TO KEEP REGIMENT ALIVE

Taranaki Daily News, 23 July 1930, Page 2

TO KEEP REGIMENT ALIVE

VOLUNTEERS AT AUCKLAND. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, July 22. Twenty-five officers and over 30 noncommissioned officers of the Auckland Regiment volunteered at a meeting 7 to keep the name of the regiment alive while the Government’s defence retrenchment scheme is in force. Licut.Colonel T. H. Dawson (officer, commanding the regiment), who presided, expressed his regret that no proper opportunity had been given the officers and men to meet in a final parade. If the officers and non-commissioned officers would keep things going for 12 months, perhaps less, there would then be leaders capable of taking over whatever form of training was instituted. Advanced training could be done in subjects for which there was little time in the past, and there was a prospect of a six-days’ camp for a limited number. Lieut.-CoJonel Dawson said that everything depended on an official statement in Parliament. If it was arranged that the Territorials would be abolished without reserve, he was afraid that any attempt to form a volunteer unit would be futile. If, on the other hand, some scheme was put forward by which the regiment could be continued, it would not lack either old members or recruits.