NEW ARMY OFFICERS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 192, 29 July 1940, Page 3

NEW ARMY OFFICERS

LONGER TRAINING The fact that future non-com-missioned officers for the Second New . Zealand Expeditionary Force will receive three months' training . and officers and those selected to be , granted commissions five months' . preliminary training is mentioned in the annual report presented to ! Parliament by the Chief of the General Staff, Major General Sir . John Duigan. , The longer training of officers it is stated is dictated by the fact that most of the officers of the Territorial Force who are eligible as re- ! gards age and medical fitness have already joined the Expeditionary Force, with the result that officers for future drafts will be composed very largely of newly-commission-ed officers, who would be reinforcements for formed units overseas. Their comparative inexperience ; would not be a disability. By way of contrast, it is pointed out in the report that owing to the necessity of rapid concentration of the First Echelon its officers and non-commissioned officers received only one month's prior training. In the case of the Second and Third Echelons the officers and non-com-missioned officers had at least two months' preliminary training. The districts schools at Narrow Neck, Trentham and Burnham had since thf outbreak of Avar been used chiefly for the training of officers and non-commissioned officers and specialists of the Expeditionar}' Force. Improvements to the buildings had resulted in accommodation at the schools for a total of 1730 of all ranks.