MECHANISING THE ARMY

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21866, 20 August 1936, Page 12

MECHANISING THE ARMY

SPECIFIC SUGGESTIONS MADE ■ : '' VOLUNTEER SYSTEM THOUGHT ' DESIRABLE fFrom Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, August 19. Specific suggestions for improvement of the defences of New Zealand were made by Mr J. Hargest (Nat., Awarua), when the House of Representatives was debating defence problems to-dpy. A trained ’ force with modern equipment was an absolute essential, he said, and even, if high expenditure was involved, it was a form of insurance, made necessary by the present state of world affairs. “We can have an effective force in New Zealand if we are prepared to mechanise it,” Mr Hargest said. “The system of military organisation, with general headquarters and three commands, is good, and does not require much revision. In each of those three commands we should have a mechanised anti-aircraft brigade, a mechanised artillery brigade, and a mechanised machine-gun battalion, In addition, each command should have two or three infantry units equipped with motor transport and two or three mounted rifle units.' The scheme I have outlined would require a force of about 14,000 men. It would be expensive, but effective, and it would be able to do something for the protection of the country. For such a scheme we would need money and men. The finding of the money would be the responsibility of the Government, but when it comes to the men. we do not want to depart from our present voluntary system. However, the voluntary system at present is not sufficient, and it becomes a question of either giving more inducement or of adopting some other means.” The question of air defence gave rise to the question of the adequacy of any air force. To keep 100 aeroplanes in the air, about 300 aeroplanes would be needed on the ground, in addition to a large and fully-trained personnel. The Dominion’s greatest security probably lay in the fact that for an attack to be made on New Zealand in anything like force, a great convoy would be necessary, and a great convoy was always vulnerable to attack. However, it had yet to be proved that aeroplanes could stop a convoy, and for that reason talk about increased aerial defence might be somewhat premature.