CALL TO DEFENCE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 220, 17 August 1939, Page 10

CALL TO DEFENCE

YOUNG MEN’S DUTY... NEED FOR TRAINING. “Never before have we lived-i in a more ticklish period, and I am afraid < that there are a number who are inclined to take things easily and not be greatly concerned. Let us try to make the voluntary system work. It only wants a •match to the powder magazine and we are in it whether we like it or don’t,” stated Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, at Rongotea on Tuesday, when he placed great stress upon the need for preparedness in defence. “We must be prepared to take .outplace in the defence of- the Empire,?’ he said. The Government did not believe in the principle of universal compulsory training, but the* members of the Opposition benches did, and considered it the fairest in application. He was prepared, however, to go 100 per cent, to make the voluntary system a success. Every young man should be training, and his advice was to get in early. It had been clearly laid down, said Mr Coates, that the defence policy would be the United Kingdom first, shipping second, the Dominion third and the Allies fourth. The Government said it was spending millions on defence, and wanted 16,000 volunteers, but that should only be a beginning. Marksmanship was required. Young men and women should be taught to shoot with .303 rifles. New Zealand' had been declared by some to be a vulnerable spot and might at any time he cut off from the Mother Country. They should be ready. Without letting "another day go by, added Mr Coates, young men should see that they joined the colours and even if they could not go te camp at first got the rough ideas and learned to handle a piece of iron which was very useful in a tight corner. New Zealand, of all countries, could not afford to take the risk of being unprepared. Some parents did not like the idea, but his radical “Digger” colleagues who had declared they would never teach their sons to fight., were the first to send-them to train because they realised, that there was nothing worse than being untrained and unprepared for defence. ' y