DUTY TO STATE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 43, 21 February 1939, Page 10

DUTY TO STATE

YOUTH SHOULD SERVE

REAL CITIZENSHIP

MILITARY TRAINING

. ;.;■■.. (By Telegraph.) (Special to tftt •fcvemnji Post.") ( MASTERTON, This Day. Making, reference to the fact that last year put of a quota of 42 men from" Pahiatua to Palliser Bay only 17 went into the Territorial training camp, Mr. T. Jordan, president of the Mastertpn branch of the New Zealand Defence League, said that to his mind it; was deplorable. There was something radically wrong with the system of education in this country when they coiild get only 17 men to go into trairiing for a week. Mr. Jordan said he thought we could learn something from those countries .that we were inclined to-revile. Men who had been Home had told him of the intensity of the desire to serve their country that was manifest in the young in some of those Continental countries. He believed that there was real spiritual value in the willingness of young men to serve their country, and if our system of government was to survive and flourish, and if the liberty which was its life 'blood was to remain pure and strong, then this desire to serve one's country, in .either." a' social, public, or industrial way,' would have to be regarded not .as '..'mere eccentricity but as the normal habit of nlind. He appealed to all to encourage the youth, in this country to da their duty. .The State had a right to expect a return for what it had spent on youth and\to get some return for its investment, said Mr. Jordan, and he exported all citizens to do something to assist Territorial training. He made a special appeal to employers to assist by allowing their employees time off for. training. "Tell them you expect them to go," 'said Mr. Jordan, "and at the same time say. they will not lose anything by it. The extra small amount needed to make up wages can be regarded as a small increase in insurance premiums, and a very good investment too."