MILITARY TRAINING

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 12 March 1926, Page 5

MILITARY TRAINING

MUST BE UP=TO=DATE.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS. FOR DOMINION TERRITORIALS. (By Telegraph.—Special to The Star.). WELLINGTON, March 11. During the army rifle meeting at Trentham a frequent visitor has been the general officer . commanding the forces, Major-General R. Young, and in an interview he made some interesting remarks regarding possible developments in military training in the near future. First of all General Young expressed himself as being highly pleased with the result of the night-firing experiment made last night. Night firing and,night movements, he said, were coming into their own on account of the activity of hostile aeroplanes, and there was not a doubt that more attention would have to be given to this phase of training- in future. Although the experiment last night had been highly satisfactory,, he did 1 not think that the discipline of territorials had reached the stage where they could carry out such an experiment successfully under strict service conditions, and it was easy to have an accident. The men, however, were very steady last night, and, to his idea, the only thing wrong was that they were overanxious. On the whole, he had been more than pleased with the nightfiring, There was no doubt that it had oome to stay. Later on they would have to experiment with tanks, as it was essential that they should keep up-to-date. Some territorials appeared to think that their training consisted merely of “form fours,’’ but the department wanted *to teach them that there was something more than that in it.’ There was no doubt that the discipline in the territorial forces had improved out of sight during recent years. Reverting to the question of nightfiring, General Young said that, trainees should not look upon the thing in the light of a picnic, for it was very difficult work. He indicated that the department would be considering the adoption of a higher standard of military training in the near future, and many of the permanent men had already received some instructions in that direction. Colonel Burgess, chief of the general staff, said that territorials would not only have practices of night-firing, but also of the use of machine-guns and movements by night. The present night-firing was very elementary, but next year they hoped to have something more advanced, such as indirect firing with Vickers guns.' They would probably have also a tank attack, and probably make use of gas masks in one or* two of t-heir matches. . He stressed the fact that they must keep up with the times.