Mr Jones Favours National Service Scheme

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25547, 15 July 1948, Page 4

Mr Jones Favours National Service Scheme

14 WEEKS’ INITIAL TRAINING FOR YOUTHS PROPOSED cFrom Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, July 14. To achieve the Government’s aims for Army training, he believed personally that a national service system would be necessary, said the Minister of Defence (Mr F. Jones) in the House of Representatives this evening. “No decision has been reached yet,” he added. Mr Jones suggested that 8000 men should be recruited or called up each year from the 18-year-old group for training. They would spend 14 weeks in initial training and then attend two weeks’ camp in each of the next three years, as well as . a number of muster and night parades. At the end of the three years thesd men would be posted to the reserve for seven years, with no obligation for further training. The Minister quoted extensively from reports he had received from Field-Marshal Lord Montgomery, the Admiralty, and Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Tedder. Lord Montgomery had told him he thought compulsory service would be necessary, Mr Jones said. Waiouru would be the Army School of Instruction and three mobilisation camps would be established at Papakura, Linton, and Burnham, said the Minister. Mr Jones vigorously defended the Government’s defence policy, claiming amid Opposition jeers and questions of “What about 1914-18?” that no Government had done more for New Zealand’s defence than the Labour administration. He dealt extensively with the Air Force and Navy policies.