Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY. JUNE 29. 1943 ARMY REORGANISATION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 29 June 1943, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY. JUNE 29. 1943 ARMY REORGANISATION

A REALIGNMENT .of priorities to meet changed circumstances stands behind the further substantial reduction in New Zealand’s Territorial army. Twelve months ago we were in the throes of preparing against an invasion. Very high priority was given the home defence army; much industrial potential on the farm and factory front had to be sacrificed to it. Now, mercifully, the threat has passed away. Home defence has lost much of its essentiality. It therefore moves down the ladder to allow agricultural and industrial production to move up, for all fronts in total war must, be manned and directed from the same manpower pool. The Home Guard, which stepped into the breach when called on, at considerable sacrifice and often with scant recognition and less equipment, now takes a pace to the rear and moves into reserve while still keeping its identity. If many of its members—both officers and men—feel disappointed at receiving what is virtually the “wash-out” signal when their organisation was getting into working order and—if necessary ‘ —fighting trim, they will be realists enough to see that the crisis they were called on to meet has passed. New Zealand does not know—perhaps never will know-how far their willingness and that of the rest of the armed forces to man the home front was responsible for the Japanese, staying away. The Pacific ( war has now reached a stage where the apparatus of production even down to ' the home garden must take prece- : deuce over the Home Guard and it would be false strategy to permit any undue time lag in making consequential readjustments. Guardsmen will parade quarterly, continue musketry courses and hold themselves in readiness for an emergency. Not all men released from the army will go back to the civilian side of the war effort The priority of the Air Force has been pushed still higher and fit men in the younger age groups will be transferred to it. Our airmen have already struck blows against the Japanese on .what are our island frontiers and the springboards

for a Pacific offensive. The 3rd Division is out in the Pacific, too, training for its future role. It has to be reinforced as does the 2nd Division wherever its next sphere of operations may lie. This unit will require still more reinforcements if the decision has been made—as seems likely—for some of its veterans to come home on richly-deserved furlough. To a certain extent the revised military set-up has not greatly lessened the claim of the armed forces on the manpower pool but rather has changed its incidence. With two divisions in the field, with the Navy still requiring men, with the Air Force expanding and with the cry going out for more and more production—particularly of food—it is debateable whether New Zealand is not still shouldering a heavier burden than its manpower resources can sustain for any considerable period. Thus it is imperative that no manpower or vvomanpower units shall be kept in enforced passivity or continue in positions rendered superfluous by changed conditions. To carry out this will demand a certain retracing of steps just as the present army reduction and the one before it have done. Two avenues in which to begin operations immediately suggest themselves. To cater for the needs of army expansion the Temporary Staff grew like a mushroom. Some reduction to conform with the smaller Territorial army should be made immediately. Women, too, Were drafted into the Army at a great rate. Many of them are no longer needed there and they should oe transferred to essential occupations or back to their former jobs so as to allow them the opportunity of pulling their weight in the reoriented war effort. Other aspects of our war machine also need inspection now to ascertain whether they do not require some trimming and redirection to fit them for serving our needs as they are now, not as they existed a year ago.