ARMY RECRUITS PRAISED

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27735, 12 August 1955, Page 13

ARMY RECRUITS PRAISED

“ Every Bit As Good As Their Ancestors” MAJOR-GENERAL GENTRY’S VIEWS — ■ . \ (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 11. Young men of New Zealand were better behaved and better mannered than their ancestors he had known, said the retiring Chief of the General Staff (Major-General W. G. Gentry) today, in giving his views on the Dominion’s compulsory military trainees. “There have been a lot of comments about this generation we are training, and they have not always been complimentary,” Major-General Gentry said at a press conference. From his own observations, and from information gained by talking to their instructors, he believed it impossible not to be impressed with the bearing of young military trainees and the zest with which they devoted themselves to the training. “In my opinion, they are every bit as good as such of their ancestors I have known,” he said. “They are somewhat better behaved—and I may be starting something, but I thev are better mannered.” The Army broadly speaking, handled two-thirds of every age group of young men. It had now turned out more than 40,000 of them “with very little trouble indeed, apart from the pecadilloes which you expect from high-spirited young men.’* Major-General Gentry said the military training scheme, confirmed by referendum in 1949 but not actually introduced until 1950, had now completely fulfilled the objective for which it had been designed—to produce an expeditionary force, if required. in a much shorter space of time than ever before. The expectation on that time factor had been fulfilled very accurately, although security prevented him from giving more details. It had only been through the hard work and devotion of the officers and non-commissioned officers who werb the backbone of the Territorial Army that the target had been fulfilled. Major-General Gentry thought it a i paradox that a compulsory military training scheme should depend for its success on voluntary instructors.