DEFENCE POLICY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26749, 19 April 1948, Page 8

DEFENCE POLICY

SECOND N.Z.E.F. MEMBERS’ SUPPORT MODERN VIEW COMMENDED Observing that ex-servicemen had been quoted as critical of the Government’s defence policy because it omitted universal military training, the Dominion Executive of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. Association, in a statement, “congratulates the Government on its. realist approach and its avoidance of the reintroduction of military training methods inevitably out-dated and with weapons already obsolescent. “ Kiwis, having known modern war at first-hand, support the Government in its all-important emphasis upon the function of a Defence Science Advisory Committee, whose recommendations must determine the basis of training required of defence forces,” the statement continues. “ Methods of recruitment for the territorial force are to be announced later, when regular personnel have been trained and are available for this work. That clearly puts first things first. If the principle of conscription has been accepted by this country, all that remains is definition of the compulsory citizen training envisaged. “ Small arms and artillery training, ‘ square-bashing,’ and the whole rigmarole of the past cannot be regarded as relevant to atomic war. We do not want the old territorial system reintroduced. We were told to ‘ forget all that stuff ’ when we enlisted in 1939-40. Methods of scientific warfare make any such revival ludicrous,” the statement adds.