TERRITORIAL CAMPS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2669, 14 January 1916, Page 4

TERRITORIAL CAMPS

Protests are beginning to come to hand from different parts .of the Dominion against the decision of the Government to hold Territorial Training Camps> as usual this year. It is difficult to reconcile the action of the Government and the military authorities in holding these camps with the repeated statements of the Minister ot Defence and his military advisers concerning the difficulty of securing sufficient experienced officers and non-commissioned officers for the training of additional troops for active service. The probability is no doubt that the Minister has been so busily occupied with the more important duties associated with the forces going on active service that the question of tho Territorial Training Camps has not received close attention. It certainly does seem a foolish waste of energy and money at a time like the present to hold the Territorial Training Camps when all our efforts should be concentrated on the greater task which' so vitally concerns us. The Territorial Camps, of course, serve a useful purpose at ordinary times, but it is not the training of youths for service at some distant date that we have to consider now, but the training of men for immediate service in the present war. Moreover, there is quite enough dislocation in various branches of business and industry as tho result of enlistments for active service without adding to it by taking youths and young men away from their work all over New Zealand for the annual Territorial Camps. What .little might be said in favour of adhering to this annual fixture is completely- outweighed by the very material objections to this course being adopted.