SEA CADET MOVEMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23717, 26 January 1939, Page 12

SEA CADET MOVEMENT

WORK OF NAVY LEAGUE EXPLANATION BY EARL BEATTY EXTENSION IN DOMINION HOPED FOR (Special to Daily Times) AUCKLAND. Jan. 25. The aims and work of the Navy League’s sea cadet movement in Great Britain and other Empire countries were further explained in an interview by Earl Beatty, chairman of the league in England, who had expressed the hope in a speech on Tuesday that the movement would be widely extended in New Zealand. At present there are sea cadet corps at Christchurch and Dunedin, but they have so far received little publicity and their existence is almost unknown in other parts of the Dominion. “The sea cadets originated in 1910, when a number of voluntary organisations for the sea training of boys affiliated with the Navy League,” said Earl Beatty. Immediately after the Great War the Admiralty recognised the movement by annually inspecting the units and making small grants to those passed as efficient. It also loaned small-arms and co-operated in a number of other ways. Boys between the ages of 12 and 18 were eligible to become cadets. They received training in seamanship, boat-work, signalling, marksmanship, drill, swimming and gymnastics. Annual courses were held aboard the training ships and old warships or in coastal camps. The instruction turned the thoughts of many boys to sea careers in the navy or the 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 the physique of the 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 Great Britain and a corps had been formed also in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. In Great Britain they existed not only on the seaboard, but also in the great industrial centres and elsewhere inland. Distance from the sea made no difference at all to the boys’ keenness. A gift of £50,000 made by Lord Nuffield in October, 1937, had been of very great assistance, and in the past year about 20 new corps had been formed. Last Trafalgar Day a parade of 3000 cadets had been held in Trafalgar Square. Except for the small amount of monetary aid given the Admiralty movement depended entirely upon voluntary effort for the provision of uniforms, drill halls and others 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 work. „ , „ More sea cadet corps, Earl 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 general way by promoting physical fitness, discipline and healthy patriotism which expressed itself in the 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.