3

H.—l9d

NOTES ON REPORT OF DEFENCE EXPENDITURE COMMISSION. Note.—Page numbers in these Notes refer (o page numbers in the Report of the Defence Expenditure Commission. Paragraph numbers are consecutive numbers for departmental reference, Page C. 1. Division of duties of General Officer Commanding and Quartermaster-General should be effected. Vide 122. Page 63. Page 6. 2. Training and Administrative Branches should be kept quite sejmrate and distinct. Vide 123. Page 63. Page 6. 3. Too many officers on 'pay-roll of District Staffs. Vide 47. Page 28. Page 7. 4. Administrative appointments not to be given to " combatant " officers, but to specially selected and trained men. The "combatant" officers available are almost entirely Territorial Force officers who have had civilian training. There were, and are, practically no professional administrative officers available for employment. To have specially selected and trained administrative officers before sending them out to districts would have been most desirable, but the war was commenced without adequate notice to enable this to be done, and nearly all the officers doing administrative work were in civilian occupations on one day and plunged into administrative duties the next day, learning as they progressed. To now carry out the above suggestion would entail the employment of a large number of understudies at great expense. This would immediately be condemned as unwarranted waste of money. Page 7. 5. overcentralization at General Headquarters. With an untrained staff working on problems suddenly produced by the war, there must of necessity be more centralization than would be the case in the routine of peacetime. More and more powers have been delegated and more and more decentralization is taking place as regulations securing uniformity of policy have been issued. The success of the Defence Department's organization is fully emphasized by the actual results attained, which have been summed up in the final conclusions (vide page 67) at the end of the report. After all, results constitute the essential test. Page 7. (i. Desirability of an officer at General Headquarters with a full and intimate knowledge of the camps. Vide 67. Page 38. (a.) The necessity of having an officer of the General Headquarters Staff with a full and intimate knowledge of the camps has been fully appreciated from the commencement of the war. This has always been the duty of the Chief of the General Staff. (b.) The General Staff Branch at General Headquarters is not large enough to admit of frequent changes; moreover, the work requires experience and knowledge if it is to be carried out with efficiency. Efficiency could scarcely be attained under conditions of constant changes. (c.) C./.-67. Page 38. Page 7. 7. Artillery awl Engineer Brcmches suffer from lack of experts at General Headquarters. Vide 116. Page 59. The Field Artillery inspectional duties have been efficiently carried out by Lieut.-Colonel Roberts since the commencement of the war. The Garrison Artillery and the Coast Defences have suffered perhaps from lack of expert inspection. This has now been remedied by the appointment of Lieut.-Colonel Gardner, R.N.Z.A., who has recently returned from the front. He has had experience with mobilized Coast Defences in the United Kingdom. The Engineer training of the Territorial Force is of necessity elementary under the present war conditions. Lieut.-Colonel Sleeman is fully competent to carry out the inspectional duties. The Engineer Reinforcements in camp are now so few in number (at present only nineteen per draft) that the employment of an officer as Director of Engineer Training at General Headquarters would not be justified. The Chief Engineer Instructor in Trentham Camp is fully competent to train the men under him. Page 8. 8. Insufficient conferences. Vide 149. Page 66.