AID DEFENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 89, 17 April 1939, Page 9

AID DEFENCE.

NEW MOVEMENT.

PLACE FOR CITIZENS.

WORK FOR FRONTIERSMEN.

With the object of obtaining recruits for the under-manned territorial forcee and also for the Legion of Frontiersmen, an organisation known as the

"Citizens' Home Defence" has been formed in the past few weeks. It will make its first public appearance at a meeting in the Chamber of Commerce ]);ill to-night.

Some two years ago two of its founders, Captain H. S. Parsons and Lieutenant E. A. E. Tait, of the Legion of Frontiersmen, took a course in antigas fighting, arranged at the naval base. Other subsequent proposals for arou*in;r public interest resulted in an appeal last month to "persons interested but not eligible under the present home defence system." Some 20 persons attended a meeting, when Captain Parsons, Lieutenant Tait and Mr. B. J. Dunsheath were appointed a publicity committee to foster the movement.

The organisation a'.so attaches much importance in securing the co-operation of women in defence measures. Special arrangements have been made for recruiting territorials through the Legion, while the Legion has agreed to take i,lto . ite "inke '"en over tie maximum territorial age of 35. For women of all agfs a citizens' home defence corps has been formed to undergo training in specialised sections. These include" first aid and air raid precautions. Women possessing driving licenses will be placed in sections and instructed in ambulance work and the handling of light motor transport. A suitable umtorm has already been designed. The Legion, whose members are experienced in war, propose to start a training school Where they can teach to younger and more active men something of what they themselves have learned.

Speakers at to-night's meeting will be the Rev. p. Oladatone Hiighee* Mrs. K Moffat Clow, of Northern Ireland, Mrs. w C. McComb, Miss A. L. London principal of the E,«oni Girls' Grammar School, and Mr. Kenneth H. Melvin.

Emergency Precautions. The council of the emergency precautions organisation, which was recently set up in Auckland, will iiold its ■inaugural meeting on Wednesday evening next, when the personnel 'of the group technical committees will be appointed and general policy aspects discussed.