TERRITORIAL FORCES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 441, 5 December 1930, Page 6

TERRITORIAL FORCES

UNITS “WIPED OUT”? FEARS FOR DOMINION DEFENCE. STRONG WANGANUI .VIEWS Retrenchments in the Defence Do partnicut are forecasted aud the Minister of Defence has refused to confirm or deny the rumour. As one man who is prominently connected with territorial affairs in Wanganui yesterday put it to a “Chronicle” reporter, “the axe is expected to fall on December 10. next Wednesday.” When interviewed by the reporter, several who have been prominently connected with territorial work, all admitted that there was need for economy in the country, but expressed their extreme regret that units, with great records extending back through many years, should be “wiped out.” The curtailment of expenses with regard to the Defence JJbepartment in the Dominion has, within the year, been advanced by stages. The latest development wae the announcement by the Minister that the volunteer camps would not be held. That, the reporter was told, was a serious blow to the system. The camps would have been well attended, and would have been an objective to work for throughout the year. It would have been but a skeleton force, but tho view was expressed that such a body would have provided the backbone anl lhe instructors for an efficient and quickly developed force. The expected development is regarded in a very serious vein. The End of Their Unite. “It looks as if Mr Cobbe and thos® with him want to kill it altogether,” was one man’s outspoken comment on the position. All regarded it a.« a fatal blow to territorial training, and as th® end of their units. The volunteer camps would have provided the means of keeping enthusiasm alive and would have given those interested the opportunity to brush up their military knowledge. Where the Blow T ■’y Land. The curtailment of staff is expected to affect about half of the permanent staff. One man pointed out that there were a number of men at the ordnance depots. These men administer th® stores and are in charge of the buildings. If the camps are to be no more, their services in that direction will thus not be required. It is in that section that the biggest hit is expected. It was pointed ouu that in the Finance Act of this year there was a clause that provided for the compulsory retirement of members of the staff who had five years to go before they reached the usual retiring age. These men would receive a pension of the amount that they would have received had they retired at the usual age. That clause was a straw in the wind.

“Nobody wanted the job, because they knew what they were going to do,” remarked one man. in referring to the portfolio of the Minister of Defence. I'hc United Party was certainly carrying out a reduction in expenditure, and was keeping in with their labour friends as well, was a comment.

“Retaining Labour Support.” “It would appear that no-one wanted the job, because the defence of the country was to bo sacrificed to retain the support of Labour, and apparently it did not matter who took the job,” said another. The following is an extract from a book “War is War,” by ex-Private X, an English temporary army soldier, which is most appropriate at this stage,” he said. “The author was not a soldier until he joined up and apparently never wanted to be one. Ho detested war and all soldiering, but wrote: I. hate party politics and I hate all parties fairly indiscriminately, but I am bound to hand it to the Conservatives. If their policy of compulsory Territorial service for all men of a suitable age had been adopted prior to 1914 there would have been no war. And what happened! The Liberal adherents backed by the small but noisy band of red flag-waggers screamed with wrath at the idea of the country spending a few extra hundred thousand* a year, and raged with fury at the thought of young Alt and young Bert wasting their their time at drill when they might be at the cinema or the rollerskating rink. “Well, they had their way, and Jived to see the spending of six or seven million pounds a day, while poor Alf and Bert died in the shambles which their lathers had prepared for them. “We had to thank the muddle-headed old men for all this colossal waste of lives and money—the old men who seemed even now so pleased with themselves. Yet we arc all human and fallible. It may be that we of that generation shall some day, in the folly of our age, light the torch which shall illumine the steps of our own children to untimely death.” “Let the old men of this generation not feel so pleased with themselves,” remarked the informant, “but see that the young ‘Alfs’ and ‘Berts’ spend some of their spare time in training, and thus make some safeguard against the wholesale slaughter of the innocents. the children and the grandchildren of the same self-satisfied old man.”