ARMY DRILL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 280, 26 November 1941, Page 5

ARMY DRILL

1 AUSTRALIAN CHANGES l i Igetting rid of deadwood i (By J.C.) | Many soldiers besides those of the will welcome the Jnew order of army methods of train■jing which is to be introduced on the I initiative of the Australian Home 'j Defence Commander, as reported in .la Sydney cablegram. These changes iare described as drastic: they embody: •| reforms which are long overdue in every army of the Empire. Antijquated drill, ceremonial lumber, useless repetitions, parade grotind I automatons are to be done away 'with. Some of the changes have 1 been anticipated in actual service. ; The changes announced by the | Australian Minister of the Army are lall aimed at a simplification of training. the reduction or complete aboli-, jtion of everything that is nonessential. Too long, evidently. has| •military work in training camps followed the stiff English routine! !directed on rigid disciplinary lines, j Discipline can be obtained and maintained without the imposition of needless forms which only arouse a feeling of rebellion among the young ■soldiers. Faster execution of move'ments. it is clear, will be served by cutting out field orders, so long j regarded as essential to the perfect i soldier. j Our own armed forces should have ! the benefit of full details of Australia's step forward. More rational and intelligent methods could well' jbe adopted here. The old drillsergeant parade ground methods. :often absurd in the light of modern warfare, carry far too much deadwood ritual for this era of speed and I science. A soldier in this age is not the unreasoning automaton that some of the old diehards expect him to be. The colonial is apt Lo resent, and rightly, many of the ways of the past we can see before us in the "daily work of the recruit.

Probably our army authorities] 'have already anticipated the Australian scheme to some extent, but there! is still a good deal of truth in the; 'complaint recently made by a Wel-i ilington woman who wrote'that her ;son. although a university man with ia B.Se. degree, was kept at work in I elementary duties that did not require any greater attainment than the ability to count up to six. That 'elementary work, no doubt, was : needful at the beginning, if only to arouse the amusement of the recruit. 1 but inevitably it rather palls on him and he is apt to say the most uncomplimentary things about his immediate superiors. It is not they, but the system, that should be damned.