ARMY REORGANISATION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 22 May 1941, Page 4

ARMY REORGANISATION

A HIGHLY-PLACED officer of the British Army, Lieut.-General Sir Guy Williams, who has only just relinquished an important command in England, is on his way to New Zealand to advise the Government on the training and organisation of our military forces. At the same time it has been announced that the Chief of the General Staff, General Sir John Duigan, is soon to retire. There will be plenty of room in both the organisation and training of our forces to use the advice that General Williams may give. If he defines for us a goal to which our military efforts can be directed his visit will have been well worth while, for that is what our military organisation for home defence has not yet had. Also it is too much a thing of bits and pieces. One of the tasks of General Williams will be to take hold of this jig-saw puzzle and fit all its parts into a co-ordinated whole, and so provide us with a policy for home defence and a machine to execute it. To say this is easier than to do it because what our home defence policy is to be depends largely on what the ambitions of other nations are. Further, to criticise the machine as it is does not necessarily mean criticising the military officers who have built it. Early in the war our military commitments overseas were defined and met, as far as is publicly known, with energy and efficiency, though there have been mistakes. With home defence it has been quite another matter. During the years of false security the army organisation had become rusty through disuse; its military administrative personnel had shrunk severely. When the call

. came to start up the military machine . it creaked in every joint. Suitable staff men for the positions suddenly i created were not available and the . organisation grew hesitatingly for a , time. Good army men like an ob- . jective and it does not appear that , they were given on. One military unit was grafted on to another until we have a multiplicity of home defence forces none of which really provides what the country needs. Obviously it is the plans at the top which need straightening out. Moreover, war has changed greatly

since this one began. Even the British Army, of which General Williams is a high officer, has learned a great deal. With the best of intentions our own staff officers have been unable to give us the advice about the needs of the modern army based on the most up-to-date experience. These are some of the much-needed changes to which the public will look forward in our home defence organisation as the result of the Government’s welcome decision.