SEA CADETS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23255, 26 January 1939, Page 14

SEA CADETS

GROWTH OF CORPS NEED IN NEW ZEALAND F.ATtr, beathy's advocacy HEALTH AND USEFUL WORK Tho aims and work of tho Navy League's sea cadet movement in Britain and other Empire countries were further explained in an interview yesterday by Earl Beatty, chairman of the league in England, who had expressed a hopo in a speech on Tuesday that ; the movement would be widely extended in New Zealand. At present there are sea cadet corps in Christchurch an Dunedin, but they have so far received iittlo publicity and their existence is almost unknown in other parts of tho Dominion. The sea cadets originated in 1910, when a number of voluntary organisations for the sea training of boys affiliated with tho Navy League, said Earl Beatty. Immediately after the Great War tho Admiralty recognised the movement bv annually inspecting units and making small annual grants to those passed as efficient. It also loaned small-arms and co-operated in a number of other ways. A Healthy Patriotism Boys between tho ages of 12 and 18 were eligible to become cadets. They received training in seamanship, boatwork, signalling, marksmanship, drill, swimming and gymnastics. Annual courses were held on training ships and old warships, or in coastal camps. Tho instruction turned the thoughts of many boys to sea careers, in the Navy or tho mercantile marine, but this was not the primary object. The real purpose was, in the words of Lord Lloyd, president of the Navy League, "to lift up the physique of boys who need it most, and to furnish for the service of their country, in any hour of peril, a body of willing and patriotic citizens who have already received valuable training in discipline and seamanship." In recent years, Earl Beatty continued, the movement had spread rapidly in Britain, and corps had been formed also in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In Britain they existed not only on the seaboard, but also in the great industrial centres and elsewhere inland. Distance from tho sea made no difference to tho boys' keenness. Lord Nuffield Gives £50,000 *A gift of £50,000 made bv Lord Nuffield in October, 1937, had been of very great assistance, and in the jmst year about 20 new corps had been formed. Last Trafalgar Day a parade of 3000 cadets had been helcl in Trafalgar Square. Except for the small amount of monetary aid given by the Admiralty, the movement depended entirely _ upon voluntary effort for the provision of uniforms, drill halls and other facilities for training. The instructors were mostly ex-officers and ratings of the Royal Navy and the Royal Naval Reserve, who willingly gave much time to the work. More sea cadet corps, Early Beatty considered, would be of great benefit to the youth of New Zealand, both by encouraging an interest in sea life and imparting a knowledge of seamanship, and in a more genera] way by promoting physical fitness, discipline, and a healthy patriotism which expressed itself in service. The work of the corps was complementary to that of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, which lads might join when their cadet training was over.