NEW ZEALAND FORCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15560, 18 March 1914, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND FORCES.

OFFICERS IN ENGLAND.

GENERAL DAVIES'S COMMAND.

[from our OWN co-respondent.]

London, February 6. Brigadier-General R. H. Davies, C.8., will, in October of this year, complete his term as commander of the 6th Infantry Brigade at Aldershot, and already his successor in the command is named. It is stated on the authority of ' the Times that Major-General J. L. Keir, C.8.,n0w in command of the South Midland Territorial Division, will succeed General Davies. General Keir is 57 years of age, and entered the Royal Artillery in 1876. He served in the Boer War, and for four years commanded the Allahabad Brigade in India. The next appointment of General Davies will be looked forward to with considerable interest. As his present appointment terminates about a year before that of General Godley in New Zealand, there is naturally some speculation as to whether the New Zealand officer will be offered the position of General Officer Commanding in his own country. Captain C. M Gibbon (Ist Royal Irish Fusiliers) and Captain C. R. Macdonald (Ist Warwickshires), who are proceeding to New Zealand in April, are to succeed Captain Cochrane (D.M.O. at headquarters), and Captain Pinwell (G. 5.0., Palmerston North) respectively. Captain Gibbon was on the staff throughout the South African war, and was afterwards ' signalling officer to a column. He was at Colenso, Tugela Heights, Pieter's Hill, and the relief of Ladysmith, besides important actions in Transvaal and Cape Colony. Ho is married. Captain Macdonald's service in the Boer War was not quite so comprehensive, but he also went through the campaigns against the Zakka Kliels and the Mohmunds on the Northwest frontier of India. He passed the Staff College at Quetta, and Captain Gibbon that at Camberley. Two New Zealand officers have graduated at the Staff College, Camberley. this month, namely. Major G. S. Ricliardson, who has taken up Colonel Robin's appointment at the War Office- and Major M. M. Gardener, R.N.Z.A. Major Gardener is now attached to the Ordnance Department at Aldershot for experience. He will probably go out in October. The officers admitted to the Staff College for the new term are Captains R. 0. Chesney, R.N.Z.A.. Melvill, N.Z.S.C, and R, B. Smythe. R.N.Z.A-

Lieutenant W. W. A. Burn. N.Z.S.C., after spending some time getting a preliminary experience of aviation at Hendon, has now gone to the central flying school at Salisbury Plain, in order to qualify for an army pilot's certificate. Lieutenants Turner and Davis are going through their gunnery course at Shoeburyness, and they will attend the practice camps at Salisbury Plain before leaving for the Dominion, probably in the autumn. The War Office seems to have accomplished its object of making tie Bisley rifle meetings something more in the nature of army competitions. Hitherto Bisley has been the Mecca of the bull's-eye shot, not always the most useful sort of marksman for sen-ice purpose*. .Now after a long discussion between the War Office and the Bisley authorities, it haa been decided to reform the programme so as to give greater encouragement to marksmen shooting under sen-ice conditions and at service targets.