RESTORING THE TERRITORIAL FORCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 8, 10 July 1939, Page 8

RESTORING THE TERRITORIAL FORCE

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —The Prime Minister has stated that the training of our defence forces must be effected before and not during war. Colonel Hargest said in the House that 5000 trained New Zealander-n, armed with rifles and machine-guns, could emulate the Turks in their successful defence of Gallipoli, and no returned soldier refuted that statement. v _■•■__ A hint of defeatism seems to imbue some of our preparation; a plea of hush-hush, lest things be made worse than they are. That is not necessary. Universal training could be revived in a auarter of the time it took to institute that system, and as in 1910-11 the volunteers would provide an excellent nucleus of n.c.o.'s and trained soldiers. Their assistance would be invaluable. The training of volunteers need not be interrupted, compulsory trainees being used to establish new units, to bring present units up to establishment, and to repair the appalling wastage which is one of the defects of • the voluntary system. Under the stricter discipline of compulsory training that wastage would tend to increase. Today the staff corps and permanent staff are as strong and efficient as when compulsory training was suspended m 1930 Their members are posted throughout the Dominion. Within one month they should be able to commence registration and training of Territorials. Within three months the scheme should be working efficiently. It was different in 1910. Then there was no staff corps or permanent staff, no precedent to assist the authorities, and in many quarters an attitude of hostility towards the scheme. Sir Alexander Godley and his staff had the tremendous job of selecting and training candidates for the staff corps and permanent staff, posting officers and n.c.o.'s of these units to stations, and inaugurating registration and training of trainees. It toobk General Godley about

twelve months to establish the scheme. Knowing that New Zealand has had twenty years' experience of compulsory training, no reasonable man now fears the system. The majority of the public is in favour of this democratic and efficient method of preparation for home defence. With the good will of the public and the help of the ; volunteers the staff corps should have jno difficulty in quickly restoring the i Territorial Force. The machinery is i there; it only requires the Government [to set it in motion.—l am, etc., ORAKAU.