MILITARY ADVISER

Evening Star, Issue 23907, 10 June 1941, Page 8

MILITARY ADVISER

GENERAL SIR GUY WILLIAMS ARRIVES FULL TRAINING FOR ROME DEFENCE (P.A.) AUCKLAND, June 9. Until recently General Ollicer Com-mauding-iu-Chiet, Eastern Command, Lieutenant-general Sir Guy Williams, K.C.8., C.li., C.M.G., D. 5.0., arrived iu Auckland to-day. He Las been placed by the British Government at the disposal of the New Zealand Government to advise it on problems relating to the organisation and training of the New Zealand military forces. Lieutenant-general ' Williams was asked if there was any intention that ho should become Chief of the General Staff in succession to Major-general Sir John Duigau, who recently retired. Ho said there was no such intention, and he would be in New Zealand for only a few months in an advisory capacity. Commenting upon what he thought' should be the amount of training given to home defence troops, Lieutenantgeneral Williams said there was only one standard of training for both o,verseas and home defence soldiers. Both had to be trained to the same standard. For home defence personnel, so far as equipment would allow, he said, continuous training was essential in wartime. This meant, he agreed to a question, that men would have to leave their civilian employment and be returned to it only after the war was over. New Zealand, he said, had done the right thing up to now in turning men over in batches. The training programme had had to be regulated by the equipment available. , “ Equipment lias been the main trouble with us all,” Lieutenant-gene-ral Williams continued. “It is coming along well now, however, and the training must keep iu step with it.” Training was of the utmost importance. In Britain, he said, they had been turning winter into summer and training their men all the time. _He had had men out through the winter without bothering about the weather. Efficiency had to be achieved, and there was only one way to do it. Lieutenant-general Williams was asked how lai-ge a home defence force ho thought Now Zealand would need. In answer, he said,, he understood the general problems of the Dominion, but had yet to obtain first-hand knowledge of the detailed requirements. Ho, therefore, could not answer the question. On his way to New Zealand, Lieu-tenant-general Williams said, he .had seen New Zealand troops training in Egypt. “They are grand,” he said. He also met the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, whom he described as being “ in good form.” Lieutenant-general Williams was accompanied by Brigadier C. A. West, D. 5.0., M.C., who in 1938 was appointed deputy military secretary to the Secretary of State for War and assistant secretary of the Selection Board. He entered the army in 1912. and served in France and Belgium in the Great War. He later served in India, and was awarded the D.S.O. and was mentioned in despatches during operations on the North-west Frontier. The Inspector-general of the New Zealand Military Forces, Major-general Sir Andrew Russell, welcomed _ Lieu-tenant-general Williams and Brigadier West on their arrival. Two more staff officers have yet to arrive.