NATIONAL RESERVE

Evening Star, Issue 23322, 19 July 1939, Page 16

NATIONAL RESERVE

DEFENCE OF THE CITY EX-SOLDIERS' Organisation of Class 2 of the National Military Reserve, which consists wholly of : ex-servicemen,,is in hand at the local Army office. This force will ho a voluntary auxiliary of the Territorial' Army, and entirely self-contained. _ The men will not be attested or medically examined, though deiiim clothing will be available for training purposes. The provision of guards at vital points and the protection of. the secondary ports will form the employment of this ex-servicemen's force locally, and email groups will be maintained! at Oamam and Mosgiel, while .the ..balance of approximately , one battalfou, will be in! Dunedin. The allotment of taskg and the organisation and:, classification of the volunteers will be entirely the responsibility of the commander of Hie unit, who will ; be-an officer of the Reserve. of Officers who held commissioned rank during the-War.' -. The other officers to be appointed will* also be men who were commissioned during the .war* Training has been commenced at Auckland, but so. far no parade has been! held locally, although it is expected that! - a muster parade will - 'be calledl in the near future. . In peace time, for-the purpose of control, the groups of Area' ll (Otago military district) will function under al Reserve Battalion Headquarters, which will be responsible for the administration and training. In turn, the senior officer of each group,will be responsible to the battalion commander for the training and administration of; his own. group. The organisation of tho Reserve Battalion Headquarters will be:—Commanding officer,.lieutenant-colonel; second in command, major; adjutant, captain or lieutenant, R.S.M., orderly room sergeant, and two clerks. The appointment of senior officers in oil areas will be made by Army District Headquarters, in conjunction with returned soldiers’ asociations. The officers selected for these appointments will be responsible for the organisation of their own units in accordance with the establishments, and will make them recommendations through the area* concerned for the appointment of other officers. . ~ ~' No Army staff will bo available ta deal with administration except with, regard to classification of registration cards forwarded to areas by the post As to training, there will be annually four muster parades, which, if practicable, should take the form of practica in the actual duties which units will require to undertake in war. Any number of voluntary parades may be held, and facilities in the shape of drill ball space and training equipment will ba made available by the area concerned. The number of registrations in Clast 2 in Otago this morning was 338, while the total in all classes was 1,006.