WAR EFFORT OF BRITAIN.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 December 1939, Page 4

WAR EFFORT OF BRITAIN.

JJRITAIN’S effort in the present war is of an outstanding nature. Already she has 300,000 men in France, and 1,000,000 more under intensive training at home. It may well be asked bow Britain can produce officers and men to train such numbers of recruits at short notice, considering that at peace time she does not maintain a great standing army. The system of service in Ihe British Army in peace time provides the answer. Men serve for 10 or 12 years, and then go on to the Reserve, and are available to be called up in war tn form the nucleus of non-commissioned officers and men to train and leaven the newcomers. Britain had no less than half a million of professional soldiers and trained reservists when war broke out. ft is interesting to note, as an indication of the degree of the mechanisation of a modern army, that the British Army in France has taken with it 30,000 vehicles and 1,000 tons ol spare parts. It is largely upon Britain’s strength at sea ami the hardihood of British seamen that ultimate success in the struggle against Germany will depend. The regular service personnel of the Navy—l3o,ooo men —has been supplemented by many tens of thousands of reservists, Further expansion will be met by men called up under the National Service Act at the rale of 50,000 a year, so that the total personnel at the end of the first year will probably be a quarter of a million men. The number of anti-submarine and patrol craft has trebled since the beginning of hostilities. It is in the Air Force that the most striking developments have taken place. In the first fortnight of the war alone no fewer than 10,000 men were accepted for service as pilots, crews and maintenance personnel, and there is a long waiting list of men of the highest qualify who will be accepted as expansion proceeds. New Zealand has trained a large number of airmen during the past few weeks and the deeds of New Zealanders in the Royal Air Force in the war show that Ihe Dominion can produce the right type of air fighter. More than one Masterton airman has already distinguished himself in the present war.