ANNUAL ARMY EXERCISE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28896, 16 May 1959, Page 11

ANNUAL ARMY EXERCISE

Nuclear Threat. Study (New Zealand Press, Association) WELLINGTON, May 15. The New Zealand Army's annual .exercise this year will be an indoor study of a defensive operation against a nuclear threat in South-east Asia, the Minister of Defence (Mr Connolly) announced tonight. Code-named “Orakau,” the exercise will be held at Waiouru from July 17 to July 19. It will be directed by the Chief of the General Staff (Major-General C. E. Weir). Representatives of the Australian. British, and United States Armies and their military attaches will attend the exercise as observers. It will also be attended by the chiefs of staff and representatives of the Royal New Zealand Navy and Royal New Zealand Air’ Force. “Because the theatre of Southeast Asia is of vital strategic importance to the security of New Zealand and in an emergency our Army would be employed there, it is essential that' we devote our thoughts to the specific problems which would confront our troops in that theatre,” Mr Connolly said. “Within New Zealand the Army has already established jungle training centres which have proved of great value in teaching the basic techniques of jungle war. “With these basic techniques now well understood by the New Zealand Army the forthcoming exercise will provide a valuable opportunity for the study Dy commanders and staffs of the problems of handling troops in the conduct of a defensive battle in South-east Asian conditions as well as the accompanying administrative, health and morale problems.”