MILITARY TRAINING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 55, 6 March 1935, Page 14

MILITARY TRAINING.

Colonel Duigan is to be congratulated on having had the courage to state publicly that the new scheme of providing an adequate -force with which to meet an emergency that might arise at any time is not working out as was intended or expected. Young men in work will not, or cannot, attend these camps, for fear of being thrown out of employment. Some time ago Colonel Duigan made an appeal to employers to assist in making the new voluntary scheme of defence a success by allowing their employees time off for training purposes, but this appeal has apparently fallen on stony ground. In the event of war breaking out many of the employers of youths would no doubt do as tlioy did in 1914 —pay their volunteers half or part of their wages to go if the call should come—but times are changing, and in the matter of military training every man must be a specialist, and this can only be brought about by thorough training; therefore it is necessary to give volunteers every assistance to attend training camps, otherwise it is neither fair nor reasonable to expect our staff officers to turn out an cfliciout force. Therefore wo should buck Colonel Duigan's appeal and save a measure of compulsion in this mutter. Ex-A.M. K.