SELECTIVE ARMY TRAINING

Press, Volume C, Issue 29536, 10 June 1961, Page 9

SELECTIVE ARMY TRAINING

Criticism By Air League If Government plans to introduce selective training in the Army were carried out. the strength of the Royal New Zealand Air Force would be reduced, said Air Marshal Sir Andrew McKee, speaking at the annual meeting of the Christchurch branch of the Air League of New Zealand. He appealed to the league to do everything in its power to prevent this depletion. Mr H. A. Foster, the retiring president of the branch endorsed these remarks, saying that the R.N.Z.A.F. was “now at an irreducible minimum.” He said it was a situation which the league would have to watch closely. Sir Andrew McKee outlined the work that the Air League of the British Empire (the parent body> was doing and how it had warned Britain of the need for a stronger air force before the Second World War. “Without this Britain would have been even less prepared than it was.” he said. He also spoke of the part that the British Air League had played in the formation of the Air Training Corps in New Zealand. Officers elected were:— Patron, Sir Robert ClarkHall; immediate past-presi-dent. Mr H. A. Foster: vicepresident. Mr J. R. Mating: committee. Misses J. Palmer and M. Womall, Messrs P Voyce, R. Woodfield. B Feehan. J. E Davies. C. Ormerod, A. Ellis, and R York; secretary, Mrs P. J. Cameron-Smith.