. Sol Is and classes for officers and non-commissioned officers are formed at convenient centres where instruction is given in a variety of military subjects. Mere the student acquires knowledge to lie imparted, later on. to his men. Here sometimes, too. amongst Anglo-Celtic communities, he has been known to absorb false ideas as to principles, and heretical notions as to methods, owing to the want of grip upon doctrine shown by the central authority. On the Continent of Europe the training of the recruit is. it is true, conducted by regimental officers and non-commissioned officers at the headquarters of the unit. But this system cannot hold good in war, and recruit training is then of necessity carried out in depots, or in reserve units, apart from the fighting unit in the field. In England, in the United States of North America, and in Switzerland, the system of depot training for recruits obtains to a large extent in peace as well as in war. Recruit Training. 63. In all serious armies a standard of efficiency in drill, musketry, and other vital subjects is laid down by regulation. To this the recruit must attain before he can be regarded as being in any sense a ''trained soldier." In one army the standard may be a high one. in another it may be low: but, whatever it may be. it is universally applied. Otherwise, the war value of an army would remain unknown. The General might be a man of genius, his Staff erudite, his regimental officers bold ; but, where no standard of training has been exacted from the rank and tile, there the army could not face the battle ordeal with confidence. In an army whose officers obtain their commissions through tinranks, the after-effects of recruit training make themselves felt, in a special degree, throughout the entire military edifice. The man educated in a faulty school is so handicapped in his future career that only in very exceptional cases does he emerge as a competent officer—unless, indeed, war comes to give him the best of all educations whilst his character is still plastic enough to receive the genuine lesson and to forget all the old bad teaching. Value of Squadron and Company Training. 64. Squadron or company training brings Commanders into touch with their subordinates, very much to tlie mutual advantage of both. Here officers and non-commissioned officers learn to make practical application of the knowledge they have acquired at their classes, and become the recognized instructors i>l men already prepared by their work as recruits in profit by such tuition. Here, by degrees, the Captain, subaltern, sergeant, or corporal becomes, each in his own sphere, the recognized leader, guide, enlightener of his men. Here, in short, the Commander obtains that ascendency over the minds of the youth of the land which engenders discipline a word of excessively bad repute amongst a certain small section of the public. But what, after all. is this modern discipline '. In a country like New Zealand the men join the ranks full of good will and anxiety to acquit themselves well in the performance of a duty demanded of them by the State. The officers and non-commissioned officers are at least equally anxious to show them how best to achieve this same national purpose. Gradually, mutual esteem, and very probably affection, are evolved out of the relationship of eager master and willing pupil. The two are knit together more and more closely by the generous warmth of feeling consequent on working for a purely unselfish object. There is no money in it. If the Commander sweats the subordinate, that sort of sweat does not go to make the Commander fat. On the contrary, he is bound in honour to sweat himself at least twice as much as his men. The rank and file (the workers) recognize these truths instinctively and very quickly, although they may be for long, and perhaps for ever, hidden from the spectacles of learned but ungenerous sophists. They learn to trust their instructors, and the instructors learn to trust them. When this point has been reached, the unit will bear the strain of discomfort and danger without any loss either of cohesion or courage.*
* To give such a system a fair ohanoe i>f success the men must have learnt, as recruits, the element- of the soldier's work before they come to squadron or company training. To attempt to combine recruit training with unit training is to destroy the effioaoy of both.
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Spoon-fed Units. 65. Once the stage of unit training is reached, any direct intervention on the part of a specialist instructor, whether officer or non-commissioned officer, is fatal to the real efficiency of a Militia Force. The specialist takes a burden of responsibility off the shoulders of the Militia Commanders ; in peace he may even produce a very fine surface veneer of smartness and intelligent working—so much I freely admit; but all the while he is as busy as a beaver undermining the war discipline of the unit. The men come to despise as incapable those who will lead them in war ; the leaders lose confidence in themselves. A unit spoon-fed by outside instructors resembles that barrack-square make-believe, the Adjutant's regiment—a whited sepulchre. Outwardly it impresses the crowd, within is hollowness and death. ( 'oiiibiiied Training, 66. Smooth and rapid co-operation between the companies of a battalionj or the squadrons of a regiment, or the battalions and regiments of a brigade, or the arms and administrative services of a division, is the result of practice. Theoretical study will no more teach a Commander and hi.s subordinates how to work in with the other arms and bring off a stroke with the full momentum of every available man, mounted rifleman, gunner, and foot soldier, all together and all at the right moment, than it will aid the unfortunate person crossing between the North and South Islands from succumbing to sea-sickness. In the dry phraseology of the Training and Manoeuvre Regulations, " Co-operation cannot be efficient unless all arms and services are constantly exercised together. Combined training not only gives each arm and service knowledge of the working of other arms and services which is essential to smooth co-operation, but also creates a mutual confidence between all branches. . . . A well-trained army is one in which . . . the whole has been carefully trained to combined action." Such combination it is the aim of regimental, brigade, and divisional training to produce War Training. 67. The more the training of the higher formations can be conducted under service conditions the more effective will they become. Practice in moving large numbers and in handling them across country and over every variety of ground is the chief essential. Hence in countries where soldiering is taken seriously, annual manoeuvres become the climax of each year's training; the troops usually bivouac, or are billeted on the inhabitants, and the scene of operations, as in war, shifts from day to day over ground unknown to the troops. Hence, too, Manoeuvre Acts have come to be universal, the areas in which operations are to take place each year being proclaimed beforehand for military use. The old practice which obtained in England prior to the South African War of begging user rights over land from landowners has been abandoned. Not only was the patriotic landowner penalized, but, in practice, patriotism being an unvarying product, it was found that the same areas became available; and want of patriotism being also unvarying, the same blocks were marked out of bounds year after year. Thus the ground was generally limited in extent; its features were as well known to Generals and Staff Officers as their own home surroundings ; and the manoeuvres lost in consequence quite half their value. Principles of Training. 68. Here, then, are my principles : — (a.) The elementary individual training of both officers and men can be, and on the war analogy should be, effected by experts apart from the units. (b.) A standard of efficiency is essential for the recruit. He should under no circumstances be allowed to take his place as a " trained soldier " in the ranks of his unit until, in the opinion of some high military authority, he reaches this standard. (<:.) Unit training should be carried out in all its branches by unit commanders without the intervention of specialist instructors. The more advanced instruction of the trained soldier should he regarded as Forming part of unit training. ('/.) The training of units, and of the higher formations, should be progressive, leading by stages from the company or squadron through the battalion, regiment, and brigade up to the division of all arms. (c.) The instruction of the higher formations should be confined almost wholly to field operations, carried out over unknown country and, as nearly as possible, under service conditions. The Swiss Example. 69. As regards the method of applying these principles, I cannot do better than take the practice in vogue in Switzerland as an illustration. For, first, I have studied their system on the spot so lately as last autumn ; secondly, the Swiss are working heart and soul to train their citizens to stand up to the troops of the greatest military powers of the world ; thirdly, they have been doing this for more generations than the number of years that any similar force has been in existence in a British dominion. Recruit Training in Switzerland. 70. In Switzerland Cadet training is voluntary, the Confederation supplying equipment, arms, ammunition, and drill-blouses free of cost Recruit training proper begins in the twentieth year, and is carried out apart from units at certain centres, partly by a corps of permanent instructors (192 officers and forty-seven non-commissioned officers) and partly by Militia Officers and non-commissioned officers. The period of the recruit's
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course is sixty-five days in the Infantry and Engineers, ninety days in the Cavalry, seventy-five days in the Artillery. A high standard of individual efficiency in drill, handling of arms, musketry, and fieldwork is exacted at these courses. Swiss Instructional Staff. 71. The corps of instructors hold numerous classes for officers and non-commissioned officers throughout the year. Every Militiaman during colour service (twelve years) and Reserve service (eight years) must fire annually, under strict conditions, an average of thirty-six rounds in a Rifle Club. Further, in each year that he does not train he must attend an inspection of arms and equipment. With these exceptions, " home training ' is unknown in the Swiss Army. Unit Training. 72. During his colour service the Infantryman has to perform seven trainings, the Cavalryman eight, each training lasting thirteen days, including the days of joining and dismissal. During; these trainings all unit training is performed. Each year two divisions operate one against the other over extensive tracts of country, under strictest service conditions. The training of the other four divisions is on a more modest scale, being confined mostly to training under the Brigade Commanders. Swiss View of Unit Training. 73. During the training period a portion of the corps of instructors is embodied in the Army, in the capacity of Commanders and Staff Officers. On principle, however, only so many are thus employed as could safely be spared from instructional duties in the event of mobilization. In fact (so far as appointments are concerned) annual training resembles, as nearly as possible, an actual mobilization. This is the period when the fitness of all ranks is tested practically, and there is no idea of bolstering up an incapable Commander by an expert who would not be at his elbow in war. Although many of the higher Commanders and Staff Officers are drawn from the Corps of Instructors, the total number so employed is strictly limited, the Swiss holding firmly to the view that too much prompting by a professional ruins the initiative and prestige of their Militia officers. For these are the type of Territorials who not only defeated Charles the Bold and his knights as well as the flower of the Austrian chivalry, the Regulars of those days, but they are equally the modern representatives of the Forces which conquered at Marathon, — Won by the unambitious heart and hand Of a proud, brotherly and civic band. Every single word of these great lines of Byron's (excepting only the articles, conjunctions, and prepositions) is weighted with profound meaning. Summary of Swiss Practice. 74. Such is the system in an army which still exemplifies the highest existing type of a purely Citizen Force, although there is no reason in the world why Australasia, being richer and bigger, possessing a purebred and thoroughly warlike type of men, speaking one language, animated by one sentiment, should not in the course of the next four or five years wrest from them the lead of which they are so justly proud. Let me now give a summary of the system : — (1.) The training of the recruit up to a given standard, as well as the instinct ion of the individual officer and non-commissioned officer, effected by specialists, apart from their units. (2.) The training of the embodied units, and of the higher formations, carried mil annually under the men who would actually command and lead them in war. (3.) For two years out of three, training progressive from the smaller units up to the brigade, and evep higher. It will be seen that the principles indicated in paragraph 68 are thus adhered to in their entirety, responsibility throughout being accurately defined.' The Australasian Experiment. 75. In New Zealand, as in Australia, the most interesting experiment is being made of substituting a four-years term of Cadet training for the two or three months of consecutive recruit training obtaining in Switzerland, and, indeed, in some form or another, in every other army. The experiment is fascinating in its interest, for on its success or failure depends the answer to be given to the question whether a fighting standard of efficiency can be obtained without ever withdrawing the adult citizen soldier from his civil employment for more than a very few days in the year. So far, no definite conclusion can be arrived at —the new model has not been long enough on its legs. All I can say is that, generally, the omens are propitious. Efficiency of Town Cadets. 76. During the past month I have inspected whole companies of Senior Cadets whom I would pass on the spot to take their place in the ranks of a smart Infantry battalion, provided always that their standard of musketry came up to their steadiness in the ranks, their handling of arms, their drill, and their marching. But it is significant that such companies, almost without an exception, have come Erojp populous centres, or from boarding-schools, where home training is easily effected throughout
