THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1941 THE MEN IN CAMP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23861, 11 January 1941, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1941 THE MEN IN CAMP

During the past week a new year of military training has been initiated throughout the Dominion. The final draft of recruits, together with others drawn in the first ballot for overseas service, have entered camp for training with the Fifth Reinforcements, while during the last | day or so hundreds of men, drafted Ito newly-formed Territorial units, have left to commence their three months of intensive training. The military organisation behind all | these movements has functioned smoothly and the Dominion enters the new year with the employment, of manpower for defence purposes on a much higher standard than seemed possible 12 months ago. In the interval the voluntary system of enlistment, both for overseas service and for home defence, has been replaced by the more democratic procedure of the ballot, providing for the controlled intake of men into the Army in accordance with family responsibilities. Reasonable provision is also made for the postponement of service on grounds of individual hardship or in cases where the national interest might be prejudiced by a man leaving an essential civilian occupation. Thus the entire military system develops from an insistence by the State that service for defence is a national responsibility which must be nationally shared. Even at this early stage it is safe to predict that New Zealand will not suffer from the application of this basic conception of democratic duty. The men who have entered camp this week should not be regarded as conscripts in the sense that the use of this word conveys to some minds a suggestion of opprobrium. The balloted soldiers of 1941 are deserving of just as much public re spect and gratitude as the volunteers of 1940. Not all young men were in a position to enlist in the early months of war : many of them, indeed, were keenly conscious of the unfairness of a system which left an acceptance of duty to the choice of the individual. They have greeted the ballot cheerfully, as was only to be expected from the force of public opinion which was responsible for its adoption ; and now, as. the men settle down to army life, • in Territorial camps and in training j centres for the Expeditionary Force j reinforcements, we can expect a! manifestation of the true democratic! spirit. As civilians change into | soldiers, they will react to that j sense of fraternity and mutual j understanding produced by the en-: forced intermingling of all classes! m a common service for the common I good. The needs of national defence will be served and at the same time it is not too much to hope that the comradeship of the camps will j spread to civilian life. The enthusi- j asm with which the new Territorials boarded their troop trains in | Auckland was proof of the high j corporate spirit which the military! tradition engenders and of the firm sense of responsibility awakened in the men themselves. This is an influence which the country must cherish in the vears to come.

The full military programme for the year has not been announced, but, in view of the fact that training requirements may have to be adapted to changing circumstances, that is only natural. Meanwhile the gratifying improvement in the vital sphere of home defence is to be maintained and at the end of the next three months the Dominion's Territorial Army will be stronger and better trained than it has ever been before. But mere weight of numbers and the military standards attained as a result of extended instruction cannot justify any easing off in subsequent activities. The ranks of the will be progressively thinned as men are called up for service overseas and, while the ballot will provide replacements, |it is essential that unit efficiency as well as individual efficiency should he maintained. Territorials will have plenty of work to do in the months ahead and, although the New Zealand Expeditionary. Force will hold pride of place in the public regard, there should still be room for generous recognition of services provided in home defence. I Such recognition should also be exI tended to the ex-servicemen of the | National Military Reserve whose | keenness has been an object lesson I to the younger generation and whose work has suffered no decline in importance. Another point to remember is that the men in camp have been withdrawn from industry because of the country's urgent' need. A responsibility rests with all! those who remain in ordinary i civilian undertakings to ensure that! a loss in industrial manpower is off- ; set by fresh industrial energy spring-1 ing from a national will to work. i