CALL TO YOUNG MEN

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 154, 26 March 1938, Page 15

CALL TO YOUNG MEN

“Should Go Into Military Training At Once”

R.S.A. ANNUAL REUNION “Are we honouring the sacrifice of those who have gone before by dropping a tear on Anzac Day?” asked Colonel A. Cowles, responding to the toast of the Wellington R.S.A., proposed by Mr. E. T. Wilton, at the twelfth annual reunion last night of the Hutt Valley branch of the Returned Soldiers' Association. Those who had died did so to help preserve a great heritage of freedom handed down for a thousand years, and won by the blood of their ancestors, said Colonel CowleS. Were they now going to allow this freedom to be blown away by a few puffs of grapeshot? Every young man iu the country, if he thought his laud worth while, should go into military training at once. “In these days of wars and rumours of ware, it behoves all of us to stand together to cherish the traditions that have preserved the Empire from its foundation,” said Dr. Welton Hogg, responding to the toast of “The Services,” proposed by Mr. R. F. Parrant. ' Great Britain had the smallest standing army of the ■Powers, thrusting greater responsibility on the naval and air arms, said Dr. Hogg. On the strength of one length of the cable depended the strength of the chain. He had been well informed recently that the Navy had been duplicated in the Atlantic. The old foreign policy was that if the Empire were attacked in the East HongKong would have to be sacrificed. Now, with the duplication he had referred to, Hong-Kong would be held at all costs. If he were still in office when the lease of the club’s present rooms expired, he would see that something was done to provide Hutt Valley returned soldiers with a better and if possible permanent home, said tlie mayor of Lower Hutt, Mr. J. W'. Andrews. Growth of Association. “Some say that the Returned Soldiers’ Association has reached its peak and from now on it will be on the downward path, but as long as you continue to select leaders of common sense and energy, irrespective of rank, the association wall continue to grow,” said Colonel C. E. Butcher, proposing the toast of “The New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association. Captain A. Gorton, responding, said that the Hutt branch had played its part in the great increase recorded in national membership. The president, Mr. A. E. Pattinson announced that the membership at the close of the financial year would be 623, compared with 447 the previous year-. There were several hundred soldiers at the reunion, which was most successful and enthusiastic. Other toasts were: “The King, Mr. R E. Edwards; “Parliament,” th,e mayor of Lower Hutt, Mr. J. W. Andrews—Mr. L. G. Lowry, M.P.; “The Australian Imperial Forces.” Colonel R. B. Ashe; and “The Artists,” Mr. C. Whitemai#. The artists were Messrs. W. M • /I arshall. V Jones, A. Robins, IL Williams, and B. Rigby and Trumpeter Cliegwin.