FREEHOLD WANTED

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXI, Issue 8839, 2 November 1942, Page 4

FREEHOLD WANTED

LAND FOR THE SOLDIERS FUTURE REHABILITATION MR SUTHERLAND’S OPINION Speaking on the Finance Bill before the House last week, Mr A. S. Sutherland, M.P. for Hauraki, made a plea for considerate and sympathetic treatment for returned soldiers. - Mr. Sutherland said that he was pleased to note that Mr E. Cullen, M.P. for Hawke’s Bay, and chairman of the Land Committee on the Rehabilitation ‘Board, told the House that the board was profiting by the successes as well as failures of the last rehabilitation scheme. Mr Sutherland claimed that much could be gained by a study of the last scheme. “Our boys who are away fighting for freedom should be given the freedom of their farms and houses on their return. They should not be settled under the Small Farm Scheme. The scheme, which was set up to help to cure, unemployment, gives ’ only a leasehold tenure,” said Mr Sutherland.

Even at this date Mr Sutherland urged the Government to give the right of freehold to returned men. The Returned Services Association favoured the freehold system. The recent reduction in interest rates announced by the Prime Minister would be greatly appreciated. Mr Sutherland thought that many men without primary production experience would want to go on the land when they returned. These men should be given an opportunity to learn up-to-date farming methods and then if they still wanted to go on the land, they could be allotted a section.

Care should be taken by the boards to see that local committees selected men of proven ability. The special training factories fitted up to teach returned men trades and assistance offered in other directions would all be helpful in rehabilitating our men.

The Returned Services Association is taking a great interest in ‘ all these schemes and Mr Sutherland said he felt they will be very helpful. and aerial warfare and-the performance of American tanks, aircraft, motor vehicles and other equipment.

Importance of Artillery

The High Command also seems to understand the vital importance of good artillery and plenty of it. Tanks themselves are field artillery, highly mobile and protected. But they" must be supplemented by accurate, quickfiring highly mobile field guns of as heavy calibre and long range as the factor of high mobility will permit. Insufficiency of artillery was one cause of the British defeat in Libya last winter and must have been a factor in,'the June defeats. The Gorman system is to calculate how much artillery is needed theoretically for a given operation and then, if possible, provide four times that amount. There simply cannot be too much artillery in tank warfare. Even though air power has reached an importance far beyond what it held in the last war, the decision of land battle is still made mainly on land, and the orders which win or lost land battles must come from the ground commander. The bombers, the ground-strafing aeroplanes, the observation aeroplanes, and all the other aircraft which can help the ground forces to win, are still auxiliaries to the ground forces. Panzer warfare calls for tanks, artillery, motorised infantry, air support, and, at times, naval support, all integrated and employed with the fine, fast coordination of a championship football team. Our armoured force commanders know this. And they know that the aggressive spirit is the very soul of successful armoured warfare.