MAKING OFFICERS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20253, 22 May 1940, Page 11

MAKING OFFICERS

NARROW NECK SCHOOL PRELUDE TO TRENTHAM ADVANCED TRAINING Now occupying the pleasantlysituated quarters and parade grounds at Narrow Neck district military school are over 80 soldiers of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force who hope shortly to qualify as second-lieutenants. They are being trained on the very sound principle that no officer should give a man an order unless he knows exactly what it entails, and that all officers should be able to do everything they instruct their men to do. '■ This is the first advanced training course for the Expeditionary Force held in the northern district. In the past all prospective officers have been sent direct to Trentham, which will be the destination also for the Narrow Neck group before readiness for promotion is determined. Meantime, they are proceeding with the Trentham syllabus, which they will follow when they go south. Some of the men doing the course are artillery subalterns who previously had experience only of garrison work; they are now receiving the field training given members of the Expeditionary Force. For the most part, however, the men have been taken from the ranks of previous echelons and given the opportunity of qualifying for first appointment to commissions. The selections have been made only after those responsible have beer, satisfied that the men are suitable types and that they have performed their allotted tasks in the ranks with the utmost efficiencv. Showing how exacting the army is in making sure of a man’s qualifications is the fact that all territorial subalterns have to oass the advanced training course before being confirmed in their appointments for the Expeditionary Force. All the men at Narrow Neck are of a uniformly high stamp and were described by their staff non-commission-ed instructors as 'being “a very good bunch of boys.” So keen that a repetition of the same task does not become monotonous, but is used to discover and correct mistakes, of r. very good ohysical type, and showing their alertness in every movement, they have already made rapid progress along the toilsome road that leads to a commission in the Expeditionary Force.