DEFENCE STAFF

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 261, 31 July 1919, Page 4

DEFENCE STAFF

i THE NEW ORGANISATION. The new Defence organisation, recently announced by Headquarters, will come into operation to-morrow. The general effect of the changes has been explained already. The offices of Adjutant-Gen-eral and Quarter-master General are abolished at General Headquarters and iu the military districts. The duties will be taken over by Staff officers who will work under the control of tho General Officer in Charge of Administration (Brigadier-General G. S. Richardson), who is directly uuder the General Officer Commanding (Major-General Sir Alfred Robiii). | The Staff at Headquarters in each of tiio four military district* will consist ot (l'l the Officer Commanding the District, (i) tho Chief Staff Officer, and (3) three Staff officers dealing respectively with (a) training and intelligence, (b) per sonuel, and (c) supply and maintenance. These Staff officers nre to be regarded as interchangeable-. There are to bo no, "watertight compartments" within the ntw organisation, and officers will be expected to co-ordinate their work, and to be competent to undertake duties outside the particular branch that happens to be in their charge. There will be an artillery officer attached to the Headquarters Staff in each district, in addition to the three officers already mentioned. Artillery training will bo more import-' Mil in the future than it was before the war.

The distribution of duties under the new organisation Ims not been announced in detail. The final appointments will not be made in nil eases until deniobilisalioN is complete and the claims of all officers elisiblo for Staff duty hnvo been considered. The existing district stall's will carry on, subject to appointment that mar 'be made from time to time.