ARMY TRAINING IN SCHOOLS

Southland Times, Issue 23342, 28 October 1937, Page 6

ARMY TRAINING IN SCHOOLS

MR HARGEST URGES SPECIALIZATION

CRITICISM OF ABOLITION OF UNITS (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, October 27. The decision of the Minister of Defence (the Hon. F. Jones) to abolish specialist training units in secondary school military cadet companies was criticized by Mr J. Hargest (Nat., Awarua) during the debate on the Army Board Bill in the House of Representatives today. “I do not know why the Minister has abolished these units,” Mr Hargest said. “I have always felt that the average secondary school boy would benefit more from that sort of training—getting behind a field gun or a machine-gun and getting interested in the mechanical side of his training—than in shouldering arms and forming fours. “I think the Minister must agree that his excuse is weak—that boys who undertook that sort of training did not go into the infantry afterwards. Of course they do not go into the infantry, but they join othei - units where their special training is valuable. “If ever we had mobilization in this country it would be these men with specialist training who would be needed. It is this type of work which is needed to encourage military training. If we could get the school boy interested in that training we would certainly be getting him for a few years as a territorial recruit.”

ABOLITION SOUGHT

EFFECT ON MINDS OF YOUNG PERSONS

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, October 27.

“I would like to see military training in the secondary schools abolished altogether,” said Mr T. H. McCombs (Lab., Lyttelton) during the debate on the Army Board Bill in the House of Representatives today. “I have possibly had more experience of this training in secondary schools than any other speaker on the point,” Mr McCombs said. “I feel that the military training in secondary schools is such as to inculcate in the minds of young people the idea that war is a desirable thing. In various countries throughout the world certain forms of war propaganda are indulged in and one of the forms is this training in schools. I would like to see military training in schools abolished altogether.” An Opposition member: Are you a pacifist? “For defence motives I would like to see this training go,” said Mr McCombs. “For staffing the defence forces we need physically fit men and I feel that far too little time is spent in physical training in secondary schools. The physically fit boy is a potentially fit defender of New Zealand. I feel that a school boy would be more fit if he spent less time on muscle-stultifying exercises like formfours, which are devised by a sergeant and more on real physical exercises.” Mr McCombs argued that if specialist training was left until after school years it would provide an incentive to further recruitments for the forces, whereas at the moment the school specialist training was destroying that incentive.