DEFENCE MILITIA

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21179, 28 October 1938, Page 6

DEFENCE MILITIA

Strength Increased THE COMMONWEALTH SEVEN THOUSAND MORE MEN SYDNEY, October 8. On the recommendation of its expert advisers the Federal Government has decided to increase the authorised personnel of the volunteer militia forces from 35,000 to 42,000 men. It is tentatively proposed that, as soon as possible after the milita units are raised to the new level, plans should be prepared for a further expansion. Announcing the decision, the Minister of Defence. Mr Thorby, said that a recruiting campaign to enrol the 7000 additional militiamen would probabljbe begun in about a fortnight. The Defence Department expected that the additional forces would be provided without difficulty. It was known that many men were waiting for an opportunity to enlist. In selecting the new recruits preference would be given to volunteers who had already been refused enlistment because the forces had reached establishment level. It was intended that the additional 7000 men should be taken into existing units. The strength of the militia forces was fixed at 35.000 men several years ago, largely because equipment and personnel available did not permit effective training of a larger establishment, and at that stage it was believed that available defence funds could be used more advantageously than on an immediate expansion of militia units That stage had now passed, and both equipment and personnel were available for training a greater number of men. Coastal Defence Exercises Defence exercises began at Port Stephens, north of Newcastle, yesterday and were continued to-day. About 4000 men were encamped in the Newcastle area, and at dawn yesterday they were rushed 60 miles to the coast in buses to repel an invading force under normal field conditions. Originally co-operation was planned with naval vessels, but it was decided to confine the exercises to army and air force units. Aeroplanes assisted both “attackers” and ‘ defenders.’’ In an effort to achieve realism, hessian targets represented boatloads of troops landing under fire from cruisers. The targets, after being towed several hundred yards from the beach, were gradually drawn inshore. All the latest engineering, radio, and signalling military devices w r ere used in the exercises.

At a meeting of the Southland County Council, Councillor A. S. McNaught, who has frequently complained of inadequate Press reports of the council meetings, was chaffed by his fellow councillors when he moved that part of the business be taken “in committee.’’ “This is contrary to ycur usual attitude toward the Press, is it not, Councillor McNaught?” asked Councillor W. M. Norman amid laughter. Later in the meeting Councillor McNaught was loudly applauded when he turned to the reporters and said: “I hope the Press will use their discretion and not take any notice of tuese remarks.”

As one of those responsible for founding the Taranaki Centre of the Cancer Campaign Society. Mr J. Maxwell Clarke, who on November 1 will take up his duties as chief of the division of surgery at the Auckland Hospital, made a study of cancer research work in the United States during his recent visit. Mr Clarke said he found well-organised efforts being made in America to educate the public and medical profession in the control of the disease. There was a Federal Cancer Control Society functioning, and in alliance with it were many similar State organisations. “Fight cancer with knowledge” was 'he slogan of one state organisation. That was. he thought, the keynote of the efforts being made in the United States, where the mortality from cancer is slightly higher than in New Zealand. A great amount of research work was being undertaken, but in America, as in the Dominion, reliance for effective treatment was placed upon surgery and radiation. The use of X-rays instead of radium was being extended. Mr Clarke found, and he was pleased to ndte that the new radiation plant recently installed at the New Plymouth Hospital was of as high a standard as the plants used in .he majority of United States hospita’s he visited.

“Far from the ‘almighty dollar’ occupying the thoughts of Americans utterly, I found in America more evidence of genuine philanthropy and of humanitarianism than in any other place I visited,” said Mr J. E. Strachan, principal of the Rangiora High School, who has returned after visiting the United States, Great Britain, and Europe. Mr Strachan visited these countries at the invitation of the Carnegie Institute. Educational institutions in America were an inspiration, he said, and were a lesson to the rest of the world.