DOMINION DEFENCE

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XLIX, Issue 9592, 24 August 1949, Page 2

DOMINION DEFENCE

COMPULSORY TRAINING PLANS OFFICERS AND N.C.O.’S BEST MATERIAL SOUGHT It is a military axiom that the effectiveness of an army depends upon the efficiency *of its officers and n c.o.'s. It requires lengthy periods of* training, particularly in the handling of troops, to produce that efficiency, and the higher the officer the longer the period necessary. In view of the early resumption of compulsory military training in this country, consequent upon the approval given by the referendum, it is reassuring to note that preparations have been going forward for a considrable time past, and that these are now being intensified. During the past 18 months, states the Minister of-Defence, Mr Jones, an extensive series of courses has been conducted at the Army schools to train members of the Regular Force for the tasks that will fall to them under the new scheme. These courses have been conducted by officers with years of experience in active campaigning and who have been kept up to date with the latest post-war developments. The new recruits thus have the assurance that they will be instructed to some purpose during their initial 14 weeks’ period of training—and they will be fortunate, too, in the fact that when they are posted to their Territorial units tliey will be under war-experienced officers and n.c.o.’s who have patriotically volunteered for service. In the Territorials they will receive for three years a fortnight’s training in camp each year and will be required to attend six daylight parades yearly. Then they will be posted to the reserve. Still greater accessions, however, are needed for the Regular Forpe, and now that better opportunities are being offered for promotion, these doubtless will be forthcoming.

The measure of success attainable under the scheme depends not only upon the administrative and training staffs, but also upon the trainees themselves. Self-interest alone dictates that they should be prepared to defend their country and all that has been won for them; they, in their turn, 'will in due time have wives and children to safeguard, rights and privileges to pass on; and they will have great traditions to live up to in the examples set by. the two preceding generations. They will be bettec off, too, than their fathers and grandfathers were, inasmuch that they will be given fuller and better instruction. With this great advantage, plus the best medical supervision and camp conditions, they should learn quickly, benefit physically, and develop a greater sense of responsibility to their country at the most formative period of their lives. Properly conducted, as there is no doubt it will be, the new system of compulsory military training about to be introduced should tfrove of immense value ip developing the future stamina and character of the nation, while at the same time Jt will ensure that New Zealand will always play its full part in its own defence and that of the Commonwealth and the United Nations whose mission is peace and the progress of mankind.