DEFENCE FORCE.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16403, 24 December 1918, Page 6

DEFENCE FORCE.

BIG CHANGES FORESHADOWED.

(special to "Tnu PRESS.") WELLINGTON, December 23.

Big changes in tho Defence Department arc coming in the near future. There have been rumours of moves among the senior officers, and now it is more or loss definitely announced that tho Imperial officers who have been on loan to this country are to be allowed to go Homo. Sir James Allen stated to-day that the Imperial officers attached to Headquarters' staff would have to bo allowed to go, and the rearrangement of appointments had been under consideration.

There is a probability that the Commandant. Major-General Sir A. W. Robin, may retire soon. He has been in indifferent health of lato, and in any case it has been understood for some time that so soon as a man with war experience should be ready to take the position, the office of Commandant of the New Zealand Forces would pass into othor hands. -The general belief is that General Richardson is to be the new Commandant.

Following are the Imperial officers who will be affected by tho changes to he made, and the release of Imperial officers:—Surgeon-General Henderson, Colonel C. M. Gibbon (Chief of the General Staff), Colonel C. R. MacDonald (Director of Infantry Training in the Reinforemont Camps), Lieut.Colonel Neave (Infantry Instructor in the Reinforcement Camps), Major H. A. Cooper (General Staff Officer, Otago Military District), Major Sir Robert Walker Staff Officer, Auckland Military District), Major F. E. Ostler (Director of Supplies and Transport).