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the year. Moreover, I have always found on inquiry that sucli units have been lucky either in possessing a particularly efficient officer or officers living on the spot, or in having a Permanent instructor residing close to them and taking a keen interest in their efficiency. Where conditions such as these exist I am practically certain that Cadet training, and the money it rosts. will be fully justified from the military standpoint. Difficulties in the Country. 77. On the other hand, I have seen Cadets collected from backblocks, and from sparsely inhabited districts, and hastily organized into improvised companies and battalions, who neither individually nor collectively show much promise of giving the State an adequate return for the sums expended on their military training and education. That this is so is in no wise the fault of the Cadets themselves. No finer raw material could be found anywhere, and the spirit of the lads is excellent ; but the conditions under which they train seem to place an insurmountable barrier between them and the attainment of even a moderate standard of proficiency. They seldom see a Permanent instructor, and when that official does make one of his rare appearances, his time is mostly taken up with a mixed lot of trained soldiers and recruits who are in every stage of development. As time passes, matters will tend to grow worse in these respects, for, later on, he will also have to supervise the training of the men of the General Training Section and of Eeservists. It is, I regret to say, my deliberate opinion that, in scattered country districts, the existing system of Cadet training will prove itself incapable of replacing satisfactorily the concentrated period of adult recruit training given in other armies. Cadet Concentrations in Country. 78. What, then, is the remedy for a disability which affects perhaps 25 per cent, of the Force '. To such an inquiry there can be but one answer. If home training cannot be improved it must be abolished. Improvement to any appreciable extent would entail a large increase in the number of the Permanent Staff. In addition to the pay of the extra instructors, the large sums now disbursed on travelling and detention allowances would be doubled or even trebled. Even then it is questionable whether an adequate return for the money expended could be obtained. It would, I believe, be found much cheaper in the long-run, as well as more to the liking of the lads themselves, if in country districts they were collected for fourteen days at certain centres, with a sufficiency of Permanent instructors present to make sure that they were thoroughly wheeled into line. In Natal (where compulsory Cadet training has been in existence for more than twenty years) the practice of holding Cadet camps has, as I can testify after personal inspection, been attended with the happiest results—so much so that the Government of South Africa proposes to adopt them throughout the States of the Union. An Alternative for Cadet Training. 79. The only other alternative is to follow the Swiss system for lads in outlying districts, and in their case dispense altogether with Cadet training. The period of concentrated recruit training at fixed centres should, in this event, be not less than eight weeks. The men concerned would become liable on attaining their eighteenth year. This alternative has the double disadvantage that the men under training would have to be paid, and that the indirect loss to the country of having so many adults removed from the labour-market would be seriously felt. In other words, the change of system would be costly. But a more serious drawback, in my opinion, than even the enhanced cost lies in the fact that the inestimable advantages of Cadet training would then be lost to the very class of lads who most of all require them. Such an alternative as this should only be resorted to after every other expedient has been given a fair trial and has failed. Unit Concentrations in Country. 80. If it is expedient to differentiate between town and country in the matter of Cadet and recruit training, the arguments "that apply in their case will, I imagine, be found to apply even more strongly in the case of the trained soldier. After carefully inspecting many country corps, lam quite certain that the one thing the men require above all others is to be brought into closer touch with their own officers and non-commissioned officers. Casual drilling by a peripatetic instructor can never compensate for this personal touch between officers and men which, in a Citizen Force, can only be established during the period of company and squadron training. Here, again, a clear line of demarcation can be drawn. Wherever a squadron or company can, without undue hardship, be collected to drill and exercise as a unit tinder its own officers, there the existing system of home training is perfectly sound. Otherwise it would unquestionably be preferable to substitute for home training a concentrated squadron or company training of at least a week's duration, to be held at some convenient place and time prior to the assembly of the battalion or regiment for its statutory annual training. How carried out. 81. Squadron or company concentrations should be arranged locally by squadron and company commanders ; the less the higher authorities interfere the better. They should not cost much. Eations and forage only would have to be provided by Government. Pay would be unnecessary, in that the men would only be carrying out an obligation which their comrades in the town fulfil without payment. In many instances camp equipment would be unnecessary, as accommodation in barns, in shearing-sheds, or even in billets, could doubtless be arranged for locally.
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Responsibility for Training. 82. I respectfully submit that if any one reading this report will carefully consider the subject of military training in New Zealand in the light of the foregoing suggestions they will thenceforth and for ever afterwards have a clear-cut comprehension not only of the true purpose for which Ihe instructional staff exists, but also of the real significance of every form of training now laid down by law. Such a study should also help the reader to understand where responsibility should rest for the training of the soldier at every stage of his career. The Area Commander. 83. In war the training of the recruit is necessarily effected apart from the unit. In New Zealand it will have to be carried out within the area by a portion of the present instructional staff, acting under the orders of the Area Commander. With a view to reproducing in peace the exact machinery needed in war, I strongly recommend that (he responsibility for training the recruits of the Infantry and Mounted Rifles shall devolve on the Area Commander until such time as they are passed fit to take their place in the ranks. The District Commander, or some officer deputed by him. should lie the authority to certify that recruits have reached the standard of efficiency laid down by regulation for the trained soldier. Both in war and in peace, the unit commander will thus have an assurance that the men joining his unit are up to the required standard. Cadet-training, as forming a definite portion of recruit-training, will naturally be controlled by the Area Commander. (See Appendix XI.) The Squadron mid Company Commander. 84. Subject to the authority of the unit commander, company and squadron commanders .should be held responsible for the instruction of the trained soldier. In towns, and in thickly populated districts, this instruction would be given by means of home training; elsewhere, at company and squadron concentrations. The less a Territorial officer has at this stage to rely on assistance from the permanent instructor the better —not only for himself, but also for his command, as well as for the army to which that command bears much the same relation as a family does to a nation. The Regimental Commander. 85. Next comes battalion and regimental training. Given a sound system of squadron and company training, the time allocated for this purpose should be comparatively limited. Two or three days should suffice. Here again the alternative of home training or regimental concentration should be considered, having due regard to the circumstances of each unit. Where home training is impracticable the existing system of bringing rural corps into camp proportionately earlier than the home-trained corps would continue to be enforced. During these days they should be placed entirely at the disposal of the unit commander. Units, on the other hand, which can conveniently be home-trained should be assembled periodically under their commander for drill and field exercises, preferably in the weeks immediately preceding the annual camp. Squadron and company drills and training should be completed before the regimental training commences. Divisional and Brigade Commanders. 86. The annual statutory training of seven days should invariably be effected under the supervision of the brigade commander. By this Ido not mean to imply that the whole period should be devoted to brigade-training, or even that the whole brigade should necessarily every year be concentrated in the same camp. While the Territorial Force is still in the making it may be advisable that in alternate years —or for one year out of three—regimental or battalion camps should be formed for backward units, where they would be left almost entirely at the disposal of their own commanding officer. In such cases alsy the Brigadier should be watching progress from the background and keeping a close eye on the whole/character of the instruction. It is sometimes possible for a Brigadier to fix up simultaneous camps for two or more of his units separately and yet within striking distance of one another. In such case he may vary the purely regimental training in the most instructive manner by arranging for an encounter fight or for a night attack. As the forces of New Zealand become seasoned these quiet regimental camps will less frequently be needed, and the ordinary concentration will be by brigades. But even then a wise Brigadier will be careful to leave units at the disposal of their commanders for several days out of the seven, the balance being devoted to some form of realistic field manoeuvres. Ultimately it is to be hoped that the Force will reach a stage of development where divisional manoeuvres under war conditions will become possible —-say, every fourth year ■- the manoeuvres extending over the whole of the seven days. War Conditions must be observed. 87. I have two explanatory points to make in connection with the previous paragraph. First, as emphasizing the necessity for bringing corps together into larger formations, I would urge that not only do the fighting troops learn thus to work together in unison as they should do in war, but also that such concentrations afford the only possible real war training for all departmental corps such as telegraphs, signallers, telephonists, Army Service and Medical Corps. Secondly, that the adoption of any such system as I have recommended implies the passing of an adequate Manoeuvre Act. Such an Act, with its customary proviso that the same ground may not be proclaimed more than once in a certain number of years, is fair to every one, and ensures the troops good fresh ground to work over an advantage equivalent in training to half the battle.
