Refusal To Discard Compulsory Army Training Scheme

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23315, 26 July 1950, Page 8

Refusal To Discard Compulsory Army Training Scheme

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, July 25. "The answer is no. There is no chance of getting the Government, which worked so hard far it, to abandon compulsory military trailing now.” the Prime Minister, Mr. S. G. Holland, told today’s annual conference of the Second N.Z.E.F. Association. Mr. Holland was referring to a remit at the conference requesting the cancellation of the present scheme of compulsory military training. Were the facts of the present situation available to the public the remit, in all probability, would not have come forward, said Mr. Holland. The association president, Mr. Nigel Wilson- We want something better. Mr. Holland: Yes! But we cannot all be strategists. Mr. Holland said it was a mistake Unpeople to have too many conflicting ideas when it came to strategy. The compulsory military training scheme had been decided on and it must go on. It might be altered or augmented, perIt might be altere dor augmented, perhaps, because of a deterioration in the international situation, but the main point was to have a plan and stick to it. Reliance on U.S.A. While he was a strong supporter of Britain his feeling was “Thank God there is a United States of America today,” said Mr. Holland, who referred to difficulties facing Britain in the light of the present international situation and the recent war. America was standing in precisely the same position today that Britain had stood in the last two previous wars. Mr. Nigel Wilson, in his address to the conference, urged that, in the light of existing conditions, the maintenance of a conscript army was “illogical, unrealistic. inefficient and wasteful: that the present compulsory military training scheme does not and cannot produce trained soldiers: that it produces, not real strength, but only a dangerous delusion of strength and should be abolished.” He added, however, that the association did not oppose the principle of compulsion for military preparedness and would support a scheme of compulsory universal physical training, which would be valuable alike in peace and war. Regarding war pensions the Minister of Defence. Mr. T. L. Macdonald, told the conference that the Government had received requests from the R.S.A. and the New Zealand War Amputees’ Association for certain things to be done and that consideration was being given to the holding of a public inquiry into these matters.

The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. P. Fraser, the Mayor of Wellington, Sir William Appleton, and the president of the New Zealand War Amputees Association, Mr. C. J. Butcher, also addressed the meeting.