NEARLY A SCANDAL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 171, 10 June 1940, Page 2

NEARLY A SCANDAL

| TERRITORIAL FORCE IN | ROTORUA I COMPARISONS MADE "The position of the Territorials in Rotorua is pretty nearly a scandal." asserted Staff-Sergeant T. Page of the Rotorua Defence Office, Swhen addressing the 'Rotary Club at the weekly luncheon. In open- | ing his address he pointed out that 1 the opinions expressed were purely I personal, the result of observation I since being stationed in the district. ! Later he said that he did not wish to convey the impression that the town was not patriotic. It had supplied more than its quota for the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force and had a good muster of National Reservists. It was in the Territorials that a sad position obtained. District Representation. i In paying a tribute to those Territorials who paraded week after I week with no encouragement from the townspeople, the staff sergeant mentioned that one of them travelled 28 miles every week for a parade lasting one and a half hours,, while another came 12 miles. Several at Edgecumbe travelled between 12 and 26 miles. Comparing the effort made in Rotorua with that in Oither centres, I he stated that there was a platoon 1 of infantry at Edgecumbe and a I troop of mounted rifles at Awakeri. 1 whereas in Rotorua there was not enough to make one platoon and there were only' eight mounted rifles;. Whakatane mustered more v | than Rotorua and Opoitiki even ! more than Whakatane.