LAND FORCES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23796, 1 May 1939, Page 10

LAND FORCES

COMPARISON WITH 1914 SHORTAGE OF 17,000 MEN URGENT ACTION ESSENTIAL The conviction that in view of the state of the world to-day there was no case against universal military training in New Zealand was expressed by Lieutenant-Colonel J. G. Jeffery when speaking at the Artillery Ex-servicemen’s reunion in the Pioneer Hall on Saturday night. The land forces of the Dominion were to-day 17,000 men short of their 1914 strength, Colonel Jeffery said, and urgent and determined action to build up an efficient force was absolutely essential. Comparing the state of the land forces in March of this year with that in 1914, Lieutenant-Colonel Jeffery said that in 1914 the number of officers, including medical men but not padres was 1553, whereas in March last it was 1135 The reserve of officers in 1914 numbered 501 (370 this year), and other ranks totalled in 1914 25,241 (8551 this year). It would be seen, then, that the land forces to-day were about 17,000 short of the 1914 figure, and the equipment to-day was poorer than in 1914. “A force of 9000 men which the Government has until recently announced as sufficient was obviously too small,” Colonel Jeffery said, “so that the recent statement by the Prime Minister (Mr Savage) that a territorial force of 50,000 is to be built up is welcome news. The Prime Minister says he hopes to build up this force on a voluntary basis. Ideologies are all right in their place, but this is no time for experimenting, and I consider that urgent and determined action is at this possibly eleventh hour, vital. There is no case to-dav against universal training.” Colonel Jeffery said he was confident that the Prime Minister would find the people 100 per cent, behind any wholehearted measure he might introduce. Failure to face up to the situation might cost the country dearly.