MOUNTED RIFLES SQUADRONS

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23110, 28 August 1940, Page 4

MOUNTED RIFLES SQUADRONS

ORGANISATION TO BE COMPLETE SOON TOUR OF AREAS BEING MADE A tour for selecting officers and arranging recruiting areas and other matters for the home defence squadrons of mounted rifles (details of which were' announced in “The Press" recently) L being undertaken by Colonel J. H. Whyte and Captain G. F. Yerex, of Army Headquarters. Wellington, who arrived in the city yesterday They will visit Banks Peninsula, the recruiting district for the Ellesmere squadron, to-day. . Men accepted (details of eligibility were published recently) WMI be provided with uniforms and full equipment. Organisation will be completed shortly. On the selection of officers. Captain Yerex said yesterday, they would confer with Colonel E. T. Rowllings. Officer Commanding the Southern Command, and other district senior officers. They would also visit Burnham. where some mounted units' officers were at a special course. North Island Work In the north, where five squadrons were being raised, the movement had been received with enthusiasm. They had found many farmers, not eligible themselves, willing to provide and maintain horses for qualified men not able to do- so. Such assistance was gratifying. In some districts the difficulty would bo not to obtain the necessary men and horses,- but to keep the men down to the establishments for which provision had been made. As a considerable number of returned officers were now serving overseas, with the Territorial forces, the National Reserve. or on the Army temporary staff, there were not sufficient officers available for the squadrons in some districts. In those cases returned noncommissioned officers and others with (he necessary qualifications were bc'ing recommended for commissions. Members of the squadrons were not required to attend camps in the same way as the Territorial forces, but it was expected that some would prefer to carry out some of their training in week-end camps, or perhaps for longer periods. They were required to carry out 40 days’ training in the year, but it was not expected that a great deal would be done in the way of preliminary training. Field training'to enable them to carry out their particular role would be undertaken, for the functions of the units were to act as snipers and mounted scouts, and to operate with ooen warfare tactics in the hilly country.