DEFENCE OF NEW ZEALAND

Southland Times, Issue 24533, 6 September 1941, Page 6

DEFENCE OF NEW ZEALAND

SIR GUY WILLIAMS’S TOUR INVERCARGILL' VISIT “While I have been in New Zealand I have probably seen a good deal more of the country than many New Zealanders. I have also seen it from more than one angle because in my job it is necessary that I should have a view of the countryside from the air as well as from the ground,” said LieutenantGeneral Sir Guy Williams, military adviser to the New Zealand Government, who arived in Invercargill yesterday in the course of a tour of the country. “Today,” Sir Guy continued, “I flew from Greymouth to Invercargill and had a fine trip down the West Coast and over the sounds district. I had an excellent view of the country. I could not have chosen a better day for the journey. I have now been to nearly all the places of military importance in the Dominion and everyone has been most helpful in placing the necessary means of travel at my disposal.” Sir Guy has also seen men of all units of the defence forces of New Zealand, the Expeditionary Force, the territorials, the National Military Reserve and the Home Guard. He said that the men in all these units were of the same calibre as the men in similar units at Home. For example, the young soldier in the New Zealand forces was much the same as the young soldier in the Imperial Army in the readiness with which he learned to handle the mechanical equipment of a modern army. THE HOME GUARD There has been a good deal of criticism in New Zealand about the lack of equipment for the Home Guard, but Sir Guy said that in the Old Country the Home Guard was also poorly equipped at the start. “The men who were armed only had shotguns,” he said, “and some were also provided with bottles of petrol. That was for throwing at tanks. The Home Guard in the Old Country is now adequately equipped, though not, perhaps, fully equipped. The Guard is, of course, composed of men who are engaged in ordinary civilian occupations and who give as much of their spare time as possible to serving in the Guard. The Guardsmen form a citizens’ army. Their maintenance is not a worry to the authorities and their job is to fight, if it comes to that, near their own homes in country that they know thoroughly. The Guard is part of the defence forces of Britain and is under the control of the Army. “In New Zealand the Home Guard is also part of the defence forces of the country and for that reason I am glad that the recommendation that it should be placed under the control of the Army has been adopted. The. recent reorganization of the Guard is designed to make it a more effective defence unit.” MIGRATION AFTER THE WAR When Sir Guy was asked for his impressions of New Zealand he replied by asking another question: “What prospects does New Zealand offer to a young man?” “That,” he said, “is a question that I am sure to be asked when I return to England, and I am also sure that a lot of Englishmen will want to come out to New Zealand after the war. Would you advise a young man who has some capital, who wants to lead an outdoor life and who is not afraid of hard work to come out to New Zealand?” Sir Guy showed that he was keenly interested in this question of future emigration from the Old Country to New Zealand by asking a number of questions about farming and labour conditions in the Dominion. In the course of the discussion that followed he said he realized that mere possession of capital was not sufficient to ensure success at fanning, and added that he would certainly advise any young man coming out here to learn all he could of New Zealand farming methods before investing his capital in a farm.