NO CONCSRIPTION FOR HOME GUARD

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4509, 11 March 1941, Page 4

NO CONCSRIPTION FOR HOME GUARD

Compulsory member sh i pol the Home Giuml is not contemplated by the Government :it present, sard the Minister tor National Service, Hon. It. Semple, in an interview at Invercargill recently. The statement was in reply to a question whether compulsory membership; as suggested in ji letter forwarded to every municipa.l- - in New Zealand by the Stratford Borough Council, was under consideration by the Government. M e are attempting to organise the defence of New Zealand, and every man will he given a job. To-day we have 70,000 in lire Home Guard, but the Government is aiming at 100,000 men within u few weeks. Each man is as impor-

tant as the next'" said the Minister. “These men are doing a real job of work, and it would be impossible to defend Unis country without them. In addition to the Home Guard there is a strong force of trained territorials and together they will make a good defence organisation. To provide the men with uniforms, and equipment will be a problem, but everything possible is being done in that direction.” The Minister stated that in some quarters the calling up in the near future of lads of 19 years and men from 41 to Id for home defence had been taken as an indication of conscription, for the Home Guard. That was not the case. Members of the Home Guard received only spasmodic training, whereas the men to be drawn in the fifth ballot for territorial service

would be given a thorough and intenaive training to equip them fully for any emergency. There' was no need for conscription for the Home Guard, and no swell measure would be introiduced. A suggestion had been made that, in vulnerable areas where an invasion was more likely to take place, members of the district Home Guard should be drilled and equipped by the Army Department to bring them to the highest standard ofafflciiency. Members of the Home Guard I would, in swell a case, retain their original identity.