SEEKING NAVAL RECRUITS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16266, 27 June 1916, Page 8

SEEKING NAVAL RECRUITS.

NEW BRANCH OF SERVICE.

MOTOR - BOAT PATROLS.

WAR ON SUBMARINES.

A new branch of the Royal Navy, and one promising plenty of excitement, is a special motor-boat patrol service on the coasts of the British Isles and the shores of the Mediterranean. The British naval authorities are seeking in the colonies and dominions for recruits for the service. _ Among those to recently receive a commission in the navy is Mr. C. V. Connolly, at one time on' the staff of the Auckland Weekly News, but who has been residing in Toronto for some time past. He will be engaged in the new motor-boat patrol service. A special class of long, fast motor vessels are employed in the patrol work. They are equipped with powerful engines and carry a light, quick-firing gun. The latter is intended to be used against hostile submarines and, with the great speed developed by these little vessels, it is believed that they will have an excellent chance of waging war successfully on any under-water vessel attacked. Interviewed in Vancouver, Commander F. P. Armstrong, who, at the head of a small party of officers, has been appointed to secure recruits in the colonies for the new branch of the service, said that'the vessel used was of a type which anyone outside of the regular service would be proud "to command. The men required' would need to have had some experience in sailing small craft and be able to adapt themselves to the hard life on the open sea. The ships would be expected to stay out until the weather drove them in. He had secured 90 men for the officers' training course, and a number of experienced mechanics, up to the time of his arrival in Vancouver, and he hoped to secure a similar number in British Columbia. The men secured were being immediately sent forward to England for training.