TRAINING FOR HOME DEFENCE

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 47, 19 November 1941, Page 6

TRAINING FOR HOME DEFENCE

It appears to be true, as suggested on Monday by the. chairman of the Christchurch Manpower Committee, that some military reservists and their employers are inclined to attach too little importance to Territorial training for home defence. On more than one occasion an application for postponement of Territorial training has been accompanied by an assurance that no appeal would be made when the call came from the overseas ballot. Such an application was before the Christchurch committee, and in answer to.it the chairman pointed out that the authorities were bound to consider the possibility that these shores might be attacked at any time, and that the leriitonal forces at home might thus be called upon to play a part even moie important than that of the men overseas.

These possibilities are undoubtedly real, and the acknowledgment of their reality at once invalidates any appeal based on. the supposition that training for overseas service is the only essential duty. New Zealand’s task in this war is a twofold one.. We must maintain our division overseas and at the same time build up our defensive strength at home. No one at this critical time can say where the greater test of our strength may come —abroad or at home. Many of the recommendations made by General Sir Guy Williams, military adviser to the Government, were concerned with the strength and efficiency of our forces within the Dominion. These have been acted upon, and it must be recognized by the people that the building up and training of our home defence forces have become vital components of our military effort. The idea that the Territorial is a purely peacetime soldier is a misleading memory from the past, it is obsolete and dangerous, and must be banished from otn thinking. Another important point, arising out of the Christchurch application, was made by an Army representative who said: “We. must train them (the Territorial reservists) as an army, not as individuals. That is the training they will go through in the next two months. Here is the other side to the case made out. recently in favour of. a “staggered” system of calling up trainees in order that productive industries might not be deprived of all reservist manpower in any one period. This problem is admittedly serious; on the other, hand the most inexperienced civilian will recognize that individual military training is only a part of the complex business of creating an efficient Army-in-being. Full-scale manoeuvres are to an Army as team practice to a football fifteen. Training obligations for home defence cannot be limited to the occasional parade, or placed second to other military obligations. We as a community must make up our minds to see tlie new position clearly, and accept it. All that can be done to ease the strain on the national productive manpower, should be done. But nothing should be permitted which weakens or delays vital home defence preparations, lest in averting a national hardship we should risk national disaster.