ARMY CADET TRAINING

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24294, 8 June 1942, Page 2

ARMY CADET TRAINING

Bitter experience in the present war backs the piea made by Mr. G. A. Walsh at the Waikato Farmers' Union for the restoration of compulsory military training in schools, with especial emphasis on musketry. The almost total neglect of military training by the present and previous Governments meant that the New Zealand defence forces had to start from scratch in September, 1939. It is a crowning mercy that we were not caught on that back mark, as we would have been had Japan joined the Axis two years before she did. Most of our men of military age would have been unible to handle a rifle. In any case )nly a small proportion could have 3een armed. Never again must New Zealand be found unprepared and lelpless. She can remember with >ride how in the last war the Terri;orials proved the mainstay of the and the cadets provided •egular drafts for the Territorials. s T ew Zealand must never again allow hat tried and proved system to apse. The training at school was in integral and essential part of it. t should again be made cornpulory and organised as a serious conribution to a complete system. Throughout the last war the cadet ores was maintained at an average

strength of 26,000, a useful pool for filling Territorial ranks, which in turn reinforced the N.Z.E.F. By the formation of the Air Training Corps last year, the R.N.Z.A.F. has shown a wise appreciation of the value of early training. The Array should not be backward. It cannot afford to allow the brightest and keenest lads to gravitate toward the Air Force through the attraction of the new corps. It, too, should turn to the youth of the Bchools with authority to make efficient training compulsory.