CIVIL AIR RESERVE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 73, 23 September 1938, Page 8

CIVIL AIR RESERVE

As a further and essential step in the creation of an adequate tiefence system for New Zealand the Civil Reserve of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, which it is proposed to form at once and the details of which were announced this week, will play a most important part. The Air Force itself as a real factor in defence is only now coming into being under the wise and skilful direction of Group-Captain the Hon. R. A. Cochrane, to whose work the Prime Minister paid a warm tribute in his speech last night. In normal times special measures might not be necessary to complete the organisation of the Air Force, but the times, as everybody knows, are very far from being normal. The organisation of an Air Force is inevitably a highly complex business. As was indicated in a special article on the subject in Wednesday's "Post," "to maintain one machine in the air, ten, twelve, possibly more men, must stay on the ground, engaged in engineering, armament work, communications, administrative and clerical work, storekeeping, or looking after other personnel." All these different duties require certain qualifications in skill and experience, and the purpose of the call for enrolment in the Civil Reserve, as explained, is to enable the Air Department to compile a register, so that a plan for the augmentation of the ground staffs of the Air Force can be drawn in view of emergencies not impossible in these times. The number of men wanted for the register is 5000, in three groups, covering, first, professional and executive duties; second, skilled labour and craftsmanship in many lines; and, third, clerical and administrative work. The qualification is experience and competency in the class of work required. It should be regarded as a democratic duty of all citizens so qualified, between the age limits specified of 22 and 55, to offer their services for this important section of home defence.