DEFENCE FORCE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20102, 4 December 1930, Page 15

DEFENCE FORCE.

REDUCTION OF PERSONNEL MOOTED. [THE PRESS Special Service.] AUCKLAND, December 3. Arrears of leave are now being worked off by officers of tho Northern Military Command in accordance with instructions received from headquarters in Wellington. Just what significance may bo attached to this procedure is not clear to the majority of tho officers stationed in the Auckland district, most of whom declare they are completely in the dark as to the next move in the further retrenchment or reorganisation of tho military forces. During the war officers were not üble to take their customary annual leave, which has been allowed to accumulate, the understanding being lhat this accrued leave was to be taken on retirement. However, notification was received by the staff of the Northern Command about six weeks ago that this leave was to be taken before the end of the territorial year, May 31st, 1931, and a start has already been made to comply with this order. One officer, with many years of service, said he realised that further retrenchment had to come, and whatever the final decision he was prepared to accept it with what grace he could muster.

There is a general feeling in defence circles that the instruction to work off accumulated leave is merely a prelude to a further reduction of the personnel.

EX-SOLDIERS' RESOLUTION. ASSOCIATION TELE GUAM.) WELLINGTON, December 3. The Dominion executive of the Returned Soldiers' Association to-day passed tho following resolution: — "This Dominion executive has read with dismay the statements in the Press indicating the intention on the part of the Government to dispense with the services of a large number of members of the New Zealand Permanent Forces, officers and othor ranks, most of them men who actively served in the Great War, and some of thein men who gave up their civil avocations to take positions in the New Zealand Permanent Forces after their return from the war, and emphatically protests against the dismissal of any men who served their country in the war.'' The resolution has been communicated to the Minister for Defence (the Hon. J. G. Cobbe) with the request that it rec-eive his most earnest support.