HOME GUARDS’ FUTURE

Grey River Argus, 23 July 1941, Page 10

HOME GUARDS’ FUTURE

British General’s Report

AUCKLAND COMMANDER “BUTTS-IN.”

WELLINGTON, J'uly 21. The announcement that the Government had received the report o-Lieutenant-General Sir Guy williams on the defence of the Dominion, and that a statement would oe made within a few days on the tuture of the Home Guard in its relation to the Army, was made to-cay by the Minister for National Service (Mr. Semple). , .. . I am at a loss to know where this individual got his information from, Mr. Semple said, when commenting cn a statement made by Colonel M. Aid red, a Home Guard commander of the Auckland district, who has advanced a suggestion that all reasonably fit men in the Home Guard would come under Army control. Mr. Semple said he would ask people to /take no notice of an individual who published what he had no right to publish. What he said was not official, and the public should take absolutely no notice of it. They would get the correct official statement in a' few days, when the whole matter had been' properly dealt with. The future of the Home Guard was under consideration at present, and a complete report on the future of the organisation and its 1 relationship with, the Army would be made public m a' few days. The Government had brought Sir Guy Williams, who hao. a vast knowledge of modern warfare, to the Dominion to give some lead in the question of Home Defence, and his advice had now been received. AUCKLAND, July 21. '•ln reply to Mr. Semple, I maystate that I have nothing to add to or to retract from my very noncommittal statement, which was correctly reported in the ‘New Zealand Herald’ on July 17,” said Colonel M. Aldred, Home Guard Commantier for the Auckland district, to-night. “This statement was made with a view to allaying the feeling of unrest which undoubtedly exists throughout the Home Guard in the Auckland district.”