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Proposed System of Training; 88. The system of training, therefore, which, in accordance with well-defined principles. I submit as suitable to the requirements of the Citizen Forces of New Zealand may he summarized as follows : —
Affiliation of Cadets to Units. 89. It is in the interest not only of the Army but the nation that the attention and sympathy of Territorial officers should extend beyond the Force in being to the New Zealand soldiers of the future. So I trust that every effort will be made to draw the Cadets closer to the Territorial Force, and to that end I recommend the affiliation of Cadet companies to Territorial units ; the use by Cadets of regimental badges and numbers, and the notification of Cadet officers' names on the same page of the Army List as that which contains the names of the officers of their affiliated Territorial unit. Such a connection will, it is my firm belief, enure, eventually, at least as much to the benefit of the Territorial Force generally as of the Cadets themselves. Developments necessary. 90. 1 have here advocated nothing startling or miraculous. New Zealand is not advised to travel to distant Abana and Pharpar, but only to give its own familiar Jordan a fair trial. For three years past the root principles and the methods now recommended have been recognized, more or less, and have also been more or less applied. Set the seal of thoroughness on a great work already at least half finished ; that is the crux of my advice. Beyond question the-training of the Territorial Force has now reached a stage of development which will admit of the detachment of the instructional staff from units being carried one step further. Beyond question regimental officers will soon be capable of running their own show with much less adventitious aid from regular Adjutants and sergeants-major than they have hitherto enjoyed. For routine work during camp training, and in the field, these regular assistants may still be indispensable, but at other times the best part of their work could quite adequately be performed by assistant adjutants and by permanent quartermaster-sergeants of units. For, in future, unit commanders will neither have responsibility for the training of recruits nor, under the proposals in Section IV, will they henceforth be burdened with a mass of office-work. I recommend, therefore, that it should be within the power of District Commanders to decide to what extent the services of any member of the permanent instructional staff should at various periods of the year be placed at the disposal of the unit commanders. Otherwise they should be regarded as being normally under the orders of the Area Commanders. Effect oj such Developments. 91. The greater part of the time of all permanent instructors, both officers and non-commissioned officers, should thus be made available for work under the Area Commander either for the training of Cadets, Territorial recruits, General Training Section, or of Reservists. Such work should be arranged strictly on a localized basis. Non-commissioned officers should have allotted to them well-defined sub-areas to work over, and officer instructors should supervise the work of a group of two or three
\\ hore Home Training is \\ here Home Training i> ,, .,, . ,, .,, 8 .. vi Responsible Authority. Iiossible. not practicable. ' * Cadet training .. Cadet drills as at present Concentrated training in A tea Commander. camp or otherwise for fourteen days* Recruit training .. Statutory drills and train- Up to twenty days in Area Commander. ing in first year of ser- camp in first year of vice until the recruit service until the recruit is passed fit for the is passed fit for the ranks ranks* Training of the General As laid down by law Area Commander. Training Section and of Reservists Individual instruction ('lasses arranged locally District]Commander. of officers and noncommissioned officers Squadron and company Eight whole-day parades, Eight days'concentrated Squadron or company training or drills equivalent training, including nms- Commander. thereto, including mus- ketry course* ketry course Regimental and bat- Three whole-day parades, Three days in camp . . Unit Commander, talion training or drills equivalent thereto Brigade and divisional Nine days* .. .. Nine days* .. .. Brigade'and divisional training Commanders. * Includes days of arrival and departure.
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noil-commissioned officers, besides taking their perl in the instruction of Territorial officers and noncommissioned officers. By this means all overlapping of instructional duties will be avoided, and a considerable cash saving should be realized. With Cadet and recruit training placed in the hands of an adequate start of expert instructors ; with squadrons and companies brought a definite period in each year within the grasp of their own commanders ; aud with the functions of regimental, brigade, and divisional commanders accurately defined, the braining of the Territorial Force put on a really scientific footing. There is very little money involved in these readjustments of the machine. Indeed, it is my own strong impression that the saving in the travelling-expenses and the detention allowances of instructors and in the overlappings of functions of all sorts will, quite apart from priceless efficiency, just about make good the only extra cost—the cost, namely, of a certain number of squadron, company, and Cadet concentrations, with their attendant rations and forage. Let New Zealand be thorough and thoroughly take the plunge. Then, indeed, she will be able to look with hope instead of misgiving over the broad expanse of the Pacific whilst saying to herself— Come ono. come all; Mount Cook sliali hv H'roni its linn base ,1s soon us I ! VI. The Army To-day. Character of Inspection. 92. The Department of Defence so arranged matters that I was able to see every single unit of the New Zealand Forces, whether of the Territorial Force or of the Cadets, during the course of my inspection. Generally the authorities in the various districts were able to show me practical field work, based on reasonable and simple suppositions. But company officers not infrequently overlooked the absolute necessity, under modern conditions, of taking the rank and file into their confidence by explaining to them exactly the lie of the land—the why and the wherefore--whom they were attacking or what they were defending. Orders were as a rule clearly and concisely drafted. There was too much tendency to tie the Mounted Rifles and Artillery to a preconceived situation which a real enemy would, in all human probability, have profoundly modified. Mounted troops especially should be given as free a hand as possible after being told the main object to be achieved. I noticed that two-inch-to-a-mile maps were being used by the troops : it is very improbable that such a large-scale map would be available in war, and its use in peace is therefore not as a rule desirable. Organization. 93. The military organization is in the main soundly conceived and sensibly acted upon. I have" shown elsewhere how considerable improvements could be made in this, the fundamental basis of any army. But already the machine functions wonderfully well, as the large camp concentrations have clearly demonstrated—not to speak of the assemblages of Cadets to central inspections, often over a hundred miles away from Ihe outlying headquarters of their companies. Only a healthy organization could have moved and manipulated such crowds of half-trained boys without a succession of mishaps and troubles. Discipline. 94. Discipline—the main force of armies—is closely allied to organization. Such a sense of cohesion and of being under wise management as a good organization can give, amounts in itself to a sort of discipline. Up to this point the Forces of New Zealand are disciplined. Further, there is a common wish running through all ranks—a wish to do well. Where every one wishes to do the same thing there is no strain on discipline. In this negative sense also the Forces of New Zealand are disciplined. But the real test of discipline comes when the men are ordered to do something bard and disagreeable—something which appears to them unnecessary or mistaken. To put it plainly, a deep moral chasm intervenes between a ten-mile march on a fine day and on a full stomach, and a t\\enty-five-mile majch on a dark rainy night on an empty stomach. Factors affecting Discipline. 95. I have not enough to go upon to enable me to speak with great assurance as to this matter, but lam much inclined to think that here the Forces of New Zealand are weak. Indeed, I hardly see how it could well be otherwise. The Captains very frequently do not even know the names of their men —let alone their occupations and those of their parents—their habits, or the strong and weak points of their characters. Nor have the rank and file any real knowledge, in many cases, of their officers —half hidden, as these too often are, behind the sergeant-major's much more prominent figure. The officers are keen to teach, the men are anxious to learn, but not until they do teach one another and learn from one another—not until the regimental Captains themselves take in hand the instruction of their own men, without any intermediary whatsoever, will the true discipline—the main force oi armies—make itself thoroughly at home in the ranks of the Army of New Zealand. Recent Experiences. ( J6. Nothing that 1 have written, or shall write, in this report is, lam convinced, .so important as what has been said in the previous paragraph. And before I leave the subject let me here point out that the willingness and cheeriness of the men —smiling and civil though standing in glutinous mud over their ankles with an iced shower-bath pouring down their backs that this very oonstitu-
