The Southland Times SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1942. Army Leadership

Southland Times, Issue 24681, 28 February 1942, Page 4

The Southland Times SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1942. Army Leadership

MAJOR-GENERAL O. H. Mead, whose appointment as officer commanding the land forces in Fiji has just been announced, is probably the best man available for the position in New Zealand. His record of service is impressive, and he is still comparatively young. But he lacks one qualification which should have been regarded as indispens-able-first-hand experience in the present war. The defence of Fiji is not a mere forihality. An attack on the island may occur at any time, and its safety is intimately connected with the safety of New Zealand. Its land forces should be under the command of a man who has learned to act and think in the terms of modern warfare. The methods of 1914-18 are not good enough, and it is madness to believe that a commanding officer can adjust himself to the new methods while actually resisting an enemy who is a master of unorthodox and daring tactics. General Mead might learn a lot about Axis strategy while he was defending Fiji; but his newly acquired experience would be dearly bought if it meant the loss of a vital position. These things have to be said, for they are in the minds of the people, and they would be in the mind of the Government if it were capable of profiting from the plainest lessons of the war.

It may be argued that if the new commanding officer is the best man available in New Zealand there is no point in looking beyond him. But the Minister of Defence revealed a neglected opportunity when he announced that a number of officers in the 2nd N.Z.E.F. (including some of senior rank) are to be brought back from Libya to act as instructors. Surely there are senior officers amongst them who are worthy of rapid promotion. It would be easy to name men who have proved themselves to be born soldiers, learning in action to use the latest instruments and stratagems of mechanized warfare. They are needed today in New Zealand and Fiji—not merely as instructors, but in the highest places of command. They would bring to their new responsibilities a knowledge and vision that would inspire an immediate confidence in the troops and the civil population. Moreover, they would look to the essentials of defence. Official clumsiness and orthodoxy would be swept aside. There would be more imagination, more thrust and realism in preparations made strictly in accordance with lessons assimilated in Greece, Crete and Libya. The defence of New Zealand and Fiji has become the major part of the Dominion’s war effort. It should be in the hands of men who come straight from the Dominion’s best school for leadership—the fighting units of the 2nd N.Z.E.F.