NO TRAINING YET

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 14, 17 January 1941, Page 6

NO TRAINING YET

"A CHAOTIC POSITION"

SYLLABUS NOT READY

Referring to the lack of facilities and syllabus for the training of the Civil Guard, the section of the Home Guard which will undertake such civil duties as ambulance work, fire fighting, etc., the Kelburn civil chief warden (Mr. M. O. Barnett) said, at a meeting at Kelburn last night, that the position at the moment was chaotic. ' He stressed the importance of the work to be done by the Civil Guard and said that more physically sound men were wanted as recruits. The training of the Civil Guard is similar to that given to A.R.P. workers in Britain. Mr. Barnett'said that delay in beginning A.R.P. training had resulted from a decision on the part of the Wellington civic authorities to take over the preliminary organisation. This had involved the cancellation of a list which had been prepared of appointments to units, and the sub-area was now await-' ing another list. Till this was forthcoming, together with a booklet which was being drafted by the Wellington City Engineer, the Civil Guardsmen would have to wait. He expressed the hope that no time would be lost by the civic authorities in carrying out this work, in order that the enthusiasm of recruits should not be let down. The position at the moment, he said, is chaotic. It is up to us to get order out of chaos—to form our units and make a start. Unfortunately, we cannot do this till the booklet is prepared and the facilities for instruction arranged. AN ANOMALY. Mr. Barnett also mentioned what he believed to be an anomalous position in respect of enrolments for the civil units—a position which would require to be rectified when the Home Guard settled down to training. At present those who had elected to give Civil Guard service were mostly elderly men or others whose physical condition did not permit them to carry out physical and military drill. "Actually," said Mr. Barnett, "many of the duties the Civil Guards ■ may be called upon to perform—such as special police, fire-fighting, and other A.R.P. work —call, probably, for a higher degree of physical fitness than do the duties in the military section. I believe that the Civil Guard should be looked upon as being of as great, if not greater, importance than the military side.

"I think that the fittest men available will be required for some units of Civil Guard training, and that we may have to call upon the Home Guard to provide such men."