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tional cheeriness tends to obscure the fact that Achilles is vulnerable at the heel. All these great assemblages of troops, in trying weather, and very trying also in some of their other conditions, took place with only one regrettable incident. Were I merely globe-trotting—were I by chance an intelligent foreigner instead of an old soldier—l should say, What an excellent discipline ! But. being what I am, I know that what held the troops together was a finer quality than discipline, but one, alas, under the wear-and-tear of the hardships of a long campaign, more evanescent. It was patriotism. What is wanted. 97. Let us but get a thorough habit of discipline on the top of the glowing New Zealand patriotism and no one in this world could wish for more. What is needed is that officers, especially company otticers, should understand clearly that they are, for the time being, fathers and mothers to the lads entrusted to them for a brief period by the State. They must know each man—not the name only, but nature of the man. They should be able to guess what be is thinking about without waiting for him to speak. And, always, they must remember they issue no command from any petty personal motive, but ever and only as the responsible, trusted agents of the sovereign State. At present all this may seem too hard. Under the conditions of training I have suggested elsewhere it will be much easier, and, should these suggestions find acceptance, I have no fear as to the form or thoroughness of the discipline which will characterize the New Zealand Forces. Training. 98. I will deal with this more fully under the headings of the three arms. All I will say here is (hat the troops can "get there," and once in face of the enemy can combine to strike a heavy simultaneous blow against his position. In attack there was less piecemeal Frittering away of forces than I have sometimes seen at big manoeuvres in England or on the Continent. AJmosi always there was an intelligent attempt to hold the enemy in one part of the field and to hit him a blow in the vitals with the main force in another. The defence was usually weak in that the positions selected and the dispositions made were wanting in depth. A force strung out in one long line must collapse at once against a flank attack even from a small force of mobile mounted men. Intercommunication. 99. This service was on the whole good. The signallers were keen, quick, and usually well posted. Not so much reliance was placed on telephones and telegraphs as on the Continent of Europe, and this is so much to the good. Scouts. 100. Not enough trouble was taken to select the men best adapted by character, education, and physique for this most responsible work. The scouts should be to an army what its antennae are to an an t—to see and not to be seen ; to determine Eor themselves whether to fire or remain concealed ; to send back useful messages to the commander : all these duties demand the best that the company can produce, and are not to be fulfilled by individuals selected haphazard from the ranks. Spiritual Counsellors. 101. As experienced fishers of men the clergy of all denominations have been quick to realize the unrivalled opportunities for soul-catching afforded by a camp. There the devil, deprived of his favourite weapons of drink and flirtation, is comparatively at a discount. So it happened that one night, intending to go to a boxing-match, 1 fell into the midst of a prayer-meeting. The bnvs were praying with a great deal of fervour, and yet, 1 dare say, at home many of them rarely enter a church. Certainly the clergy in camp are a security to parents that military training is a school of morality as well as of defence. As fov the reverend gentlemen themselves, 1 hope I may be permitted to report that, secularly speaking, .they set a good example to every one in treating everything that turned up with good humour and bonhomie. Mounted Rifles. 102. New Zealand is fortunate in being able to muster at a very moderate expense such a fine body of horsemen as the Mounted Rifles. The higher commands are in capable hands, the instructors are able, and all ranks are animated with a keenness and initiative that deserve high praise. The result is reflected in the field-work in which I have inspected them. The squadrons move at a good pace, and come into action quickly ; and they possess in a wonderful degree (considering the want of practice) that cohesion without which it is impossible to handle any considerable force of horsemen. 103. The horses are up to weight, show some quality, and look to be in good condition ; some of the units are quite remarkably well mounted, and their mounts are a level lot, when the conditions under which they are called up are taken into account. The activity of the horses and the nerve of their riders were brought forcibly home to me by two little incidents in my inspection. On one occasion the scouts of a brigade were sent out to a flank to reconnoitre ; they popped over a five-strand barbed-wire fence as if it had been a two-foot drain. Another time a troop about to advance had to be specially ordered to go through a gate instead of jumping the wire fence in front of them. Some of the men have the regulation colonial-pattern saddle, an excellent one for the purpose, but a large proportion of the saddles used are not suitable for military work, and would grove unserviceable in war. Ultimately the provision of regulation saddlery will have to be faced.
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104. I have seen the whole of the Mounted Rifles in field-work, in nearly every case in combined operations with the other arms. One of these operations required considerable restraint in launching an attack —a forbearance that is not common with mounted troops : the result was a flank attack delivered at the exact psychological moment when it was wanted. There is sometimes a tendency to begin dismounted action too far from the enemy ; Mounted Rifles are not at all suited for a long advance under fire on foot, which usually cannot succeed unless it is supported in depth. Every use should be made of cover and mobility to get within close ranges before dismounting for action. These remarks are only meant to have a general application. Cases might arise when it would be of great importance to make the enemy believe they were being attacked by Infantry, ruder such circumstances the horses must, no doifbt, be left a long way in rear. 105. Coining into action the led horses were generally well and quickly handled, and there was a commendable absence of talking and noise. Sometimes these led horses were injudiciously placed. Cover from view, behind a belt of trees for example, may be better than nothing, but cover from fire behind a fold of the ground is what should be taken whenever it is available—which is almost always. In moving from cover to cover over a narrow strip of ground that is watched by the enemy's Artillery it is generally best to gallop suddenly across in formed bodies instead of dribbling the men across in a steady stream of twos and threes. Artillery, even if it has carefully registered the ground, takes an appreciable time to bring effective fire on to any given point. Finally, I can only say I have served in war already with New Zealand Mounted Rifles, and I should esteem myself lucky indeed if ever 1 had the good fortune to encounter Continental Cavalry in reasonably broken ground with them at my right hand. Fidd ArtiMery. 106. The system under which the permanent cadre of men and horses is always distributed among the batteries is excellent. It is an example of the best way in which an army organized on Militia lines should utilize its stiffening of Regulars. The barracks constructed for the batteries are well suited for the purpose, and they are conveniently situated, so that the home training in gun drill, laying, equitation, driving, &c, can be carried out efficiently and economically, and the best use can be made of the permanent cadre. The horses that have been bought are of a good type. Most commanders keep them in one subsection while the battery is in camp, and this I consider a better plan than to distribute them among the hired horses throughout the battery. Perhaps in the first days of camp it may be necessary to steady raw teams with a trained horse or two ; after that a subsection horsed entirely with the welltrained permanent horses will steady the whole battery, and set up a high standard to the drivers of the other subsections. The hired horses were lacking in stamina for a long spell of heavy work. 107. For the present, at any rate, it will be best to train each ammunition column in close connection with one of the batteries : the men of the ammunition column become in war the first relief to make up the casualties in the batteries, and the training done with the battery in peace will be of use to them. In addition, the battery has the advantage of using the ammunition-column vehicles as first-line wagons. In one battery that I inspected, the Staff sergeants and Nos. 1 were nearly all Volunteers of long standing, and the advantage to the efficiency of the battery was very apparent. Many of the public schools have Artillery Cadets,, who train in connection with the Territorial batteries. If these Cadets go on into the Territorial Artillery as recruits, the batteries will have the best of material on which to work. 108. In the combined operations that I witnessed, the Artillery was generally well handled ; the batteries were boldly dispersed to give cross-fire, and they had definite roles allotted to them. In the opening stages of an action care should be taken not to push the Artillery into positions of undue exposure. The deployment of the Infantry will often secure a safe zone of manoeuvre for batteries, and allow them to get into action in good time and without having special escorts told off for them When taking up a position intended to be under cover, the battery commander must take care that the guns are really out of sight of all probable observing-stations in the enemy's hands. In a recent war ifr'was found that telephones were very difficult to hear in the noise of a battle, and it is always worth taking trouble and running danger to get a direct control of fire. In some cases I found that sufficient attention was not paid to care of the harness ; the equipment is of the best manufacture, but it cannot be expected to last unless preservatives are intelligently used. Care of harness is as important as any other item of a driver's training. 109. An Artillery recruit requires no more, and perhaps less, training than an Infantryman before he is efficient to take his place in a well-trained battery ; a great part of his work is mechanical, and he is not required to think for himself so much as his brother of the Infantry. When the training of the units—the battery and company of Infantry—are considered, things are very much otherwise, and I think it certain that the Territorial batteries will be unable to maintain an efficiency equivalent to that of the Infantry unless they have a longer period in camp. The present nine days does not really give enough time in which to learn manoeuvre and to carry out gun practice. The Artillery is a popular arm, and I should say that there would be little difficulty in filling the ranks of the batteries even if fifteen days' camp were made compulsory. But I am in full sympathy with the economists, and I do not wish this report to be used as a handle for incurring serious fresh expenditure at present. Could not a compromise be arrived at and an extra three days be given to the Artillery ? I have the less diffidence in making such a suggestion because in New Zealand the Artillery should be better trained relatively than the Infantry. The reason is that, in the general organization of the Army, the proportion of guns to Infantry and Cavalry is smaller than that recognized as right in other armies.
