HOME GUARD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24592, 28 April 1941, Page 4

HOME GUARD

THE OBJECTIVE ATTAINED

WORK OF WOMEN’S AUXILIARY

(P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Apl. 26. New Zealand now has the 100,000 Home Guardsmen, the figure set as the original aim when the campaign was inaugurated five months ago by the Minister of National Service, Mr R. Semple. The Minister said , to : day that the organisation would continue to take all the men who volunteered. He was most impressed with the remarkable enthusiasm of the men. After referring to the work of the women’s organisations and the emergency precautions scheme, Mr Semple said: “ New Zealand is organised today as it has never been before in its history. There is, of course, still a lot of finishing work to be done. For instance, the men of the Home Guard have yet to receive their equipment. but preparations to that end are in hand. The Women’s Auxiliary wib work in with both the Home Guard and the emergency precautions scheme, and many channels of activity are now open to women; so that they may ease the strain on man-power very materially. In Britain women are doing many kinds of jobs to ease the strain, and are doing them with the highest degree of efficiency. What the women of Britain can do, the girls of this country can and will do equally well." NEED FOR MORE MEN APPEAL BY HIiTEXCELLENCY (PA) AUCKLAND, Apl. 27. While stating that there had been a wonderful response, especially in tne country districts, to the appeal for volunteers for the Home Guard, the Governor-General, Sir Cyril Newall, when addressing a Home Guard parade at the Domain, said the total Dominion enrolment of about 100,TOO men was not enough. The war, which had been far away, had come much nearer m the past few months, and the Empire W His in Exc o e?i a e r nc y y told the guardsmen that they were training themselves to become fit to carry out a most important work for the defence of their country. He had seen the Home Guard in action in England, and it had don wonderful work. Now, it was recognised as an essential part of the defence of the Motherland. The guardsmen in Britain had taken over many duties which would otherwise have to be performed by regular, soldiers, and thus thousands of men had been released for active semce. Should the invasion of England be attempted, the Home Guard would play a vitally important part and the of the guardsmen would oe ox mes timable value. , His Excellency said he knew that the present shortage of equipment made things difficult, but he als P k uew that the guardsmen would realise that the first two lines of defence \vould have to be equipped first. lam glad to see a number of ex-servicemen on parade, but there are a lot more who are not in the Home Guard, his Excellency said. The experience of such men was invaluable. Those who were too young for the last war and too old for this also had a wonderful chance of service. “It is no use waiting for an attack to arrive,” Sir Cyril added. 'All the available men should start training and do their bit now.”

SERVICE RIFLES NOTICE OF IMPRESSMENT (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Apl. 26. The Government has decided to taice steps to obtain possession of all pri-vately-owned .303 rifles or parts thereof, and an iiripressment order under the Emergency Reserve Corps Regulations will be gazetted immediately. Making this announcement. to-day, the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, pointed out that there were now at least 100,000 men in the Home Guard, and ing of this large force was a difficult task. It was, therefore, imperative that every rifle in the country should be made available to ensure that the Home Guard was adequately trained and equipped to meet any situation that might arise. The impressment order would cover all privately-owned .303 rifles of all makes, and unserviceable rifles of this calibre should also be handed in, as it was quite -possible that thev might be repaired. Provision would be made granting persons who could satisfy the Minister that they urgently required their rifles permission to retain them until further notice. AIL rifles impressed would be held on loan, and would be returned in good order or replaced. Mr Fraser urged all who had .303 rifles in their possession to take them to the nearest police station without delay. FIELD EXERCISES MANOEUVRES ON PENINSULA Intensive field exercises were carried out on the Otago Peninsula yesterday by a section of the Ist Battalion of the Home Guard, when C Company combined with units from Macandrew Bay, Broad Bay, and Portobello to coyer the ground which it will be required to defend in the event of an attack by an enemy force. . . , The manoeuvres, which occupied the whole day, were designed to give the men a thorough knowledge of the defence possibilities of the locality, as well as practice in attack against an enemy wnich had made a dawn landing on a beach. Rearguard actions were also undertaken, and one exercise comprised an attack on a narrow front against the flank of a moving enemy force. * Valuable experience was gained by the meh, who were under the command of Lieutenant C. H. McDonald and Lieutenant F. V. Bayne, and satisfaction with the exercises carried out was expressed by Major J. Robertson and Lieutenant F. B. Adams, area officer, who paid a visit of inspection. Before the manoeuvres were started a short service was conducted by the Rev. James Linton, Presbyterian minister of Portobello. .