IMPRESSED RIFLES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20554, 14 May 1941, Page 11

IMPRESSED RIFLES

CONDITIONS OF ISSUE NOMINATED HOLDERS MUST BE AVAILABLE Provided that arrangements can be made to have the weapons always available for use by their units, members of the Home Guard, Gisborne Borough Battalion. ,may receive back their own. rifles in case of impressment. Owners of rifles may also, m approved eases, nominate members o! the Guard to receive their rifles on issue. Details of arrangements to this end have been circulated to company commanders, on whose recommendations impressed rifles will be distributed. Many owners of impressed rifles have handed their weapons to the police with requests that (1) the owner, being a member of the Home Guard, desires the rifle to be reissued to him; and (b) that the owner, not being a member of the Home Guard, desires that his rifle be issued to some active member to be nominated by the owner. As far as possible, these wishes should be given effect to. states the area commander’s memorandum on the subject. Company commanders are warned against the possibility ihat some owners of rifles will join the Home Guard simply to retain control of the rifles, attendance at parades being a secondary consideration. As the rifles are required primarily for defence purposes, and the utmost use must be made of them in training the Guardsmen, a paramount consideration. must be their availability at all times for immediate use in case of enemy action. The procedure outlined, therefore, is that the rifles handed to the police will be taken over by the battalion command, and taken on charge by the unit commanders concerned. Requests regarding the re-issue of rifles will be passed to unit commanders. Conditions for Re-issue Rifles which are the property of serving members of the Home Guard may be re-issued to their owners on recommendation, of platoon and company commanders, if approved by unit commanders, subject to the following conditions: — That rifles may be recalled immediately at any time without notice; that the‘Guardsman is an active member of his unit who could use the rifle in the firing-line, that the Guardsman remains a regular-attending membei qualifying for capitation, and attending not less than 70 per cent of all parades; that the Guardsman is a member of a combatant unit; and that the Guardsman, if unable to attend parade, or if on leave, arranges for the rifle to be made available for use by the Guard on all parades from which he is absent. Non-members of the Guard may nominate combatant Guardsmen to have charge of their rifles, on like conditions, the nomination being subject to approval by platoon and company commanders. Rifles handed in without requests attached will be kept under the control of units. They may be issued to company or platoon commanders, who will arrange that they are properly cared for and are available for all parades, and readily accessible in case of enemy action. “The rifles are coming in quite well in Gisborne, but there are still a few outstanding,” said the officer in charge of the impressment of .303 in. calibre rifles at the Gisborne police station this morning. All such weapons are required by the regulations to be handed in by Thursday. It is understood that further demands will be made then, and action is liable to be taken against persons having outstanding rifles in their possession.