The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. FRIDAY, MAY 20, 1938. LAND DEFENCE WEAKNESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 117, 20 May 1938, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

FRIDAY, MAY 20, 1938. LAND DEFENCE WEAKNESS.

For (he cnttse (hat fecke aeaietanc9, For the wrong that need* reeietantm, for the future in the distance. And the good that we cmn *».

That lamentably small section of the public which is sympathetically interested in the Territorial Force must have been impressed and disturbed by the statement issued yesterday by four senior officers on the active list of the Force. Having read the remarks made by the Minister of Defence at Dargaville on Tuesday, they were impelled to aay publicly what, in effect, they had already said to him in private. They say, in brief, that they fear the "disintegration" of the present Force "unless definite support is accorded by the Government and people, and assurances are given that the Force is desired and will be fostered." That is a grave statement, and the purity of motive whieh inspired it cannot be questioned. It is r indeed, sufficiently attested by the simple fact that its authors are officers of the Force. »

The question—and it demands an answer — is what should be done to prevent that "disintegration," meaning the total and visible failure of the volunteer system, which these senior officers fear. It is not in any sense a party-political question; neither is it, as Mr. Jones pointedly suggested at Dargaville, a question solely for the Government and its experts. Mr. Jones saw fit to quote a statement by the British Secretary of State for "War, tending to minimise the importance of men and maximise that of fire-power and mobility. Mr. Hore-Belisha would perhaps be surprised to find his remarks, no doubt applicable to the land forces of a country which has a professional army, used by a Defence Minister in a country which has none. In New Zealand the basis of the land defence force is the volunteer, and if the volunteers are deficient in number, physique or efficiency the force will be weak, and nothing will make it strong. The force has these defects now—all of them— and their removal becomes a problem for the public as well as for the Government. The first need is for leadership • and guidance, and it is obvious now that in the matter of the Territorial Force the Government, as well as the public, needs both. It has had both in respect of the Air Force—to which, also, it was favourably predisposed— and one result is to be seen in the marked progress which the Air Force has made, progress that is , indisputably due to the presence at headquarters of Group-Captain the Hon. R. A. Cochrane, who knew what was wanted and has been remarkably successful in getting it. The example of his achievement suggests that similar results in the Territorial Force could be obtained by an Imperial Army officer, preferably young, who should be removed as far as possible from political control and given the responsibility of raising, equipping and training a force that would be a cross-section of the finest type of New Zealand's young manhood. Existing methods have failed, after as long a trial as the Dominion can afford to give them. New leadership, and new methods, are essential and urgently needed.