BETTER TRAINING FOR MEMBERS OF DEFENCE FORCES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23343, 28 August 1950, Page 6

BETTER TRAINING FOR MEMBERS OF DEFENCE FORCES

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 28. Addressing the annual conference of the New Zealand Home Servicemen's Association, the Minister of Defence, Mr. T. L. Macdonald, said that the Army officials emphatically declared that the 18-year-olds who recently completed their first camp training ended the course better trained than any echelon or reinforcement which left New Zealand in the Second World War and probably better trained than any group in the First World War. The Minister said he had heard no real criticism about the training, either from the youths themselves or those responsible for the training and general supervision. The Minister stressed the physical benefits accruing from the training and paid tribute to the youths for the manner in which they carried through the training. War Clouds War clouds were threatening and the democratic nations were making frenzied efforts to prepare to meet the threat, he said. The democracies, who always took a defensive role, were usually at the losing end in the early stages of a war. They took the defensive role because the people would not stand for them taking the offensive. “It seems fantastic talking about a Third World War so soon after the Second World War, but we have been worried,” he said. The association president, Mr. K. Mills, said that as a responsible exservicemen's organisation the association must do its best to persuade those in authority to take all possible steps adequately to defend New Zealand. There was a huge body of untrained men in New Zealand up to the age of 26, said Mr. Mills, in contending that the training scheme might have to be extended. “The best insurance our country can have is adequate defence,’’ lie said.