SEA CADET MOVEMENT

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 104, 26 January 1939, Page 10

SEA CADET MOVEMENT

Earl Beatty Explains Aims And Work SCOPE OF TRAINING Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, January 25. The aims ami work of the Navy League’s sea cadet movement in Britain and other Empire countries were further explained in au interview by Earl Beatty, chairman of the league in England, who had expressed the hope in a speech on Tuesday that the move meat would be widely extended in New Zealand. There are already sea cadet corps in Christchurch and Dunedin, but they have so far received little publicity and their existence is almost unknown in other parts o£ the Dominion.

Sea cadets originated in 1910. when a ‘numuer of voluntary organizations for the sea training of boys affiliated with the Navy League, said Earl Beatty. Immediately after the Great War the Admiralty recognized the movement by annually inspecting units and making small grants to those passed as efficient. It also lent small-, arms and co-operated in a number of other ways.

Boys between the ages of 12 and 18 were eligible to become cadets. They received training in seamanship, boatwork, signalling, mai-ksmanship, drill, swimming and gymnastics. Annual courses were held aboard training ships and old warships or in coastal camps. 1 The instruction turned the thoughts of’many boys to sea careers in the navy or mercantile marine, but this was not the primary object. The Real Purpose. The real purpose was, in the words of Lord Lloyd, president of the Navy League, *to lift up the physique of boys who need it most and to furnish for the service of their country in any hour of peril a body of willing and patriotic citizens who have already received valuable training in discipline and seamanship." . , , In recent years the movement naa spread rapidly in Britain, and corps had been formed also in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In Britain they existed not only on the seaboard but also iu the great industrial centres and elsewhere inland. Distance from the sea made no difference at all to the boys’ keenness. A gift of £50,000 made by Lord Nuffield hi October, 1937, had been of very great assistance and in the past year about 20 new corps had been formed. Last Trafalgar Day a parade of 3000 cadets had been held in Trafalgar Square. t , Except for a small amount of monetary aid given by the Admiralty, the movement depended entirely upon voluntary effort for the provision of uniforms, drill halls and other facilities tor training. Instructors were mostly ex-officers and» ratings of the Royal Navy and Royal Naval Reserve, who willingly gave much time to the work. More sea cadet corps, Bart, Beatty considered, would be of great benefit to the youth of New Zealand, both by encouraging an interest in sea life and Imparting knowledge of seamanship, and, in a more general way, by promoting physical fitness, discipline, and the healthy patriotism which expressed itself in service.. The work of the corps was’ complementary to that or the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, which lads might join when their cadet training was over.