ARMY TRAINING

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13271, 22 February 1941, Page 3

ARMY TRAINING

AUSTRALIAN PLANS Melbourne, Feb. 21. The extension of army training announced after the meeting of the War Council mean, in effect, that all universal trainees, will spend every alternate 90 days,' or a total of six months a year in camp until further notice. The government’s aim is to have 125,000 men, half Australia’s military forces, continuously under arms for* any emergency that might develop. The Minister for the Army, Mr P. C. Spender, announced that the period of training at the militia camps would henceforward be extended from 70 to 90 days, also that half or more of the total strength of the Australian military forces will be in camps until further notice. A- new series of camps will be established for units not' now undergoing continuous training. Merchant Shipbuilding

Provision of £ 6,000,000 by the Commonwealth Government for a substantial programme of merchant shipbuilding was announced by the Minister of Munitions, Senator McBride.

The programme wall he under the control of the Shipbuilding Commission within the Department of Munitions. The chief problem before, the commission,, said Senator Mcßride, is not to be the construction of hulls, hut of engines and other equipment. Productive capacity and not finance will be the dominating consideration. , . The commission would complete its investigations, already well advanced, into the types of vessels and the appropriate places for their construction.