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Garrison Artillery. 110. As with Hip Fiold Artillery, the permanent cadre of the Garrison Artillery is used in such a manner that the Territorial Force gets the. best value both from the point of view of efficiency and of economy. Enough Permanent men are employed to keep the material in the forts in runningorder and to provide instructors. The work of the garrison gunners is often heavy and requires men of good physique. The men of the New Zealand Garrison Artillery whom I inspected were a powerful lot of young fellows of the right stamp. I saw some practice from the forts ; it was fairly good, but should improve with more training. It would be an improvement if the run of the target could be made to approximate more closely to the probable run of an enemy's ship. In most cases the guns would be confronted with a ship running in towards them, the range changing rapidly ; the practice target as a rule is run as a ship moving across the front, and changing range very slowly, if at all. I approve entirely of the system under which the searchlights are run by a section of the Garrison Artillery. Engineers. 111. The Engineers I saw in the field were men of high intelligence, and they were doing good work. A bridge that they had made over a rapid stream near one of the camps was very well constructed, and was—as is not always the case—thrown across the obstacle at a place where it was of ieal use. I consider that the field companies are best employed during training in carrying out this sort of work. They should not as a rule occupy themselves in siting or constructing trenches for the Infantry, who should be self-sufficing in such elementary works. In another camp the bad weather gave the Engineers an opportunity to volunteer for some particularly hard, disagreeable duties, which they carried out in trying circumstances with great spirit and determination. Altogether this is an excellent branch of the New Zealand service. Infantry. 112. I saw the whole of the Infantry, including the coast-defence troops, at field-work, in most cases in combination with the other arms. The higher leaders showed aptitude and training : evidently they had thought and pondered over the problems with which they were faced. The junior officers were keenness personified, but a proportion—perhaps one-half—had neither a thorough grip over their men nor a mastery of the situation, nor, again, a practised eye for country. These young officers proved, first, that the system had not, yet enabled them to get into intimate touch with their subordinates ; secondly, that, as might be expected, their ordinary business avocations had not granted them sufficient leisure for any " out-of-school " study of soldiering. Still, on the whole, I think there is good promise for the future even in cases where there is now much room for it. Enthusiasm is after all the greatest of assets, and the capacity shown by many < f seniors and a proportion of the jumors is good augury for the time when the presence of the Duntroon Cadets should make itself mightily felt. Several times when I set a commander a little problem requiring nerve and initiative, I found that the troops were deployed for action quickly and in a manner that would make for success. On other occasions, no doubt, more imagination would have led to better results, as, for instance, when troops advanced under a heavy fire up a level, open valley, when there were well-covered fire positions in the foothills on both sides. But it is easy to criticize at manoeuvres, and, as I began by saying, there is very good promise in the New Zealand corps of officers of Infantry. 113. Often private soldiers, when questioned, were able to give me a clear account of what was going on around them, showing some knowledge and much intelligence. Others had no idea of what was happening. This was, most probably, not their fault but that of their superiors. The deployment for attack was usually carried out quietly and with intelligence, and officers and non-commis-sioned officers taken to commanding ground to have the situation explained were kept well under cover. In the early stages, where artillery fire only is to be feared, it is not necessary to begin alternate rushes ; it is usually possible to get forward in more or less concentrated formation with the men well in hand. At extreme Infantry range it will probably be found that some of the ground will he exposed to rifle fire, other areas be dead to it. Clearly the men must dash across the open spaces at top speed, and must be halted and re-formed under the first cover they attain. Here, too, alternate rushes are useless, and unnecessarily distract the men from their prime business of pushing forward as rapidly and with as little loss as possible. Coming closer still to the position and getting within effective rifle range, it is difficult to continue the advance until the enemy themselves are brought under rifle fire at that moment. Hence the progress by alternate rashes. But even here ground must in each case be the determining factor. 114. Commanders, on several of the manoeuvre operations I have seen, had a tendency to advance by rushes of a fixed distance whatever were the conditions of ground and cover. In real war the captain of a company would give most anxious thought to his men and to the lie of the ground before he resolved upon the best method of working forward. "Is that rise in front occupied by the enemy ? " " Will my men have a good chance of using their rifles if they can get there ? " " Will they be able to get cover ? " These and similar questions will exercise him deeply. There will then be no question of making rushes of any fixed length of 30, 40, or 50 yards. And to do such things in peace time is bad training. 115. Scouts are not always judiciously handled in the attack. Half a dozen men move out at wide intervals and precede the battalion by two or three hundred yards. When they see the enemy they
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(In not fall back but, as a ruie, continue to move on bravely under the fire of their own comrades as well as of the enemy. Sometimes they decline to fall back until the actual assault is imminent. \<>\v, a scout is not much used in the attack once the enemy has been located. Nor does an average man ordered out from the ranks thereby become a scout. He should be the best soldier in the company, so that he may feel some confidence when he meets an enemy's scout " on his own " that he is the better man of the two. Again, when once the attack has got within rifle range of the enemy's position, individuals in advance of the company are very apt indeed to mask its fire. I suggest, then, that in the attack the use of scouts be restricted to use on the flanks of the advance, so soon as they have located the enemy. Occasionally, no doubt, even when heavy fighting has begun, a company commander may be able to work forward a scout to select the next best fire position. But all stereotyped handling of scouts, or sending them out in a formal extended line, is anathema to the principles of scouting, which insist that the man selected must be as independent as a New-Zealander, as cunning as a fox, and as brave as a lion—that he must act " on his own " and bring back a scalp in the way of news of the enemy or of the ground, every time he goes out on the warpath. I 1(5. Attempts, of which T saw several, to carry out the final fire fight from so great a range as 600 yards will probably end in failure. At that distance it is very difficult to obtain the fire mastery that makes a successful assault possible. Infantry in defence were, on the whole, well placed, and some of the trenches that I saw were admirably concealed, but there was too much tendency to rely on the Engineers for siting and con structing fire-trenches. This work should be within the province of an Infantry commander. Where there is time to construct elaborate earthworks head-cover should be provided. Without head-cover the defender of a trench is not much better off than his attacker, who can make use of natural cover. With head-cover a man has a moral as well as a physical advantage. Advanced positions aim at making the enemy deploy prematurely, and may succeed in breaking up the attack, but there is a considerable moral disadvantage in the eventual retreat of the advanced troops on to, or through, the men holding the main position : a point that is apt to be lost sight of on manoeuvres. 117. The ceremonial work that I saw was generally well done. After South Africa there were some who considered the days of ceremonial over ; since then there has been a reaction, and it is acknowledged that ceremonial has its uses. There is the shoulder-to-shoulder feeling that men miss nowadays in their extended work ; there is also the advantage of giving the civil population a good show ; and, thirdly, an inspecting General can form an impression from carefully watching ceremonial work—not of field training of course, but of spirit and discipline. That impression, I may say, was in my case a very happy one. The rank and file are of good physique and bear themselves well. lam confident they are steady fellows, who would stand a lot of hammering and hardly know they were being hammered. 118. After a comparatively short period of continuous training the Infantry would, in my opinion, be ready for war as regards their tactical efficiency. But there is another attribute that is vitally aeceesary. Discipline- tl c modi m discipline of respect —is a plant of slow growth; if this discip!i..e is to stand the searching test of war, those in authority must have gained the respect of their men through a long period of peace training. For this reason I recommend that the best of the noncommissioned officers should be offered every inducement to serve on after their compulsory years of training are finished. Army Service Corps. 119. The large camps this year have made great demands on the Army Service Corps, whose task has not been made lighter by the bad weather. The very highest credit is due to the Army Service Corps officers of the districts and to their men. They have done first-class service, although, as a rule, undermanned to an extent that would fill a labour union with horror. When the Army Service Corps units are up to their normal strength, a suitable system of calling the men up to camp in relays will enable the necessary duties to be carried out as efficiently and with much less strain on the personnel. I am not sure that qflite enough care is taken at present in selecting men of the most suitable trades for this branch. Much of the Army Service Corps' work in of a highly technical nature, and expert knowledge is essential. This matter will no doubt receive careful attention. Medical Corps. 120. The field ambulances are organized on the right lines, and every use is made of men whose civilian training fits them for the work. Here we have an admirable object-lesson of the value of expert civilians running an equivalent branch in the Army. For instance, I came across a number of medical students in the ranks working under an officer who was their lecturer in their college. Half the terrors of being wounded disappear under such excellent conditions. Musketry. 121. In the initial stages of the present scheme of training it was not possible properly to take in hand the musketry instruction of the troops till last year. Last year 15,852 men of the Territorial Force fired a musketry course. The proportion of Cadets who fired last year was comparatively small, owing to the fact that only twelve rifles were available for each company. This year a considerably larger proportion of the Territorial Force (the exact figures are not yet to hand) have completed their annual course, and, rifles having been issued to every Cadet, the majority of the latter have also completed their course.
