SMALL PERCENTAGE OF RELEASES

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24986, 21 September 1946, Page 6

SMALL PERCENTAGE OF RELEASES

COMMENT BY AIR CHIEF (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 20. XV. with the total strength of the R.N.Z.A.F. of 5275 officers ana airmen, the percentage asking for release is very small,” said the Chief of the Air Staff (Air Vice-Marshal A. de T. Nevill), referring in an interview tori°x t*? e trouble among airmen on K.N.Z.A.F, stations. There appeared to nave been considerable misunderstanding and confusion of the issues involved by the men concerned, he said. Various elements of the Air Force must be fully integrated and mutually confident in each other. He had no doubt of the men who volunteered to serve m the post-war force. New Zealand’s standards of health, education, and living were probably the highest in the world, but they often forgot that freedom was inseparable from responThey raust attract a high standard of airmen into the service if they were to ensure that maximum opportunities for advancement were open to all serving airmen. It was the intention to provide within the service a sound scheme of educational and vocational training, so that men on short engagements who- left might be fully capable of playing their part in civil life.

. Jie stressed that this special training and the desire to ensure the fitness of men by physical training and organised games increased the time worked by men. “I regard the Air Force as a higher school for citizenship, and personnel who leave the force should be a credit to their country. We ’aim to discharge them better men, physically and mentally, than when they enlisted.” He wished to emphasise, he said, that a much closer association of officers and airmen should be developed to discuss matters affecting the improvement of service, efficiency, and morale and the bettering of conditions of service. This would develop a team spirit, loyalty, and discipline which were as vital to the service as in civil life.