TERRITORIAL FORCES

Evening Star, Issue 20254, 15 August 1929, Page 13

TERRITORIAL FORCES

HOT FOR PHYSICAL TRAINING ELIfSIHATIHG THE UNFIT [Fkou Ouk PAiaujnlxrAßT Kbpoutzs-] WELLINGTON, August 11. The Defence Department last year imposed additional tests on recruits to Territorial units in order to bring strength within the establishment. Tlie result is shown in a decrease of 3,59!) m tho number of Territorials this year, tho total strength, including officers, being 17,592. All Territorials and Cadets who bo came eligible by age tor posting to the Territorial Force in June, 1928, were graded into categories according to their physical development, and the selection of the numbers required to bring the units up to establishment, bub not beyond it, was made from those of the highest physical standard. This necessarily' resulted, stales tlie Defence Department’s annual report, in a larger proportion of rejections than usual, and certain newspapers and sections of the public erroneously concluded that the abnormal number of rejections was on indication that the physique of our youths was falling off, and that training in Cadets was not having the beneficial effect claimed for it by_ supporters of compulsory military training. “Jt is therefore ’desired to emphasise the fact Dial classification according to age, weight, height, and chest measurement, and selection of the best physic-ally-developed youths, was an innovation prompted by the necessity of reducing, by the most economical and the fairest, method, the number for training in the Territorial Force. It may bo suggested that those who were not up to the physical standard should, in tho interest of the‘country’ generally, be given a course of physical training, but this would mean extra expenditure, and tho Defence vote cannot bear the burden. Tho policy is, therefore, to select for the Territorial Force the best material available (subject to their living within three miles of a drill centre), in order that the money available for tho purpose may be expended on the training of those who. in the event of New Zealand being called upon to defend itself against attack, would be tho first line of defence.” - Details in the report show that 11 ,(k'iG Cadets were available for posting-to the 1 Territorials, and 4,410 were placed on the non-effective list, ns being outside the drill radius The medically unfit and those who failed to roach the physical standard totalled 1,820, or 25.41 per.cent, of flic total number examined, 7.162. “The physical .standard for our Territorial Force is equal to that required of the British Regular Army, although the medical examination is not such a searching one, and the, percentage or rejections for tlie British Regular Army in 1926 was 3) per cent. For our young men of eighteen years, wi;o have still a few years to develop, it is not considered that tlie percentage of rejections, in view of the high standard set, is such as to cause concern.”