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Great difficulty has been experienced in carrying out the training in'tbe towns and country owing to the limited range of accommodation, and in the country owing to the difficulty of assembling the men. Nevertheless, successful rifle meetings have been held by the Dominion Rifle Association ;it district headquarters and in areas. I personally favour the latter, as they arc easy of access to the majority of the men, and afford more encouragement for the moderate shot than larger hum tings. 122. In view of the fact that each district has an experienced, competent, and up-to-date musketry instructor (all four of them have lately been instructors at the School of Musketry at Hythe), I do not think it is necessary to establish a school of musketry in this country, and would recommend that if it is desired to xcuil anybody t<> a school of musketry, advantage should he taken of the offer of the Australian authorities to take them at the Australian School of Musketry at Randwick, in the same way that New Zealand Cadets are taken at the Royal Military College at Duntroon. I am glad to see that, generally speaking, the musketry instruction ia conducted on tip-to-date and service lines. and trust that by degrees these methods will become absolutely universal in all branches of the Army, including Rifle Clubs. The latter are essentially a serviceable body of men, and by degrees, if their methods of shooting can be brought to a condition of greater harmony with those of the serving Territorials, they will furnish schools where Reservists and men of the General Training Siction can obtain invaluable instruction in musketry. Aviation. 123. Sooner or later the provision of a service of aviation in New Zealand will become necessary. Military aviation is still to-day in the experimental stage, and experiments on the scale that would be financially possible in this country would be unlikely to lead far. Furthermore, the air and landing conditions in the Dominion are not such as to tempt hostile aviators. For these reasons ! would recommend a waiting policy for the present. Hut it may be well to send one or two officers to learn flying elsewhere, in order that expert knowledge may he at the disposal of the Defence Department to assist in its study of progress made in other countries. Cadets. 124. During my tour I saw even . Senior Cadet unit in the Dominion, and, altogether, I actually inspected over 17,800 Cadets. The boys' physique is, on the average, of a very high order, and T never wish to see a happier, more cheery looking crowd. Many of the boys came in from great distances, and I admire the organization that could bring them together and house and feed them comfortably, sometimes, in the case of weather-hound vessels. for periods extending to a week. Some Cadets we; and catered for in drill-halls : others were put rp by hospitable and patriotic inhabitants : and. in this admirable work especially, the ladies of the Victoria League rendered invaluable aid to the military authorities. 125. Town boys or public-school boys have great advantages in the matter of training over their companions in the country districts, who have often to cycle weary distances, after milking many cows. in order to attend their drills. Consequently, on parade the town boys are as a rule the steadier, and march past more brilliantly. Still, wherever there was a zealous instructor with a turn for handling boys, there the country companies also gave a capital showing. As I have urged elsewhere, the training of the scattered units would he immensely improved, and be rendered at the same time less of a strain on employers, Cadets, and instructors, if some system could be devised by which the boys could be collected for a few days" company concentration every year instead of going long distances to attend drills at which very small numbers are present. 126. With adults a vast deal depends on the instructor, but a good curriculum will always enable keen men to work out their own salvation. With Cadets the curriculum counts for literally nothing compared to the instructor. A man with a vocation for that sort of job, especially if he has war-medals, an ultra-fierce aspect, and a loud and military word of command, will quickly produce discipline and steady drill. Every effort should be made to secure the best possible instructors, and to give themselves a good personal , equipment of knowledge of drill, of warlike stories, and of the principles of discipline. For it should ever be borne in mind that a fund of knowledge and a suitable, impressive method of teaching will create a good discipline where mere punishment will every time signally fail. In many areas this discipline has already made good progress : bul in some companies again hoys have still almost everything to learn. On one occasion, after my inspection was over. I happened to pass a column of Cadets on their way home in the dusk. The ranks were broken and in disorder, and there was a-good deal of horse-play, shouting, and noise : discipline had gone to the dogs. In front of the column marched three or four officers, apparently unconcerned with what was going on behind them. Now, this was bad work. All the good of the parade and inspection had been thrown away, and a positive unsoldierlike spirit was in process of being actively engendered. On the other hand, many of the companies I saw stood perfectly steady on parade, and marched with a smartness and precision that would be quite impossible in the absence of real discipline. 127. On one or two occasions I saw Cadets at field-work. They attacked with great dash and enthusiasm, but without science or forethought. The subordinate leading of the squads and sections leaves most room for improvement. The Cadets might, I think, be provided with a greatcoat or cape as soon as funds admit. Some of the units of the Officers" Training Corps'in fireat Britain wear inexpensive capes that might I c copied here. A notable feature of all the Cadet parades was the presentation of a handsome silver cup to every company, to be held by the best shooting Cadet for the year. These cups, the gift of the ladies of New Zealand, are a wholesome sign of the interest felt by the people in the future destinies of the Dcminii n
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128. On the moral side—the great side—of Cadet training Ido not propose to touch. I have so often referred in speeches and addresses to the national advantage that must come from introducing the altruistic principle of comradeship as an antidote to the principles of throat-cutting engendered by competitive examinations, 1 hat I shall say no more on that subject here, except to express my own firm personal conviction that a finer or more patriotic piece of work was never put in hand than that which is now teaching the youth of this fortunate land to stand shoulder to shoulder in the ranks. Summary. 129. To sum up, the army of to-day puts its best into its work ; it is well equipped ; well armed ; tin' human material is second to nine in the world : and it suffers as a fighting-machine only from want of field-work and want of an ingrained habit of discipline. The first of these can never, under the conditions of a Citizen Army, be quite made good, except by dint of war or by a period of embodiment made under stress of imminent peril : the second can and will !>e made good as well-trained recruits come on. especially when captains are made entirely responsible for the instruction of their own trained men. la.n Hamilton, General, Inspector-General of the Oversea Forces.
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APPENDIX I. Military Forces of the Dominion of New Zealand: Distribution of Duties at Headquarters.
APPENDICES.
The General Officer Commanding is responsible for the organization, discipline, and efficiency of the Forces and for their inspection; advice on local military policy ; plans for local defence ; supervision of training ; education of officers and selection of officers for study at Imperial Staff Colleges ; appointments, promotions, resignations, and retirements of officers. The Chiej oj the General Staff The Adjutant-General and Director oj Staff Duties j s responsible for peace organiand Military Training zat i on . discipline ; martial, is responsible for Staff organi- I military, and international zation ; Staff tours ; record j law ; Courts-martial; admiof officers suitable for Staff j nistrative arrangements in employ ; instruction and ; connection with training and training for war ; educa- education ; ceremonial; pertion and examination of sonnel (excepting R.N.Z.A.) ; officers; training manuals ; editing and issuing orders arrangements for examina- (other than operation orders) : tion of cadidates for British Army List and Regulations ; Army and Royal Australian leave of absence (except exMilitary College; man- emption from training) ; reoeuvres; estimates for and gistration, enrolment and allocation of training and posting ; appointments to and manoeuvre grants; military distribution of Permanent libraries ; leave and exemp- Staff ; returns of strength and tions from training; in- prosecutions; casualties (extelligence ; plans for local cepting R.N.Z.A.) ; mobilidefence and strategical dis- zation and other regulations tribution of the Forces ; dealing with above services ; mapping and reconnais- mobilization of personnel; sance; war establishments medals; chaplains ; war and war organization ; claims and military pensions ; plans for mobilization. Honorary Territorials, National Reserve ; medical services. The Quartermaster-General is responsible for mobilization stores; clothing equipment and general stores (excepting for Artillery and Engineers); Dress Regulations, quartering, supp 1 i e_s, and transport; ins p e c t i o n and care of Maxim guns and small - arms; store buildings, drill-halls; mobilization arrangements in connection with above services ; administration of corps dealing with above services; veterinary services and remounts. The Director oj Ordna I is responsible for armaments and all accessories; coast defences ; Defence Department's vessels : reserve of arms and ammunition ; technical equipment and vehicles of Artillery and Engineers units; guns ; ordnance and field gun ammunition ; permanent fortifications and works : Artillery and rifle ranges ; control and distribution of Permanent Force ; inspection ofjArtillery and Engineer duties. The Director oj Accounts. is responsible for audit and examination of accounts ; consideration and compilation of parliamentary estimates; payments ; financial advice; contracts : control of accountants in districts; compiling and editing of " Financial Instructions and Allowance Regula tions," in consultation with Q.M.G. j_
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APPENDIX 11. Composition of District Stark. Officer Commanding — General Staff. Attached to General Stall :— Instructor in Mounted Duties. Instructor in Infantry Duties. • Instructor in Musketry. Intelligence Officer (unpaid Territorial officer). Administrative Staff: — Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster-General. Assistant Director of Supplies and Transport. Principal Medical Officer (partially paid Territorial officer). District Sanitary Officer (unpaid Territorial officer). Principal Veterinary Officer (partially paid Territorial officer). District Accountant. District Storekeeper.
APPENDIX 111. Rates of Pay in the Territorial Force. The following are the rates of pay per diem for officers, warrant officers, non-commissioned officers, and men :— £ s. (1. Colonels .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..110 Lieut.-Colonels .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 0 15 0 Majors .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 0 12 0 Captains .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 010 0 Lieutenants and 2nd Lieutenants .. .. .. .. ..080 Sergeants-major, staff sergeants, and colour-sergeants .. .. ..056 Sergeants .. .. .. .. .. .. ..050 Corporals .. .. .. .. .. .. ..046 Other ranks .. .. .. .. .. .. ..040
APPENDIX IV. War Organization of the New Zealand Forces. (a.) A division consists of— Headquarters ; 1 Mounted Rifle brigade ; 2 Infantry brigades ; and the following divisional troops : —*j 2 Field Artillery brigades (4 gun batteries) ; Divisional ammunition column ; 2 Field companies Engineers ; Divisional signal services ; 4 companies Army Service Corps ; 2 Field Ambulances ; 1 Mounted Field Ambulance. (b.) An independent Mounted Rifle brigade consists of— Headquarters ; 3 Mounted Rifle regiments ; 1 Mounted Signal troop ; 1 company Army Service Corps ; 1 Mounted Field Ambulance, (c.) Coast defence troops consist of— Detachment Permanent Force (the Regiment of Royal New Zealand Artillery); 2 divisions Garrison Artillery (each 3 companies) and 3 independent companies ; 1 Infantry regiment and 7 companies ; 1 Mountain battery. (d.) Lines-of-communication troops consist of— 2 Railway battalions; ' 2 battalions Post and Telegraph Corps ; Army Service Corps and other services as required.
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APPENDIX V. Distribution of Permanent Establishment.
