LEAD GIVEN

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 91, 19 April 1939, Page 6

LEAD GIVEN

40 ROWERS ENLIST

STAR BOATING CLUB

DRILL HALL ACTIVITY

By enlisting in the Territorial Forces at the Drill Hall last night some 40 members of the Star Boat-

ing Club made the first gesture of that kind to emanate from a sporting body in the Dominion. Military officers who addressed the men said that their action would be a valuable lead to sporting bodies throughout the country. The men, who were described by the medical officers who examined them as a particularly fine lot, will, it is understood, be attached to B Company of the Ist Battalion, Wellington Regiment (City of Wellington's Own), and will constitute one complete platoon.

The coming forward of these men

in a body was the result of a suggestion made by some older ex-soldier members of the club. The recruits were led by the club captain (Mr. J. Thodey), and the club president (Mr. O. D. Bayfeild) accompanied them to the Drill Hall. • As is customary with all recruits,

the men received before actually being invited to sign up a full explanation of the duties they. would be asked to undertake and the sacrifices they would

be expected to make to carry out their military training. This preliminary address was given by Major C. D. A. George, officer commanding B Company. He said that in view of the present necessity for an increase in the strength of the Territorial Forces the action of the club members in coming forward in a body was commendable. He explained that they would be enlisted for three years' service within New Zea-

land, and that if future circumstances resulted in an expeditionary force being sent abroad a further enlistment would be necessary,

"The fact that you men have come i forward together as members of the Star Boating Club will give a valuable lead to other sporting bodies throughout New Zealand," said Major E. H., ' Whiting (District Headquarters). He ; appealed to the men not to lose inter- | 'rest if and when the present "(inter-1 ' (national crisis was past and said they should remember that it was just as \ necessary for them to be prepared to ; make sacrifices for their military train- ' ing as it was for them to make sacri- ',_ .Ices in the interest of their club. J • Mr. Bayfeild said that .as an old | ; soldier and as president of the club he was pleased at the response made 1 by this group of clvb w members to the ' suggestion tKat they should offer their ■ services. He hoped their action would • set an example that would be followed ' by other sporting bodies. . The men were then sworn in and _ medically examined. UNUSUALLY FIT GROUP. i Major W. F. Shirer, N.Z.M.C., senior ! examining medical officer,' said that the men were an unusually fit, group and ' showed a very; small percentage of ' defects that could be grounds for rejec- : tion. He hoped their action would cause football clubs and other sporting • bodies to realise their ability to provide an unusually good type of recruit A total of 70 recruits were medically examined last night. The remainder were recruits to the Wellington Company of the New Zealand Scottish Regiment. A further 90 were put through last week, and enlistments in Wellington during the past fortnight total approximately 200. Rejections on medical grounds have been negligible. Last night's medical examination was carried out by eight doctors of the New Zealand Medical Corps under the supervision of Lieutenant-Colonel F. M. Spencer, N.Z.M.C., O.C. 2nd Field Ambulance.

j Australia is embarking upon a project of training and equipping 70,000 men upon the very principle that we have put before you—for the very reason that the provision of such a force will prove a deterrent to any other country and cause it to think more than twice before attempting invasion ■ —the same argument applies with even stronger reason to New Zealand. SOME RECENT EVENTS. Now let us look at a few of the fantastic things that have happened in recent years. Suppose in 1914 a New I Zealander in Samoa had said to his j friend Fritz: "By the end of this year j a New Zealand force will have cap--1 tured and taken possession of Samoa and you will be a prisoner of war." Fritz would have taken him away to a medical man to have his mentality certified. But it happened.

Who would have thought in 1937 that by the middle of 1938 the International Settlement at Shanghai would be dominated by Japan? But it happened. Who would have thought in 1937 that by March, 1938, Austria would have ceased to exist as a free and independent nation and v.-ould have become part of the Greater German Reich, that by September in the same year Czechoslovakia would have been dismembered and the alliance between Russia and France and the Little Entente (Czecho-Slovakia, Yugoslavia, and Rumania) dismembered? But it happened. Who would have thought in December, 1938, that in January, 1939, Japan would have occupied Hainan Island, inhabited by 3,000,000 Chinese despite the protests of Great Britain, U.S.A., and France, an island now a menace to Hong Kong and the trade routes east of Singapore? That by March, 1939, General Franco would have achieved a complete victory in Spain, that in the same month Herr Hitler would in breach of his pledged word have annexed Czecho and Memel, and that on Good Friday, 1939, Signor Mussolini would have invaded Albania and thereafter annexed that country? But all these fantastic things happened.

Our point is this: —If these things are likely to happen, or even if there is a remote possibility, it is the duty of ourselves to prepare ourselves for that eventuality should it happen.

And we emphasise, that we must prepare before the war begins, because when a war starts what we want is soldiers and not recruits.

To conclude. We people of New Zealand believe in a system of democratic government. We realise that this class of government has imperfections but we prefer it to the kind that Germany and Italy have at the present time. Our people if they want to preserve the freedom that they enjoy under such a system must be prepared to defend that system by personal service. And if the people of a democracy are not prepared to give that personal service that is necessary for the protection of the rights and privileges they enjoy under that system then that system will perish. Democracy will not survive merely by reason of its own virtue. If the people are not prepared to make these personal sacrifices to maintain their freedom, then democracy will perish just as surely as if it possessed no virtues whatsoever.