TERRITORIALS

Grey River Argus, 21 May 1928, Page 7

TERRITORIALS

NEW PHYSICAL STANDARD. REDUCING SIZE OF UNITS. The standard of physique required to gain admittance to the senior cadets and the territorials is being raised by the Defence Department as the principal means of reducing the numbers .training on the active list to proportions which will allow of efficient training with the finances available. For some years the officers of the department have been fac’d with the task of training an ever-in-creasing number with a reduced Parliamentary vote. The medical examination of senior cadets on pasting to the territorials was made more strict, but the number rej *?ted for further service was infinitesimal compared with the number who passed il-’.o the major force to do tho’.r three years of .training.

So great, has been the increase, in population within rec mt years that notwithstanding those efforts and the closing of a number of country drill centres where there v.as only a comparatively small number ot men available, the .territorial units have become considerably over, strength. In a number of the city regiments the units are twice the peace time establishment. In any other department of State more officers ami equipment would be made available for meeting such a situation, but the Defence Department these days is one of the first to which economists turn their attention, and the stall ha'- been left to carry out postwar work under pre-war conditions. In a statement concerning the position made to the Press Association in Wellington, the Minister of Defence Hon F. J. Rolleston, said the attempt to train such large numbers had made too heavy a drain on the defence vote, leaving sufficient money to provide technical equipment for the army and the air force. For this year it had been decided to adhere strictly to the peace time establishment of the territorial force, and, further to relieve the vote first year territorials, unless they were non-commissioned officers, would not be required to go into camp. ’Senior cadets would register for training when they were 14 years of age, but they would not be called up for training until they were 15, except at the secondary schools, where .they would commence training in the school cadets as soon as they were 14. When the new classification according to physique is complete, the territorial division will be a picked body of the Dominion’s young manhood. Attention .is given by the staff in Auckland. They are checking heights with chest measurements and dividing the territorials and cadets into six categories. When the classification is complete, the schedules will show how many territorials there are measuring say sft 10in in height and have corresponding chest measurements, and so *on until, in the lowest categories, will bo found the mon who are under-sized but nevertheless may bo physically fit. With those details before them and also schedules before them and also schedules showing .the numbers available for training, a standard for the Auckland regiments will be set and only those who come within, it will be admitted to the territorials. Territorials who are due for transfer to the reserve will be posted there this year in the usual manner, and tho'ie now serving who do not come up to the required standard of physique will be posted to the non-effective list. . The task of classifying the territorials will take some time, and until it is accomplished the number of cadets who Will be sent up this year for senior training will not bo known.