APPENDIX VI. Necessity for a Military Business Branch. (Extract from the Report on the Australian Military Forces by the Inspector-General of the Oversea Forces, 1914.) The United Kingdom in 1904. 76. The condition of affairs in the United Kingdom, described by the Esher Committee in 1904, is reproduced to-day in an exaggerated form in Australia. In the words of the Committee's report:— "■ While the present system of financial control is futile in peace, it is ruinous in war. Officers unaccustomed to bear any financial responsibility, and ruled by excessively complex regulations, cannot at once improvise a system for the control of expenditure in the field, when the restraints arc suddenly removed. The result, as in South Africa, is the waste of millions. . . . By ensuring a rigid adherence to elaborate regulations the Finance Department doubtless effects small savings; but it does not and cannot secure real economy. . . . The theory that military officers of all ranks are, by the fact of wearing uniform, shorn of all business instincts has inevitably tended to produce the Jaxity which it is supposed to prevent. . . . There can be no doubt that in proportion as officers are accustomed to financial responsibilities, the economy which they alone can secure will be effected." Decentralization essential. 77. The Esher Committee further reported as follows : — " It seems to have been expected that officers would be able to emancipate themselves from the effects of their peace training as soon as they took the field. Such expectations could not be realized. . . . We are absolutely convinced that if the Army is to be trained to exercise the initiative and the independence of judgment which are essential in the field, its peace administration must be effectively decentralized. The object should be to encourage the assumption of responsibility as far as possible." This decentralization, they realized, wov , - 1 have to be carried out not in the districts alone, but also in the Wai - Office itself; and they accordingly recommended, and secured, the delegation of certain financial powers to the administrative chiefs at Army Headquarters, as well as to officers placed in charge of administration in the districts outside. Command and Administration. 78. Insistence on the distinction between the business administration of an army and troopleading lay at the root of the Esher Committee's proposals for decentralization. " The training ana preparation of His Majesty's forces for war should," they held, " be the first, and, as far as possible
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Officers. Warrant and ~ . Non-com- <*■'"*?■ nf , „ . missioned Other Ranks. Officers. § eants - Civilians. Army Headquarters District Headquarters Mounted Rifles Royal New Zealand Artillery— Field Artillery Garrison Artillery . . . . Corps of New Zealand Engineers Field companies Mounted signal troop and Divisional signal companies Railway battalions Infantry New Zealand Army Service Corps New Zealand Medical Corps Musketry Instructors Areas Sub-areas Not yet appointed 15 12 1G I 8 I 21 4 4 18 9 16 24 49 4 I I 21 I 4 49 56 12 2 2 17 18 92 136 12 39 Totals 112 112 235 235 51 51 228 228 81 rf—
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the undivided duties of General Officers Commanding-in-Chief." Experience has since thoroughly borne out this dictum. As ;i rule the born leader of men, assuming he has time for administrative detail, has little aptitude for il. Even in a professional army, where men devote their whole lives to military work, specialization in all matters pertaining to the ait "I war. and to troop training, has, under modern conditions, proved to lie necessary. How much more. then, must be it necessary under a Militia system ! Specialization necessary. 7U. Squally vital, to a Militia army, is the specialization of the military administrator. Whether he be a distinguished leader or deeply versed in the science of strategy are minor considerations. Good business aptitude and business training are the real qualifications, when they can be found coupled with just so much military knowledge as to enable their possessor to meet military demands with intelligence and sympathy. The supply of such men in a .Militia army will never equal the war demand, unless the principle of specialization is applied in peace so that a certain number of them are gradually evolved by normal processes. Need for the Business Man. 80. On purely military grounds, the maintenance of a clear line of demarcation between the fighting soldier on the one hand and the military administrator on the other, and the specialization of either for his particular work, can lie defended and advocated. Put responsibility for accurate accounts and for war efficiency on the same individual, he is bound to neglect his men and play up to the £s. d. If he fails in training he may never lie found out :if he goes wrong over his accounts he is certain to go to the wall. As a business proposition, too. the need is obvious for specialized training for the man who has himself to carry out important commercial transactions in peace , and war and has to gauge and report on the capabilities of his business subordinates. There is further an important political aspect to this question. Neither Parliament nor the Treasury, nor, in fact, the common-sense of the nation, would tolerate any real and wide measure of decentralization in financial matters being effected unless they were convinced that the man to whom it is proposed to delegate the necessary powers would have both'time and business capacity to make the scheme a success. This condition alone is sufficient to preclude the delegation of any wide financial powers to commanders of troops who are nor business experts, and who ought to devote the best part of their time to the preparation of their commands lor war. For military reasons, then, as well as on commercial and political grounds, the men who are to conduct the financial business transactions of an army should be trained to the work from the start, and it is as business men that they should hope to rise in their profession. Decentralization impossible α-ttltoui a Change. 98. Finally, I would say that in the foregoing paragraphs of this chapter are embodied mv response to the District Commandants who have, during my inspections, with one accord, begged me to endeavour to devise a method of relieving them from the harassing burden of administrative responsibility now resting on their shoulders. Each of them in turn has pointed out to me that the mass of detail he has to attend to. in co-ordinating the work of the big administrative sections, makes undue inroads on his time, and that his touch with the troops, as well as with the training and military instruction of young officers, suffers sadly in consequence. I have done my best, and I myself at least am firmly of the opinion that only on the lines I have indicated can any hope of real relief be reasonably expected. Actual decentralization it is not within my power to guarantee. That must rest with the departmental chiefs at Headquarters, and it will of necessity be a gradual process. All I can attempt to do is to devise a system which will render possible a real measure of decentralization without at the same time overwhelming commanders of troops with, a mass of detail. 1 earnestly hope that the necessary machinery will be instituted at an early date, and that subsequently the members of the Military Board, individually and collectively, will see to it that District Offices shall become something more than mere post-offices for correspondence from units and areas to the Department at Melbourne.
APPENDIX VII. Formation or a Military Business Bkanch. (Extract from the Report on the Australian Military Forces by the Inspector-General of the Oversea Forces. 1914.) A Military Business Department. 81. Australian conditions being what they are, 1 have no hesitation in advising that the institution of a business department in the Army, under a business head, is essential to efficiency and economy. The personnel of this department should be homogeneous and interchangeable as between the various sections into which the department should be divided. In this way only will it be possible to produce, in time, men fitted to be placed in charge of administration in all its branches, both in districts and at Headquarters.
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If the Australian Army existed for peace only there would be good grounds for giving the whole of the new department a purely civilian character. The peace work of the department could, during most of the year, be done by civilians as well as by men with military rank and title ; but during manoeuvres and in war the military character of the administrator must be recognized in all matters where financial responsibility is not concerned. He must weal uniform :he must be under military discipline ; and he must himself have powers of discipline over his own personnel and over all military subordinates with whom he may be brought in contact. Further, his position will certainly bo strengthened, and his power for good enhanced, if he possesses a recognized military title. For supply and transport work, for ordnance duties, for the functions of the pay department, and for the clerical establishment in military offices military rank and status are, in my opinion, absolutely essential ; and, on grounds of homogeneity. 1 recommend their general adoption throughout the whole department. Homogeneity essential. 82. The evils arising from a lack of homogeneity are well exemplified in the existing state of the Ordnance Department, two-thirds of whose members are under the Defence Department and one-third under the Public Service Commissioner. I venture to suggest that not a soul, either in the Ordnance Department itself or outside of it, can be found to defend this system, or, rather, want of system. I have had the advantage of studying a report by Major Austin, of the Imperial Army Ordnance Department, in which he recommends the formation of a Military Ordnance Corps in Australia. Wth many of his recommendations lam in agreement. Under my proposals, however, the ordnance personnel of the Australian Army will in future form an integral portion of the new business department, weaving its uniform and conforming to the rules governing it as a whole. The formation of the ordnance section in the new department is one of the many matters which should claim the early attention of the new business chief, who will, I am convinced, find Major Austin's report of much assistance. Chief of Ordnance's Department. 83. The institution of the new business department and a strict observance of the duties assigned the General Staff and to the Adjutant-General will render the retention of the Chief of Ordnance's department unnecessary. A system which places the command and administration of the corps of Artillery and Engineers apart from the rest of the Army is a bad system, and should be abolished forthwith. It is reminiscent of a state of affairs which, even in pre-Crimean days, was hardly tolerable. The administration of the personnel of these corps should rest with the Adjutant-General to the same extent that the administration of the other arms is vested in his department; and their training, as well as coast-defence policy, should be controlled by the Chief of the General Staff. The purely administrative functions of the Chief of Ordnance's Department should be transferred to the new business department. Duties like the control of factories and the erection of works, which in London are assigned to the Master-General of Ordnance, are in Australia carried out elsewhere or by other means. Any need, therefore, for the Chief of Ordnance's Department is not apparent under tin- new conditions. Finance the Central Feature. 84. Among the duties assigned to the new department would be the compilation of the parliamentary estimate, the accounting for all sums expended by (he Defence Department, cash payments, the examination of accounts, and the provision of the financial personnel required to assist the other branches of the Defence Department. Accordingly, the creation in it of a special finance section is essential. It should also be the central section of the new department. The bulk of the powers now vested in the Finance Member could at once be transferred to it, and all necessity for a Finance Member and for a separate Finance Department would disappear. In this way large economit s should ensue both directly, owing to the absorption of a Finance Department that is separate from the main administrative work of the Army, and indirectly by the disappearance of interminable correspondence which will result when financial control and administrative responsibility are amalgamated under one head. The members of the existing Finance Department would find ample scope for their special knowledge both in the central section of the new department as well as in the administrative branches which it is proposed to set up in districts. The Auditor-General should make the necessary arrangements for a proper audit of military accounts and stores, and any duplication of audit within the department itself would appear to be an unnecessary expense. Formation oj the New Department. 85. The new department should therefore be formed, in the first instance, by absorbing into it the existing Army Service Corps as well as such members of the Ordnance Department, of the existing Pay Branch, of the corps of military staff clerks, and of the Quartermaster-General's, Chief of Ordnance's, and Finance Member's departments as may be required. The new departmental corps as a whole might be known as the Australian Army Service Corps. Tt should lie recruited by young men from eighteen to twenty years of age selected by competitive examinations. Officers of the combatant branches up to, say, twenty-four years of age might also be permitted to enter the department after passing a qualifying examination. A probationary period of at least a year should be a sine qua non foi every one who enters the department. FiVery officer should, at an early stage, serve for a period in the central section of the department. Promotion throughout the department should be by selection. The responsibility for reporting on the business capabilities of subordinates should rest with their departmental superiors.
