TERRITORIAL FORCES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 195, 19 July 1939, Page 14

TERRITORIAL FORCES.

MIC J. A. LEE'S APPEAL. In making an appeal to .voting New Zealanders to enlist in the Now Zealand Territorial Forces, Mr .7. A. Lee. ALP., states that the men who came pouring in in 1914 poured into a machine capable of equipping and drilling recruits and tinning them into soldiers. That machine was the then existing army. The technique of war has become much more complex since 1914, and, indeed, since 1919, so it becomes of greater importance today that there should be that skilled instructor nucleus which would enable recruits to be speedily absorbed in a time of emergency. On April 25 the New Zealand Infantry Brigade played its part in the memorable battle of the. landing. About that ill-fated campaign there were elements of adventure and romance associated with no other campaign during the war. A new and untried Dominion army landing Irom transports at sea, and unaware of what war would actually be like. But it was a habit of New Zealanders always to have that thrill of pride on iho eve of hazardous adventure. Throughout the war. whenever danger threatened, men grew in courage. After describing many of his own experiences in France during the Great AVar. Air Lee pays high tribute to the valour and stamina, of the men of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. “The regimental units that participated in the offensive at Polderhoek and of the Somme and Passchendale still exist, and to-day the platoons and companies of those regiments seek reinforcement, seek additional strength,” he writes. “Not that men might dio around Polderhoek, but that men might lie ready in emergency to defend New Zealand. Otago and Canterbury men should be proud to servo in the regiments that have upon them the heroic traditions of men who fought at Poldcrhoek and other places. For men from the Southern Sens. New Zealanders, did all that human hands could do in grim circumstances. Recruits will march in the footsteps of the gallant.”