HOME GUARD AND E.P.S.

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 195, 19 December 1941, Page 4

HOME GUARD AND E.P.S.

IF there was ever a time when urgent and effective action was required to cope with a possible national emergency that time is surely with us now. Day by day the situation grows graver overseas in the Eastern Pacific. The Japanese grip upon the Malay Peninsula is tightening: the town of Hongkong is closely invested. These must be without argument the gravest days in history for all the countries in the Pacific ocean. They demand speedy and if necessary,, drastic, remedies to meet the new situation which has arisen. Yet, what have we noted (apart from the paralysing legislation which deprived the country at one blow, of the use of petrol) of any real official action to create the full and complete personnel required by both the Home Guard and the E.P.S. Both are vital services, upon which great responsibilities will devolve in the event of emergency ever rea.ching these shores; both services are short of men; both are striving without cohesion or co-operation one with the other to build up staffs and units to the re> quisite strength; both are self contained and are more or less a law unto themselves; yet both would be required in the event of a genuine test, to work in the closest collaboration with each other. Only f in this manner could effect tive and orderly defence and civil evacuation be carried out simultaneously. The time is surely ripe for an overhaul which will link the two organisations and make them twin. To do so it would be necessary (a) to .compulsorily enlist all available men and women for training in some type of service necessary for the defence of the country, (b) to divert all able-bodied men to the armed forces (Home Guard), (c) to appoint all others capable of accepting responsibility to the E.P.S. and (d) to have both bodies unified under a single control composed of representative officers,, or liason officials one with the other. To our minds this would be a practical and fair method of meeting the position which is a,t present far from satisfactory. Every man would, thus be given a job of work to do, while the petty arguments arising over the appropriation of men from the Home Guard for the E.P.S. and vice versa would be eliminated. The scheme is simple and could be put into operation at once if the Government can be made to feel the urgency of getting to grips with the problem. The old ideal of relying upon volunteers for work in either organisation is proving an empty one, and must therefore be discarded for something more constructive. Here we have a state of affairs which should be taken a firm hold of before it wilts under the strain of actual test. As a small country newspaper we venture these ideas in a helpful and constructive manner and can take whatever criticism they may provoke.