NATIONAL DEFENCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2352, 19 November 1908, Page 6

NATIONAL DEFENCE.

THE LEGION OF FRONTIERS

MEN

Captain Herbert Noyes, as Commissioner for New Zealand for the Legion of Frontiersmen, contributes to the ■•Lyttelton Times” an interesting article, in which he briefly'expounds the aims and objects of the organisaiton. He refers briefly to the fact that the Government have, on more than one occasion, refused to allow him to form local commands throughout the Dominion, and continues thus:

The Legion is an organisation having for its object the defence of the Homeland and every colony wherein it exists; that is to say, in every colony, dominion and dependency under (Tie British flag except New Zealand. Primarily, it is a trained force of scouts, guides and intelligence men, who in time of peace are drilled in the work that falls to such branches of the service, and, in time of war, are 'attached to the existing forces, under the command of the officer appointed by the authorities. We ask no arms provided by th State; we have no capitation grant; we offer our services free, and. strange as it may seem, we have already in New Zealand some hundred men who arc members of the Legion and who pay for the privilege of being so. 'But until we are officially recognised we are constrained to belong to the Headquarters Command. The majority, of the members throughout the world have seen service—we number many veterans ..in our ranks —and we confine our recruiting solely to men who, having seen war, or for some other reason are disinclined to voluuteer in the local forces, or men who, living on the edge of the wilderness, remote horn any established corps, are glad to belong to an organisation such as ours, where no other is available. And our answer to the frequently-expressed fear that we should interfere viih existing forces is that we pledge ourselves to refrain from recruiting men available for volunteering ir dev penalty of having our charter withdrawn, at the discretion of the olh :er commanding the district wherein such roe oruiring may have been carried out. In a lecture given by me at- Iho Auckland Garrison Officers’ Club, some weeks ago, I had full opportunity of emphasising this point, and it is with pleasure I record the fact that my audience was almost -unanimous in recognising the usefulness of the Legion and in expressing their surprise at the refusal of the authorities to recognise us without adducing good and sufficient reason. Canada and Australia have cheerfully welcomed us; throughout the length and breadth of Africa we flourish ; there are some 2000 members in Cape Colony alone; in Egypt, the Soudan, Nigeria, tile East and West Indies And the Far East we have establishments, and in many foreign countries we have members collecting invaluable information -regarding the people and the land. And our Army Council in England includes the most famous generals on the Army list, who are, as General Sir Leslie Rundie said lately, speaking of himself, proud to aid a movement saich as ours. Add to his, such names as Generals French, Hart, Seymour, Maurice, Brabant and Rimington) who art? also on our Council, and it* would be a rash- man who would condemn the utility of the Legion or question the advisability of a movement with which men like this are connected.

To sum ma. we offer to the dominion, a trained body of scouts, intelligence. men and guides, who, in their ordinary lives are settlers, backwoodsmen. surveyors, engineers, or belonging to other trades of travel or far removed from civilisation —u corps d/ men, whom otherwise nothing short of compulsory service would compel to volunteer, men eminently fitted by their daily lives to become valuable units of an organisation such as ours, men, whose services would otherwise be lost to the -State, -and who, even under suddenly applied militia law, would be comparatively useless without the training they undergo with us, at no cost- to the public purse.

And there are hundreds of these men in the dominion; some are already members of the Legion; others write to me constantly asking when we arc to organise locally. And I trust that those responsible for the refusal to recognise us feel less than I do the shame I suffer when answering “when the authorities permit.” For, apart from our practical use, which., is undeniable, and looking at the matter in its broadest sense, we can yet justify the Legion as a brotherhood, whic-h, in peace or war, extends a helping hand to- its members the wide world over—a freemasonry that, in the jungles of Burma, on the wide veldt or amid the bleak (Siberian steppes, is a-'rea-l 'force baking the members of our race toge-ther-—a principle which, whether doomed to failure, or success, yet recognised as worthy of all encouragement and support by every comnial government, with the single sad exception of New Zealand, that ones allegiance to the Union Jack.