HOME GUARD

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21220, 17 September 1940, Page 7

HOME GUARD

(To the Editor) Sir, —:“Ajax” in the Times of September 13 tells us about what the Minister of National Service said to his Hamilton audience. “We in New Zealand would meet the situation by forming a Home Guard ... of course it would be non-political and no electioneering stunts would be permitted from the head down. The existing local bodies, he said, were the right people to handle such an I organisation. . . j Well, “Ajax” wants some more deI tail, and here are some extracts from | the regulations: “. . in the exercise oi ' any powers or functions . . . every 1 local authority, organisation, committee, sub-committee and person shall act in accordance with all directions . . . given by the Minister .. . The Minister . . . may require . . . any organisation (other than the

Home Guard) to discontinue . . . activities . . . The Home Guard shall assist ... by providing guards, pickets, patrols, sentries and coast watchers ... by any other means approved by the Minister . . . All commanders . . . below the rank of area commander (i.e., company and platoon commanders) shall be appointed on the recommendation of the committee of the locality . . .

consisting of such persons as may be agreed upon by the local authorities, sc as to ensure, as far as may be, adequate representation of all authorities, bodies, associations and organisations interested in or affected by the organisation of the Home Guard. . . Each committee shall be responsible for . . . selection of members of the Home Guard . . . recommendation of members ... as commanders. . . Every person . . . upon being selected shall be attested by making the declaration and swearing the oath of allegiance. . . Upon being attested . . . every member . . . shall at all times obey the orders and instructions of all commanders and other officers set over him. . . Every member . . . shall remain a member . . . until he is discharged.” Is this not a time when those of us who have previously offered our all in the Empire’s struggles against the forces of evil, and are ready to do it again, should overlook these bothersome technicalities? Cannot those who have, for months past, built up local defence organisations, forgive those who now “steal our thunder”?

For further enlightenment read the front page of the Standard (August 22), which claims to be the “official organ of the N.Z. Labour Movement.” It offers the following extracts: “ Why workers should join the Home Guard. . . Trade unionists should not miss their opportunity. . . It brings into being an organisation which will conceivably embrace the greater part of the male civilian population, and that is a matter of tremendous significance. . . It is essential that the workers should be members . . . from the beginning, so that they may have the opportunity of attaining positions of command. . . The opportunity is there for the trade unionists. . . Only Socialism and trade union organisation can meet dictatorship organisation. . .”—I am, etc;, ACHILLES.