CORRESPONDENTS' VIEWS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 199, 24 August 1942, Page 2

CORRESPONDENTS' VIEWS

HOME GUARD

(To The Editor)

As a member of the Home Guard, with other urgent duties to perform, such as growing much-needed vegetables, etc., I would appreciate information as to the liabilities of guardsmen. The unit to which I belong parades for three hours one night per week from 7 p.m. till 10 p.m. and seven hours every Sunday except the last Sunday in the month. This is a total of not less than 46 hours, and sometimes 50 hours per month, depending on the number of Sundays, and we have been told that we are expected to attend every parade. An adjacent unit has three seven-hour Sunday parades per month, and one week-night parade from 7.30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. per month, making a total of 24 hours, as announced in the paper required by the regulations. Members of this unit understand that they must attend every parade, and in the main do so, thus enabling training to go forward progressively and smoothly. Do the regulations require attendance of only 24 hours monthly and, if so, why have some units a 46 to 50-hour syllabus when other units conform with the regulations. REASON IN ALL THINGS.

It seems grossly unfair to take returned soldiers out of the ranks of the E.P.S. and place them in the Home Guard, leaving behind younger men who have not seen war service. It. is acknowledged at this time that all must make some sacrifice, but where possible there should be an equality of giving. So while old soldiers on Sunday are back again at the parade ground stuff, route marching and digging trenches, younger and fitter men are resting in their beds, pottering in the garden, or playing games. SIXTH HAURAKI.