THE DEFENCE FORCES

Evening Star, Issue 22579, 22 February 1937, Page 14

THE DEFENCE FORCES

NEWS AND NOTES [By Sam Browne.] HAVAL RESERVES TRAINING AFLOAT. The training afloat for ratings of the Otago Division, 8.N.V.R., was completed on February 13, the last section for training returning from Lyttelton by train. Four officers and 73 men carried out training afloat during the period January 2 to February 13. During the same period two _ telegraphist ratings carried out training in H.M.S. Philomel, at Auckland, and qualified for the higher rating of leading telegraphist, whilst one leading telegraphist is at present carrying out 14 days’ training in H.M.S. Achilles.- The general report on the training afloat carried out in H.M.S. Wakakura was good, several of the ratings receiving commendation from the commanding officer, whilst Able Seaman H. J. Parted and D. M. Smith were examined and qualified for the rating of leading seaman. Leading Signalman R. E. Salter proceeded north to-day to join H.M.S. Achilles for 14 days as a candidate for the rank of probationary sub-lieutenant. Sub-lieutenant J, N. Allan will join H.M.S. Achilles on March 25 to carry out 14 days’ training in gunnery in qualifying for the rank of lieutenant. A combined mine-sweeping operation is to be carried out by His Majesty’s ships Wellington and Leith between March 19 and 25 off Akaroa, in which officers and ratings from the Wellington, Canterburv, and Otago Divisions will be included. WEEKLY DRILLS. The training at headquarters will recommence on March 17. All ratings are

sure that it is worth while. We are not going to do anything in a hurry, but the proposals you have put forward will be given every consideration.” A promise that departmental experts would inspect an area of land near Pembroke with a view to testing its suitability as a landing ground was made by Mr Semple to a deputation from the Wanaka Progress League.

expected to be present, when the programme for year 1937-38 will be out lined by the executive officer (Lieu-tenant-commander P. G. Connolly). THE OTAGO REGIMENT ANNUAL CAMP. Routine Order No. 12 announces that the annual camp of the Otago Regiment, which was postponed on account of the epidemic, has been provisionally set down for May 9-14, at Dunedin, BATTALION REORGANISED. The has been reorganised, the postings being as follows: H.Q. Wing.—No.' 1 Group—C.O., second in command, adjutant, assistant adjutant, Second Lieutenant _ H. H. Parata'; intelligence officer, Lieutenant A. B. Gladwin; signal officer, Second Lieutenant T. H. Jory: attached, Captain M. D. Harvey. No. 2 Group-Anti-tank, not formed. No. 3 Group, Captain I. Patterson, M.S.M.; Lieutenant C. Wilson, transport officer, Second Lieutenant C. D. F. Bowie; pioneer officer find assistant, quartermaster. No. 4 Group—Mortar Platoon, Lieutenant E. F. Walden. Attached—Reconnaissance Group, one platoon motor cyclists,_ Captain R. D. B. Paterson, Second Lieutenant E. G. Cooper, and Captain R. Morrison, N.Z.E. A Company.—Captain E. J. Thomson and Second Lieutenant H. D. Ramsay. B Company.—Captain F. E. Wilkes, Lieutenant H. G. M'Quade, and Lieutenant J. B. M’Kenzie. C Company.—Major P. Mackenzie, v.d., and Lieutenant N. Macdonald. D Company.—Captain T. J. G. Pugh, Captain M. Smith, Second Lieutenant C. I. O. Scollay, Second Lieutenant A. R. Fitchett, Second Lieutenant L. G. Smith. Attached.—M.G. Company—Captain P. W. G. Spiers, M.8.E., M.C v.d.. Lieutenant R. Morrison, and Second Lieutenant W. S. Boyes. TRAINING AT PORT CHXCSER§‘. The first parade of the Port Chalmers platoon since the Christmas break was held last Monday, when there was an excellent attendance. After an inspection by the platoon commander, all ranks returned to the lecture room, where instruction was given in map reading. Next week more advanced map reading will be carried out. All ranks are urged to be present, as the lectures are given in a series. Later on a scheme will be worked on the sand. Another bivouac will be held within the next few weeks.

FOUNDATIONS OF SOLDIERING “ TRAINING IS WORTH WHILE.” If we read and think about the British soldier of the past and present, and familiarise ourselves with that simple and heroic figure from the “ Goddam ” of the Hundred Years’ War to the “ Poor B—— Infantryman ” of our own Great War, with his solid and capacity for suffering and marching and fighting, his sturdy good humour, and his incorrigible flippancy, that have made him for centuries the most unconquerable fighting man in the world, we shall come to a new and fuller love and understanding of the profession of arms as well as of our troops. In the Great War and its aftermath, in the abandonment of democracy in many countries, in the inability to create any fabric of international politics and economics that gives even the appearance of stability, it is hard to avoid seeing an analogy to those preliminary upheavals that will some day herald the next cataclysmic adjustment of continents when the earth’s surface will no longer be able to withstand the contraction of the cooling crust. It is hard, too, to see any better hope for the future than that which is implicit in the steadfast survival of the British Empire. In the world of to-day and to-morrow that straggling British belt of reasonable freedom, tolerable honesty, wholesome common sense, and fluctuating traditionalism is indeed like a winding path of comparative safety across an illimitable, quaking bog. In no small measure the officers of the fighting services are the custodians of the traditional British spirit that has been the admiration and text of foreigners whenever they have had most cause for discontent with their own countries. It is in our power to make a life-giving transfusion of strong, clean blood. A yearly dispersal of 26,000 “ fighting men,” if that is to mean men whose bodies and minds have been rendered healthy and alert, who have learned self-reliance and initiative, and learned also to use them with self-discipline in a passionate co-opera-tion with their comrades for the achievement of whatever end they have in hand—men who have learned to command with self-control and to obey with self-respect—may well mean the difference between the survival of our race and its ruin. Military training is worth while.—Major M. K. Wnrdle, D. 5.0., M.C., in ‘ Foundations of Soldiering.’-