NO CAMPS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 107, 30 January 1920, Page 8

NO CAMPS

■ THIS YEAR'S TERRITORIAL DRAINING QUESTIONS OF POLICY ■ Defence Headquarters has deckled that Territorial'camps shall not bo held this year. . Tho camps wero last held in 1918, in tho face of considerable clinV • culties' owing to the shortage of stafr and equipment. They were mncelled last year, 'owing partly to the absence ot ■ many members of the training stall with the Expeditionary Force, and partly to '"'V-' the Government's wish to avoid interfering further with industry at a time ' i' -when tens of thousands of men were ■ - still away from New Zealand. It is stated that tho abandonment of tho camps this year is due to shorta»e of equipment; and (o the fact Hint ' • the reconstitution of tho Staff Corps and the Permanent Staff has not yet been completed. Tho Department is concentrating attention at present on tho training of officers and non-coinmisaoiieU officers of-the Permanent, Territorial, .and Cadet Forces; \ . Another, and an important factor in securing the cancellation of the camps this year is tho unsettled condition -ot 'defence policy. Tha Territorial, system as it existed before the war is held in military circles to have proved its value, but somo amendments and improvements aro certain to bo made. Questions of organisation and administration have been qonsidered lately by the 'military experts,' whoso recommenda- „ tions will require eventually to he con- ' firmed bv the Government. The future ' strength'of, the-New Zealand Forces u one of the nutations that will come ■np for settlement when tho Government considers defenco policy.