TRAINING AND DISCIPLINE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 144, 21 June 1930, Page 8

TRAINING AND DISCIPLINE

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—The Hon. the Prime Minister stated" in his reply to the deputation from the Nationl Defence League as follows: "During the war they had beeri told time and time again that the raw material was better to work on than the material which came from the Territorial Forces/ This may have been said in order to encourage enlistment of the so-called raw _, material, or for other reasons, but I know it had no foundation in fact. , I myself spent a year in Trentham and JFeatherston Camps, and before going in, a letter from Colonel M'Donald, then, staff officer at Pahnerston North, reached me stating that I had been selected for the n.co.'s class, as Territorial n.c.0., of which I was one, were most valuable m the training camps. I was an unknown lad from a farm with nothing to recommend me but this fact that I was a Ter- < ritorial n.c.o. At the fend of three months I was a sergeant, and helped to train a platoon of a Reinforcement.: I then sat for a commission among 90 candidates, and was one of those, just over 20 in number, successful. I then had tha responsibility of training a platoon or my own, which I took to England. •With this experience and subsequent experiences I claim that those who had had previous training were twice as easy to train as the raw matinal. They had a knowledge of military disciplme^ and methods that some of the* raw material never acquired. It has often been said that upon arrival at Sling the men wera told to forget all they had learned in < New Zealand, and afterwards they were told in Prance to forget all they had learned both in New Zealand and at bling, but ithis meant only that instructors were stressing their own importance, trying to make out that they had so much that was new to teach. At Sling most of the work was "Bull Ring" work, but we had already been trained in "open warfare, the basis of all field training, without which we should have been lost m France. We had also been taught in New Zealand the use of ground and But most important \)£ all we had been taught all that is contained in the ona word "Discipline"—the bedrock of all training, by which means the morale or a force can alone be maintamed. It produces the ingrained habit of cheerful and unhesitating obedience which controls and directs the fighting spirit. W| were also trained physically and acquired skill at arms, use of pick and shovel, marching, and march discipline, military. sanitation, which safeguards the health of the troops, and close order drill, which is ■ recognised as the first and quickest method of teaching discipline. Had not all this been done in New Zealand it musfi have been done first overseas; the groundwork has never changed in military training. The officers and n.c.o.'s had already acquired habits of leadership, and many of the former are now engaged upon passing on the fruits of theiv study and experiences to the present day cadet and Territorial. The time is coming when, they will be too old for this duty. Should we lose all this valuable knowledge gained in the field? The training of young n.c.o.'s and officers is of vast importance. A few years ago the Hon. H. Atmore was watching the Cadets at work here, and in addressing them he said: "In my opinion tha money spent upon this training by the Government is well worth while, if only for the training of .the young n.c.o.'s, which is of great value at a time such as this, when the whole world is starving for able leaders." He is quite right, and that ia one of the most important services .rendered by the present system. I conclude by expressing the opinion that the Cadets and Territorials have never been more efficient than they are tc-day.—l am, etc., EXPERTO CREDE. Nelson, 20th June. "Berhampore" viites to "The Post * complaining of the late delivery of tha municipal milk—9 o'clock or half-past on week-days and 10 o'clock ion Sundays. Tha | correspondent suggests that when so many; men are out of work, a few # extra mea; could be engaged to eyeed things up.