H.—l9a

14

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