NEW HOME GUARD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23739, 20 August 1940, Page 9

NEW HOME GUARD

OPPORTUNITY TO SERYE RETURNED SOLDIERS' HELP ENROLMENTS NEXT MONTH Visits to the main centres will he begun in a few days by tl.e Alinister of National Service and Manpower, the Hon. R. Semple, to discuss with local bodies the Home Guard scheme and to arrange for the setting up of committees. It will be early next month before they will be able to enrol members of the Home Guard. The Minister, who gave a national broadcast last night on the scheme, said the guard would provide an opportunity for men to train and drill in their own community. The framework of the plan was almost the same as that of the Army system. The actual drilling of the guard would be in the hands of the men's own leaders. This was where the Returned Soldiers' Association would be able to pull its weight. READY RESPONSE ASSURED HOPE OF EARLY ACTION "The call made by the Prime Alinister to the people of the Dominion will meet with a ready response, and it is to be hoped that action will follow immediately," stated the vice-president of the Auckland provincial area of the Farmers' Union, Air. A. G. A. Sexton, when commenting yesterday upon the Emergency Reserve Corps proposals of the Government. Air. Sexton said those who had been advocating an auxiliary defence force on the commando principle were ready to move at once and would give all the help possible. They hoped the attempt would not be made to work out a plan of action in Wellington until consultation had taken place with those who wore intimately acquainted with local conditions. It would be far better to call meetings in as many small localities as possible, and then build theni into the proposed areas and the areas into the military districts. This course would ensure that all the men available would be known before selection was made of the officers who were to command the various units. It was to be hoped, too, that every step taken would be in close co-opcration with the Army STAFF APPOINTMENT LIE UTENA NT-COT-ONE L AVERY [BY TELECIIAI'IT —I'ItKSS ASSOCIATION"] WELLINGTON, Monday It is announced that LieutenantColonel H. E. Avery, of Wellington, assistant-general manager and _ secretary of the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition Company, has been appointed to u position at Army Headquarters. He will be attached to the Quarter-master-General, Colonel P. H. 8011. Lieutenant-Colonel Avery has had a distinguished military career, serving as a staff officer in the Great War and subsequently holding the position of Quartermaster-General of the New Zealand Forces.