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Tenure of Appointments. 86. For men engaged in administrative work, fixity of tenure is of greater importance than for those occupied in purely military duties. It is part of my conception of a well-organized business department that its members should receive their appointments, and should be removable, only at the instigation of the head of the department, who should be allowed considerable latitude in determining how long his subordinates should remain in any particular post. At the same time steps should be taken to prevent the occupant of any administrative post, particularly in districts, from wielding too much power and influence owing to his tenure of office exceeding unduly the period of four years, to which the appointment of Commandants and of the representatives of other departments is limited. Moreover, care should be taken to keep administrative officials at Army Headquarters in thorough touch with the life of the Army, and their should be a constant and well-calculated interchange of all ranks between the Defence Office at Melbourne and the administrative branches in the districts. The tenure of appointments in the administrative department mighi reasonably be fixed at six years. APPENDIX VIII. Showing broadly the Distribution of Duties at Army Headquarters under the Proposed Scheme. Defence Minister Responsibility to Parliament. (lateral Officer Commanding the Forces — Responsibility to tin . Minister for tlie efficiency of the Army. Chief of the General Staff. Adjutant-Oeneral. Quartermatter-Oeneral. Inspector of Artillery, Inspector of Engim < rs, War policy; defence Peace polioy am! peace es- Transport, remount, ordnance, Inspector of Rifle Clubs, schemes and eoncen- tablishments j discipline; supply and barraok services; Drill-halls mid Rifli tration for war ; mili- supervision of record office administration, distribution, Ranges. tary training of the work : mobilization of per- and technical training of tones. sonnel; military regulations, personnel for these services; ; Inspection of the services Preparation <>f estimates including mobilization regu- mobilization quostions con- ' concerned. Technical for votes (' (b) (c). lations : medical een iocs, nected with above duties in instruction. Technical Preparation of estimates for conjunction with the Chief advice, to the various votes: A (a), (li). and (c) ; ' of the General Staff ; duties branches of the staff. B (o), (6); D("): E (share of Accounting Officer and of). Approving Officer of the De- j fence Department; compilation of the parliamentary estimate. Preparation of estimates for votes : A (d) ; B (r); C («). (d), (c), (/): I) (b) to (»); E («harc of) ; F.
Note. —In his capacity as the Accounting Officer and the Approving Officer of the Defence Department, tho Quartermaster-General should deal directly with the .Minister, the Treasury, and the Auditor-General. In these matters he should also correspond directly with administrative officers in districts. In other respects he is a Staff officer to the General Officer Commanding, and acts merely as his agent. The capital letters in the above table have reference to the rotes as shown in the appropriations for 1913-14. APPENDIX IX. The Necessity of a Eecohd Office. (Extract from the Etepori on the Australian Military Forces by the Inspector-General of the Oversea Forces, 1914.) The War System. 61. The Field Service Eegulations, which are based upon our dearly bought South African experiences, contain the following paragraph : — "■ Office-work in the field is to be restricted as to what is absolutely indispensable : no officework will Ik , transacted with a unit or service in the field that can be possibly dealt with at a stationary office." To carry out the principle embodied in this extract, " record offices " with specially trained staffs have, since the South African War, been established for every corps and department of the Imperial Army ; pay accounting has, as far as circumstances permit, been detached from units under the socalled Dover system, and simple but effective means have been devised for keeping both record and pay offices in touch with the rank and file, no matter where in the world their units may be stationed. Further, army books and forms used on active service have been greatly simplified, and these war tonus have, wherever practicable, replaced the move elaborate documents previously used in peace.
5—H. 19a.
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South African Experience, 62. In other words, efforts have been made, and are still being made, in the Imperial Army to apply in peace a system which actual recent war experience has demonstrated will be fairly warproof. The War Office entered upon the South African campaign under the impression that a unit could be made to consume its own smoke in all matters of interior economy. Never were Ihe heads of a department more rudely undeceived. Rarely has any body of men been more freely abused. Yet— judging the matter now more calmly—it may be admitted that no average administrator could have foreseen that when the Forces in South Africa were once fairly on the move all traces of a man who left his unit would be lost, alike by relatives and the military authorities, for weeks, months, or sometimes for ever! The commanding officer was aware only that the man had disappeared, and no machinery existed anywhere for systematically keeping in touch with him. A so-called " casualty office " was, it is true, hastily improvised at Cape Town, and a large number of officers and clerks were therein employed, and certainly improvised methods such as these were better than nothing -and that is about all that could be said. Previous System. 63. Again, the pay-lists which officers commanding squadrons and companies were called on to keep prior to and during the South African War were caviare to the general — not to speak of the subaltern. Even in peace, when the services of trained pay-sergeants were available, these accounts were the bane of the average regimental officer. What then could be expected in war, where irregular officers were far too preoccupied with the idea of administering a beating to the enemy to dream of administering anything so tame as a pay-sheet ? Usually the Gordian knot was cut, as in classic fable, by the sword. No pay-lists were kept up at all, and the subsequent business of settling up was a prolonged and a profoundly extravagant operation to that grand old milch-cow, the British public. Adoption oj War System recommended. 64. In the minor affairs of war, as in the greatest operations, simplicity, both of conception and design, is the hall-mark of the true metal. In Part 11, Chapter XVI, of the Field Service Regulations the war system as regards office-work—an extremely simple system —is fully described, and I suggest respectfully that this system should, as far as local conditions admit, be accepted for peace-work in Australia. Not only will the transition from a peace to a war footing be thus more easily effected, but under ordinary conditions the existing strain of excessive correspondence, whether with units or in Staff offices, should be very sensibly eased.
APPENDIX X. Statistical Returns and Reports due from Areas and Units.
Pnaort System. .Proposed S>sit-in. Nature of Return. Responsible. When rendered. To whom rendered. Responsible. When rendered. To whom rendered. teturn of registration (M.T. 7) Group officer .. Monthly .. District Head' quarten Ditto Record Offiee Quarterly .. Army Headquarters. .. Ditto.* Numerical states by units (B. 83) teturn of transfers (in and out) with other di tricts (B. 86) leturn of persons exempted by Magistrates toturn of persons claiming exemption on grounds of religious belief teturn of prosecutions Confidential reports, N.Z.P.S. (B. 11) Addresses of officers on Reserve and Retired List Statement of numbers present at annual training in camp E. 4 (Army Form E. 857i) Unit commander through group officer QrouQ officer .. »» • ■ »» • • Half-yearly .. ,, ♦» - • (iroiip officer and Adjutant Headquarters of units llc:idi|Uiirtcrs of units Quarterly Monthly .. „ Annually .. , District Headquarters. „ .. Army Headquarters. (In <iiiii]i!iti<in District Headof camp quarters. Half-yearly Area commander Record Offioe Within ton days of com pietion of camp I'nit commander * A general return showing t! lack of existing forms to he diseoi tt: strength of units might be puW it in nod. lished half-yearly and issued to all coiK-crnod. Names of transferee*
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APPENDIX XI. Summary of Duties to be carried out in an Area. Area Command. (a.) Division of the area into sub-areas for instructional and administrative (record office) purposes. (6.) Command of the instructional staff serving in the area, (c.) Allocation of instructional staff to sub-areas. (d.) Examination and classification of recruits, (c.) Medical examination of recruits, Reservists, and General Training Section when called out for service. (/.) Command and training of Territorial recruits until they are passed fit to take their place in the ranks and are sent to join a unit. (g.) Command and training of Reservists, General Training Section, and Senior Cadets. (h.) In war, despatch of batches of Reservists required to reinforce units in the field, and informing units and record offices of same. (i.) Administration of the maintenance grant of Rifle Clubs and Cadet companies having no officers. (j.) Charge of rifle ranges and departmental buildings and their allocation for use. {k.) Custody, issue, and accounting for arms, equipment, and clothing required for Cadets, Reservists, or General Training Section. (I.) Charge of and accounting for ammunition issued to individuals under his command. Record Office Work. (a.) Registration, attestation, and postings of all persons liable for military service in the area. (b.) Maintenance of rolls of same by units. (c.) Arranging with police and the civil authorities for keeping touch with individuals liable for military service. (d.) Upkeep of record-books.* (c.) Carrying out transfers, discharges, &c. (/.) Sending notices to Territorial soldiers and all others required for training ; distribution of training posters. (g.) Arranging for the prosecution of defaulters. (h.) Calling out Territorial soldiers and men of the General Training Section on mobilization. (i.) Issue of a pay-book (on the lines of Army Book 64) to all soldiers going on service. (j.) Reporting to Area Commanders the names of Reservists called out. (k.) Supplying pay-offices with all necessary information regarding individual soldiers.
* The record-books of Cadets should, in the first instance, be filled in by the instructional staff in Bub-areaa The experiment might be made of letting certain non-commissioned officers in sub-areas retain the record-books of Cadets and perform all the duties of the record office as regards these Cadets.
Approximate Cost 0/ Taper. —Preparation, not given ; printing U,500 c »im(si, £23 10*.
Authority : John Mackay, Government Printer, Wellington.—l9H.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/parliamentary/AJHR1914-I.2.3.2.30
Bibliographic details
MILITARY FORCES OF NEW ZEALAND (REPORT BY THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF THE OVERSEA FORCES ON THE)., Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1914 Session I, H-19a
Word Count
26,540MILITARY FORCES OF NEW ZEALAND (REPORT BY THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF THE OVERSEA FORCES ON THE). Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1914 Session I, H-19a
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