SINGLE OFFICERS

Grey River Argus, 8 October 1941, Page 5

SINGLE OFFICERS

Retention in N.Z. OFFICIAL EXPLANATION. P.A. WELLINGTON, October 7. \ The overseas service position o± Territorial Force officers was explained to-day when an inquiry was made at the Central Military District Headquarters. A point raised in the inquiry was the retention on home service of many single Territorial officers, which has resulted in their not entering the Expeditionary Force camps at the same time as other men of the same class of the First Division of the General Reserve. It was stated that many Territorial officers and n.c.o.’s volunteered at the outbreak of the war. Up to the cessation of the voluntary system their services had been most valuable in officering the First. Second and Third Fchelons, and, to a lesser degree, subsequent reinforcements. Their volunteering for overseas had the result, howover, of seriously depleting the strength of officers for the Territorial force, which was New Zealand’s first line of home ! defence. After the dispatch overseas of the Echelons, the officer requirements for the Second N.Z.E.F. were much reduced as the result of a decision to train from the personnel overseas all but a minimum of N.Z.E.F. officer requirements. A small number of officers is now basing taken with each reinforcement. These bore no relation to the number of Territorial officers who were willing and anxious to take their places overseas. They were called in the ballots in the same way as other citizens, but, except as needed, they were, not being permitted to go into the Expeditionary Force, nor could these officers resign their Territorial commissions as a means ol doing this. It was recognised that many Territorial officers anxious to so overseas were not satisfied with this position, but it was considered to be in the best interests of the home defence system. The same position applied to those who had volunteered and those who had been balloted. Another factor was that such few officers as were required from New Zealand were invariably junior' officers. There was also the ooint that a number of men had been commissioned who had reached the overseas military age since the cessation of volunteering. The introduction of the cadre system, absorbing one-sixth of the officers and n.s.o.’c, and the new scheme of Territorial training made the services of all active Territorial officers were a good job as soldiers in more necessary and valuable. They doinp- what they were told to do, and criticism of them based on a situation beyond their control was unfair and unwarranted.