DEMOCRATIC ARMY

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 137, 5 March 1940, Page 6

DEMOCRATIC ARMY

Men From All Callings As Officers PRINCIPLE OF SELECTION If the varying professions and trades of those men in Ihe advanced training company at the Army School of Instruction, Trentham, are any guide, the New Zealand Army is leading the world in the practical demonstration of the democratic principle in selecting officers. There are 136 men in this company chosen by commanding officers from all units purely on a oasis of their personality and knowledge, general and military. Looking through a list of their occupations there are found journalists, clerks, mechanics, watersiders, stock agents, artists, mining engineers, travellers, importers, company’ managers, bank officers, c'.vil servants, paperinakers, printers, solicitors, accountants, cheesemilkers, architects, teachers, farmers, linesmen, a bachelor of engineering, and a member of Parliament. The aim in picking these men is to give everyone who joins up a chance on his merits,

There are All Blacks among them, Bullock-Douglas and Pepper, V. P. Boot, the athlete, Bainbridge, another 440 yards champion (1934-35), and many others who have been, prominent in all branches of sport. The member of Parliament is A. G. Hultquist, Bay of Plenty.

Not all of these 136 men may qualify, for just as the equal opportunity principle is practised in selecting them to train, so also is that of not commissioning any man, whoever he may be in civil life, who does not make the grade in leadership and the general qualities essential in a man whom others will have to trust and follow. Those who do not get through will return to their units as n.c.o.’s, some possibly as privates. Being in the advanced training company carries no privileges, but some disadvantages. Whereas the rank and file with the main body of the troops get nightly leave, there is none for the embryo officer. His day starts it 6 a.m. and finishes at 9 p.m., by which time he has had a strenuous enough time to make bed the most welcome place. He has to make liis own bed and with his fellow trainees keep his quarters tidy. Friday night and weekend leave is allowed. There are infantry, artillery, signals, machine-gunners, engineers, Army Service Corps, and divisional cavalry (mechanized) at the Army School. The course takes two months, and there is no passing-out examination. The men are judged as they go along, tests being made continually, and their fitness for commissioned rank is judged on their general progress throughout the course. ■ Nights are occupied with lectures, and a feature is that students are picked at random to give 10-miuute lecturettes to fellow-trainees on some military matter that has occupied their attention during the day.

Those who are commissioned will be posted back to the arm of the service from which they came. They will be second lieutenants, and a grant of £25 will be made to them to purchase uniforms and sucli necessary equipment as is not issued free. This appears a substantial sum, but is barely adequate.

Captain A. 11. L. Sugden, N.Z.S.C., is in charge of the Army School. There is also a large number of young men in training at the Central District School of Instruction, under Major McCaskill, as officers and noncommissioned officers for the third echelon.