IMPRESSMENT OF RIFLES

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23537, 15 January 1942, Page 3

IMPRESSMENT OF RIFLES

Sir,—l saw a photograph in “The Press” recently of riflemen handing in their rifles, and as I know nil those riflemen and also their capabilities with their rifles (10 shots inside a threepenny bit at 25 yards, 10 shots inside an 18-inch bullseye at 600 yards), I thought these men should have been receiving the best sniper’s rifle in the world, instead of being disarmed. There are more than 500 expert riflemen in' New Zealand, and they should be armed, not disarmed. All the riflemen in .New Zealand (or the presidents of-theie-ctobs for them) have offered their services as a body of riflemen and have been turned down by the Defence Department. In Crete, who hit that brute of a German officer through the jaw* when he made wounded New Zealand soldiers stand up and give the Nazi salute? I bet the soldier that fired that shot was a rifleman. An expert rifleman never wastes a shot; he never squeezes that trigger until the rifle sights are aligned. I think sometimes of that little nation of riflemen, Switzerland. Nobody has taken her on yet. In this country they have disarmed our riflemen. I know, because I had to hand in my five .303 rifles. I belong to a city rifle club, and I think the least the Defence Department should have done was to give each member the latest sniper’s rifle or a machinegun, plenty of ammunition and practice, and we would have made it pretty hot for any Japanese or German who stepped ashore here. —Yours, etc.. TRIGGER SQUEEZER. January 12, 1942. - [There is ample opportunity for any man willing to do so to serve his country; as a territorial or a member of the National Military Reserve, in which case he will be issued with a service rifle; or in the Home Guard,* where arrangement may be made for him to keep his own rifle, an officer at Defence Headquarters said yesterday when asked to comment on this letter.];