MEN OVER 30 YEARS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 13, 9 October 1942, Page 4

MEN OVER 30 YEARS

IN debarring men over 30 years of age from Army commissions, unless they are specialists recruited for particular purposes, the authorities have made an astonishing decision. It is true that youth vigour in leadership is proving a great asset in this war* and no doubt,, othci things more or. less equal, men who are appointed and trained while in their twenties make, as a rule, the best officers. But there are bound, to be exceptions to such a rule; moreover, it is surely absurd to suggest that any hard-and-fast limit can reasonably be set. It is a matter of individual qualifications, both physical and mental. To disregard such qualifications simply because a man has passed his thirtieth birthday would be to carry rule-of-thumb ideas to a wasteful extreme. Actually, there have been—and still are—men over 30 in training for commissions. Because of this fact the announcement by the Minister of Defcnce calls for further explanation. Has the rule been established only within the last few days ©r weeks? If so, what is to be done about men now part-way through their training courses'? The change is one which should be fully dealt with in a Ministerial statement, instead of being permitted to leak out in a casual remark or two,, made during an interview. The scheme, as baldly stated, does not encourage public faith m Army reform. From one extreme—the automatic appointment to key positions of peacetime officers close to retiring acre—the authorities seem to be swinging to another extreme, namely, the blanket exclusion from any prospect of qualifying for such posts of men in the very prime of life.