SPECIALIST UNITS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 226, 19 June 1940, Page 10

SPECIALIST UNITS

British Government’s Request PROMPT RESPONSE MADE “Since Germany invaded Belgium the New Zealand Government has repeatedly offered further assistance to the Home Government and has asked in what way it could help best,” said the Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, in an interview last night. The Prime Minister added that, other than the grateful acknowledgment of the repeated offers made, no definite reply had been received on this point till last Friday, when an urgent request was received for further specialist railway, forestry and engineering companies. Emphasizing that today it was necessary to think in minutes rather than in weeks or months, Mr. Fraser said the request was not received till 9.30 a.m. last Friday. Cabinet was called for 9.45 a.m., with the chiefs of the armed forces present, with the result that the Chief of the General Staff, Major-General J. E. Duigan, left 10 minutes later for Army Headquarters to make preliminary arrangements for tlie dispatch of these men. The representative-of the Navy present left at the same time to institute inquiries concerning transports. “In about an hour,” the Prime Minister said, “the preliminary arrangements were being discussed with these officers by the Ministers of Defence. Railways, and Public Works, the Commissioner of State Forests and departmental officers. In the early afternoon appeals to join up were forwarded by telephone to the various railway workshops and other railway branches, the Army made inquiries about the number of men available, and the Minister of Defence broadcast an appeal that night. Before the day - closed about two-thirds of the personnel was in sight, and the Government was in a position to inform the United Kingdom Government that, not only had it agreed to the request forwarded, but arrangements were in hand and the process of forming the corps was in operation. “On Sunday a message conveying the cordial thanks of the British Government was received by the Prime Minister for the prompt action taken in assisting the Motherland in her hour of need.”