MILITARY BOOKS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23869, 21 January 1941, Page 9

MILITARY BOOKS

NO SUPPLIES AVAILABLE ARTILLERY OFFICER'S BID £3 10/- FOR 1/6 MANUAL So keen is tlio demand for Army training manuals that no less than 10s was offered in Auckland yesterday for a small volume officially priced I at Is .(id. The potential buyer was an | artillery officer and the manual he I sought was "Artillery Training. Yolj ume 111., Organisation and Fquipment [of Artillery in War." The officer insisted he was serious in ; making what appears to be a ridiculous offer lor such a small-priced . and. at normal times, a commonplace Army manual. Books dealing with every arm of the services arc issued by the score by the War Office, and all are priced so as to bring them within reach even of the private soldier on low. peacetime rates of pay. Many are issued to officers and non-commissioned officers as part of their equipment. They contain i nothing that is secret and most large j booksellers carry them as ordinary : everv-dav stock.

Causes of Shortage Lack of interest in military affairs in New Zealand prior to t ho war led to a decline in the stocks of Army manuals held bv booksellers, nor did the Army itself hold sufficient even for the small forces then in being. As soon as the war broke out and the Expeditionary Force was formed, there was a rush ot orders, which could not be filled. This led to demands on e\->oldiers who might have even out-of-date numbers of the manuals. To make the few available copies go round, the services of commercial firms were enlisted, their I typists making a war duty of typing and mimeographing the chapters most [ in demand. It was expected that after the first rush the situation would be eased by the receipt of further supplies ot manuals from Kngland, but the demand there, with the rapidly expanding armies, has continued to exceed the output. Kvon unofficial text-books are almost- unprocurable, and one Auckland bookseller has a large waiting list for anything which may come to hand. Local Printing Suggested Inquiries yesterday revealed that the position so Jar from improving has become worse. Last June the Government Printer ran off 1000 copies of the Impounder gun drill, a pamphlet which should be in the hands ot every gunner in the Army, home and overseas. The issue was as a drop of water in the desert, and now officers of the artillery. at their own expense, are having copies typed for issue to their sergeants and bombardiers. From time to time the War Office issues training pamphlets embracing the latest ideas born of experience in this war. but the supply available in New Zealand is very scant. So scarce are they that when a territorial unit has completed its three months' eonI solidated training, the pamphlets are withdrawn from the officers for issue to the next lot to go into camp. In making an urgent plea that something should be done to overcome the I shortage of manuals, a group of I officers, who were supported by their ! non-commissioned officers, suggested that if the Government could not obtain the books it should arrange to have them printed in New Zealand. They asserted that in the Navy and the* Air Force there was no shortage, as those services arranged for local reprints of all pamphlets and manuals received from England.