NO CAMPS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 17780, 31 January 1920, Page 5

NO CAMPS.

THIS YEAR’S TERRITORIAL TRAINING. QUESTIONS OF POLICY. Defence Headquarters has decided that Territorial camps shall not be held this year. The camps were last held in 1918, in the face of considerable difficulties owing to the shortage of staff and equipment. They were cancelled last year owing partly to the absence of many members of the training staff with the Expeditionary Force, and partly to the Government’s wish to avoid interfering further with industry at a time when tens of thousands of men were still away from New Zealand. It is stated that the abandonment of the camps this year is due to shortage of equipment, and to the fact that the reconstitution of the Staff Corps and the Permanent Staff has not yet been completed. The Department is concentrating attention at present on the training of officers and non-commiSßioned officers of the Permanent, Territorial, and Cadet Forces. Another and an important factor in securing the cancellation of the camps this year is the unsettled condition of defence policy. The Territorial system as it existed before the was is held in military circles to have proved its value, but some amendments and improvements are certain to be made. Questions of organisation and administration have been considered lately by the military experts, whose recommendations will require eventually to be confirmed by the Government. The future strength of the New Zealand Forces is one of the questions that will come np for settlement when the Government considers defence policy.