RECRUITS AND THEIR TRAINING

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2586, 7 October 1915, Page 4

RECRUITS AND THEIR TRAINING

I'r is time the Government took matters in hand and insisted on a radical alteration in the method of handling recruits. .Nothing is more discouraging to most men than, the long Wait between the day they volunteer for. service and the day they are called into camp. Nothing is more disadvantageous to the State and more wasteful of its most valuable asset than tho dispatch of men imperfectly trained. The men as yet sent have been well trained. satisfactory so fax as it- goes, but with the call for more men and the shorter period' of training there should bo no time wasted between enlistment and tho beginning of training. Nobody knows when this war is going to end, and nobody knows what efforts the Allies will have to maVo- before victory is aohieved- The more men we 'can put into the firing line, without industrial breakdown, and the /more highly trained those men are in the soldier's craft, the better will be our chances. New Zealand needs more and still more recruits tb-day. But is the country making the fullestuse of the recruits it .secures 1 ■ Is it leaving ho stono unturned to convert these men'into skilled and disciplined soldiers 1 The 'recruits are allowed to wait weeks—it used to bo months—before getting into camp, and staff sergeants who might be drilling them—or better' still training squads of sergeants and corporals to dfrill them—are wastihg their time all over tho country doing clerical work that could bo equally well performed by civilians above military ago. In reply to a' question- by the member for Nelson, the. Minister, of Defence stated in Parliament yesterday that he does not propose ito alter the -existing system—a most unfortunate decision that cannot bo too early revised. In reply to a ( question by Mr. Okey the-prcceding day, tho Minister said he - would ne extremely glad to have the services of returned soldiers from , the ' front for training troops, and would like to get enoui/h of them to release all the present staff for active, service. In the words which wo have printed in italics, the Minister again reveals an inadequate idea of the task before' him. Unfortunately we cannot 'afford to release any of the'experienced instructors-for ser-vioe at the front. They are more valuable here instructing and training the raw material.-' What we want is more instructors. The pressing need is for an increase in the facilities for training soldiers, and the Minister misses the point altogether when he suggests that some of the returned men might be utilised so as to allow tho present instructors' to go to the front. _ Such a process of putting a man in at one door and taking one 11 out at ainother would, of course, leave us exactly . ( where we were. What we want is more instructors to supplement the-existing number, so that tfc recruits can po into training practically as soon as they ionlist. _ The interests of the men and the interests of the Empire alike demand that they shall go into: tho firing line with as much training for their work there as :t is possible to give them. If the present camps cannot accommodate the men _ for future Reinforcements then preliminary training camps must be provided. - The Minister,. it is true, has ( in the past opposed this view, but 'the conditions have changed! The problem of securing the necessary instructors might be solved as suggested by utilising the qualified men now .engaged in clerical work in the Defence Department, apd by specially training promising noncommissioned officers who could thereafter be employed to, put the recruits through . their elementarv drill. "a