CORRESPONDENTS' VIEWS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 114, 16 May 1942, Page 6

CORRESPONDENTS' VIEWS

WAR CONTROL (To The Editor) "You watch this grow!" shouts your correspondent "Citizen" in suggesting that Mr. Joseph Gordon Coates should be appointed a "dictator" in "supreme control" of the New Zealand Army. Wejl, the idea maygrow in "Citizen's" mind, but it must raise a big laugh in tens of thousands of others. Let me tell "Citizen" that we don't want a man of 63 years, without an hour's fighting experience in this war, as supreme dictator of the army. God forbid. We want a man at least 20 years younger, who has been in it. The things that are wrong with New Zealand's army are not political. I hope people will wake up to that. They do not concern food or clothing. If anything, the New Zealand soldier has too much to eat, and he is the best-clothed soldier in the Empire. No, the things that are wrong can be remedied only by a supreme commander who has been up against the Nazis and the Japs. The training is not tough enough. There is too much 1914-18 insistence on the bayonet, forgetful of tommygun capacity. The training must be stepped up more steeply in relation to automatic weapons and aerial attack. There is too great a gap between senior officers and the ordinary soldier. Too much bickering in high military places; too manycliques and claques among the staff, Singapore style. Too many junior officers have to ask the sergeant "how to do it." These things are not political. We want a 1939-42 soldier as a supreme dictator, not a distinguished veteran. LIBYA.