THE DEFENCE FORCE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 12465, 26 May 1911, Page 6

THE DEFENCE FORCE.

(Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The Acting-Minister of Defence, Hon. G. Fowlds, said to a Post reporter this morning: There seems to be an impression that the. Defence Department or the Government is encouraging the formation of denominational companies. That is not so. The idea started originally with the concession that boy scout units to be allowed. From that it has "spread to various organisations and churches, suggesting that they may have similar units amongst their own people m senior cadets. The fact is that we have not m any way encouraged the idea, and under any circumstances the officers of such companies could not be appointed by the. organisation or church, but must m every case be appointed by the Defenqe Department. *The Minister added that such companies could only be for senior cadets m large towns. The conditions of the defence scheme were primarily geographical, and the force is territorial

for territorials. Any idea of denominational organsiation was quite impossible and had never been entertained for a moment by the Department. Recruits will be drafted into one of the existing companies, which arje not now, and cannot m future, be m any sense denominational.