STRENGTH OF HOME DEFENCE FORCES

Camp News (Northern Command), Volume 1, Issue 19, 6 September 1940, Page 5

STRENGTH OF HOME DEFENCE FORCES

If Dominion’s Shores Are / f Threatened ARMY OF 40,000 BEING BUILT UP ' “Our forces in New Zealand will do much to guard our shores.' Whoever tries to land on these coasts will know all about it. They will not have the success they may think,” said the Chief of the General Stall, Major-Genera l ! Sir John Duigan, when he addressed a. gathering of the military forces in Napier. “We shall fight them on the beaches and on the. hills, too, if need be,” he said, “and we shall continue to fight them as long as there is a fleet left on the sea.” General Duigan said the race had not deteriorated. During the last 14 days he had inspected 9000 men,. men of whom the country could be proud. The authorities were building up in New Zealand an army of more than 40,000 men on home defence, and they would always keep up their reinforcements overseas. He did not think New Zealand was in any great danger of invasion at present, but it was the unexpected that counted in warfare. He urged the men to make themselves thoroughly efficient while there was yet time. General Duigan inspected members of the First Hawke’s Bay Regiment and Napier members of the National Military Reserve in a parade which was held on Marine Parade and which was watched with interest by many residents of the town.