HIGH STANDARD.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 199, 24 July 1941, Page 6

HIGH STANDARD.

EFFICIENCY OF TERRITORIALS. (Special.) WELLINGTON, July 23. “This is not a rifleman’s war, but a war with automatic weapons” was one of the points made by Sergeant J. B. Cotterill, Government member for Wanganui, who is attending the session of the House of Representatives in uniform. Speaking in the financial debate. Sergeant Cotterill suggested that, the single-shot service rifle, regarded as the sole personal defensive weapon of the front-line soldier, was something of the past, and that the successful infantry in modern warfare were equipped with automatic weapons. That, to his mind, was the great lesson learned from Greece and Crete, and the sooner our troops overseas, and those for the defence of New' Zealand, were equipped with automatic weapons the sooner would the British Empire and its allies bring the war to a successful conclusion. Speaking from practical experience in the Territorial Force during the present war, the member expressed a confident opinion that it had been made a very efficient force. On coming into contact with numbers or these men who had l>ceii in the Territorials before the war, and took part in the May manoeuvres, he was amazed, ho said, at their efficiency as the result of three months’ intensive training. “They probably learned more in that training,” he continued, “than the men ot the Expeditionary Force, because it is recognised that the latter are finished off and given more intensive training overseas. These Territorials, I found, had a higher standard of efficiency and knowledge of the weapons they were using than would ordinarily be gained bv members of the Expeditionary Forces when leaving this country.” The speaker referred to the difficulty in maintaining good attendances at Territorial parades in some districts, the Wanganui percentage, ior instance, being only 40. Therefore, he suggested that the Government should take steps to inflict some penalty on defaulters who evaded their responsibility in wartime. Mr W. J. Poison (Nat., Stratford): Apply that to the Honfc Guard, too? “That is a different proposition altogether,” replied Sergeant Cotterill, who said he could not help admiring tho keen attitude of these men. At the training camp for Home Guard officers he found that a number took advantage of their annual holidays to undergo this instruction for .a week or a fortnight. Territorials who went through the intensive training of three months seemed to imagine that this completed their responsibility, but he pointed out that tho Territorials now coming into the camps were without previous training, and were nothing more than raw recruits. He described how these men were classified for training, and suggested that in the category of men from 40 to 45 years of age the commanding officers should have power to discard those who, while passed lit by the medical hoards, were obviously not going to make good soldiers. They should be returned to civil occupations. Sergeant Cotterill expressed the opinion that 80 per cent, of the missing men in Greece and Crete were prisoners, and that from all reports, the. Germans were standing up to their international obligations regarding the proper treatment of prisoners of war.